TUNE TUTORIALS
In response to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent UK-wide lockdown in March 2020-21, M@HoT launched a series of tutorial videos, delivered by our team of student & professional tutors for members of our youth folk bands to learn at home. Our videos have since found new audiences globally, and so we encourage anyone to scroll through our collection and have a play along at home, it’s the perfect way for anyone to have a go at playing and learning music ‘by ear’!
New Made Highlandman
As part of on-going research by project co-founder Mike Bettison, a recent discovery at Beamish Museum & Archive unearthed the "Collingwood Collection" a family tune book including over 180 different pieces of music. We have used this collection of music to inform the tunes taught to our new youth folk band Wear'd Aliens (led by Saul Rose) and it provides a unique insight into the music that was played locally in Teesdale and Weardale over the last 150 years.
Calum and LB’s March
This tune was written by MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards 2017 Composer of the Year, Adam Sutherland, for fellow folkies Calum MacCrimmon and Laura-Beth Salter when they got married. I learnt this tune in a workshop with Adam Sutherland a couple of years ago and have always thought it's such a happy melody.
Three Around Three
Saul Rose has been working with M@HoT since late 2019, helping to set up our second youth folk band Wear'd Aliens. Three Around Three is a country dance, as well as a tune. I’m told that it’s English but I couldn’t tell you from where it originated. Like a lot of traditional tunes and dances, I learned this one at Ceilidhs and sessions. The dance is for 3 couples in a long ways set and the first figure is one line led around the other - 3 around 3.
Trippar etter Lars Mjaaland
This tune is after a man named Lars Mjaaland, from Åseral in Vest-Agder, in the south of Norway. The melody was initially documented early in the 1920s by the folk music researcher Ole Mørk Sandvik. I originally learnt it in my first year at uni from Norwegian fiddle and hardanger fiddle player Olav Mjelva, and the book it is in is called Ukvessa Slåtter by Vegar Vårdal.
The Moon and Seven Stars
An English tune first noted down in Cumbria in 1750 but likely older than that. The tune travelled to America with musician Matthew Betham where it was written down in Connecticut in 1815. A fantastic dance tune full of rhythm and energy, played for dance and in sessions throughout the UK. The title is thought to have come from freemasonry!
The Peacock Follows the Hen
The tune originates from Northumberland, and was first written down in 1805. Its un-resolving nature makes this, like many slip jigs, hard to stop once you start playing it! More recently, the tune was found in amongst the 180+ pieces of music in the George Collingwood Collection, a tune book from the 1870's onwards, belonging to a farming family from Stanhope in Weardale. Whilst George had some interesting variations in his notation, here Saul plays what is thought the 'standard' these days...
Crabbit Shona
This tune by Angus R. Grant, was apparently “written in the early 1980s for Shona McAulay from Glenfinnan, barmaid at the Glenfinnan House Hotel, on closing the bar one night at the unreasonable hour of 3 a.m.!!” Crabbit is a Scots word for grumpy or in a bad mood. Angus R. Grant was an incredible fiddle player, best known for playing in the Scottish sextet Shooglenifty.
The Ox
The Ox is a strathspey written by Bruce MacGregor (from Blazin’ Fiddles), and it features on their latest album ‘The Key’. Sophie was taught this tune by Anna Massie around two years ago and I think it’s a really fun tune to play!
Michael Turner’s Waltz
Paul Davenport (English Dance and Song, 2003) identified this unnamed tune as derived from a portion of a 1788 suite by none-other than Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, contained in Austrian Dances KV 536 No. 2 (the second, or trio part) in G Major. The English waltz version is credited to Michael Turner (1796-1885), who adapted the melody and set it down in his 1842-52 manuscript, though it is clearly based on the Mozart original.
Nusa
The full title of this tune is Ceridwen and Martin’s Nusa Lembongan Wedding, although it is usually just called Nusa for short (quite understandably!). Nusa was written by Rory Campbell, and I learnt it from Adam Sutherland in a workshop a few years ago.
Lorna’s Reel
Lorna’s Reel was written by Willie Hunter, one of the most prominent fiddle players to come from Shetland. Willie Hunter composed this tune for his sister Lorna, who often used to accompany Willie on the piano.
Something Danish
Cream Tees have worked closely with Newcastle-based melodeon player Dave Gray over the last couple of years, with him mentoring the group, helping to develop innovative arrangements and teaching a wealth of Scandinavian folk music. Something Danish is a tune written by Dave himself.
Sparrow’s Wedding
Our tutor Sophie Hetherington learned Sparrow’s Wedding a few years ago when she took part in a few workshops with the Melbourne Scottish Fiddlers during a visit to Shetland. It was written by an Australian fiddle player called George Jackson.
VIRTUAL TUTORS 2021
In Spring 2021, M@HoT launched a new Virtual Tutor programme during the 3rd UK Lockdown. Through video tutorials and via Zoom, Cream Tees worked with incredible tutors and professional musicians from across the UK, bringing new ideas, styles and approaches to music making and arrangement.
The Grinders
Grace Smith & Sam Partridge share a 9/8 slip jig originating from North Yorkshire, found in the Calvert Manuscripts (1812).
The Temperance Reel
Scottish Folk Guitarist & Producer Jenna Macrory introduced Cream Tees to Bluegrass scales & Irish / American tunes in her Zoom workshop.
Field of Oats
In Jenna’s second session with Cream Tees, she introduced another Irish reel, The Field of Oats found in O’Neills Music of Ireland (742).
GUEST TUTORS 2022
This year we have been able to welcome guest tutors back into the workshop space to work with Cream Tees & Wear’d Aliens during their weekly workshops. Supported with funding from Teesdale & Weardale Area Action Partnership & County Durham Community Foundation, our tutors worked to teach and arrange music from “The Collingwood Collection”, a recently unearthed collection of manuscripts that trace 150+ years of folk & traditional music, originating from a family farm in Stanhope, Weardale.
As part of M@HoT's on-going mission to raise awareness of our local folk song & dance traditions, our 3 tutors created video tutorials and printable resources for use by our young musicians, and for anyone out there wanting to learn.
Honey Moon
Cream Tees alumni & soon-to-be-graduate from Newcastle University’s Folk & Trad BA, Rachel Todd worked with Wear’d Aliens in early April to teach this tune from the Collingwood Collection.
