Workshops

Beginners/Improvers Playgroup

ACP #2 February 4/5th 2023

A weekend of small group workshops designed for beginners and improvers on the Anglo Concertina.

This is part of Gloucester Wheatstone Weekend.

  • Playing in the home keys of the instrument
  • Melodies
  • Accompaniment
  • Playing for song
  • Playing for dance
  • Care and repair

Programme and timetable

Reserve Your Place Now!

Date/Time: Saturday 4th and Sunday 5th February 2023

Location: The Folk, Gloucester (see below).

Tutors

Two experienced instructors have been selected to bring specific skills:

Stephen Rowley – Leading the Complete Beginners stream and Playing for barn dance/ceilidh & morris

Phil ‘Willum’ Williams – Leading the improvers class and Chords for songs and tune accompaniment

Doug Watt – Opening avenues for arrangement and techniques.

Who is this workshop for?

  • Absolute Beginners – Just starting out on the instrument – no experience at all
  • Beginners – Have taught themselves a bit, but would like to learn from a tutor
  • Improvers – can play a tune, but want to explore and extend their use of the instrument

If your ambition is to play arrangements, accompaniments, sessions, morris, barn dance/ceilidh, English or songs then the topics covered will provide a basic grounding to build on.

Note: These workshops are concerned with playing the Anglo Concertina in its ‘native’ mode in the home keys as a diatonic instrument. We will not be covering the ‘Irish’ style on this weekend.

Is my concertina suitable?

Any anglo concertina would be suitable for this workshop.

The ideal instrument would be a C/G 30 button, players of instruments in other keys (e.g. G/D, Ab/Bb) will be able to follow the workshops playing as though their instrument is a C/G.

Some 20 button instruments will be available for hire for the weekend

Location:

The Folk, 99-103 Westgate Street, Gloucester GL1 2PG

https://goo.gl/maps/acJWqtxuzH5V9nA88

Travel: Gloucester is located just of the M5, north of Bristol.

It is a coach hub and there are direct rail services from London, Birmingham, Wales and the South West.

Nearest airports with scheduled flights – Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Heathrow

Accommodation: There are several budget hotels within walking distance of The Folk.

Parking: There are many city centre car parks and a park and ride scheme.
The nearest car park is Westgate Carpark – Saturday £6, Sunday £2

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