ONE TO ONE TUITION FOR INTERMEDIATES

LEVEL TWO

Is your music stuck in a rut?

Does it feel like more effort than you think it should?

Are you having trouble moving from classical to trad?

Do you have specific areas you want to work on?

Or do you just want to devote a week to your music and take a break for yourself?

Whatever standard you are, there are always areas of your playing that can use some attention and figuring out what to prioritise and how to make progress is where a supportive ear can help.

Feeling relaxed and happy is the key to progress, but we won't badger you – being told to relax is usually about as useful as the advice "Go to sleep" is to an insomniac! What we aim to do is provide the right conditions.

Knowing that the music is in the bow will have got you this far. Knowing it’s in the head will take you further still. If you watch any kind of sport these days, you can’t help but notice the inclusion of a Sports Psychologist in every entourage from Tiger Woods to Tim Henman. Their job is to get the athlete ‘in the zone’, where everything feels effortless. This is the place you want to be and while you might have found yourself landing there - wondering how or why, you can take yourself there too. It’s just a matter of relaxed focus. Throughout the week then, we’ll help remind you what to focus on, why and how, so you can enjoy your music now and you can enjoy the process of moving it on at home.

In practice, the course will be devoted to teaching you new tunes and playing together what you already have, but we’ll also look at technique to make sure you’re not working too hard and we’ll cover ornamentation and bowing if wanted.

Though we’ll be listening to local musicians, to recordings of old masters and looking at the differences in the regional styles, our aim is to help you develop your own sound within the vernacular. Unhurried, uncomplicated, rhythmical music, that’s given the space to do it’s stuff and is played with soul, is the direction we’ll be encouraging you in. We'll also arm you with a list of great CD’s, many of which you can buy here in Kenmare, the rest can be ordered from the ‘interweb’

We’ll give you a list of good books too, for you to follow up any of the stuff covered that you might want to know more about – the history of Irish music, classical violin techniques, Alexander Technique and Zen and we’ll give you some useful web site addresses – interactive fiddle tuition from some of Irelands finest players and interactive chat rooms for those questions you forgot to ask while you were here. We’ll also give you advice about which Irish music festivals we’d recommend you go to, so you can develop your music in whatever regional direction you’re drawn to.

Overall, what we want to give you is a motivation boost and what we want to teach you, is how to teach yourself.