Busy Weekend

A big thanks to all who played at the various gigs over the weekend. We got off to a flying start with the Ceilidh band playing in Crieff on Saturday night, then a great attendance playing at Kincarrathie house in Perth on Sunday afternoon, followed by the monthly session at the Kirkstyle in Dunning.

Everyone gigs really are for EVERYONE, no matter how new you are to playing we would love you to come and join us – and we will always make sure that we play some of the tunes you know!

Red Cross Gig Next Friday – 14th June

Just a reminder that there is no hall session next Friday because we are playing at the Aytoun Hall in Auchterarder to help raise funds for the Red Cross. This is an Everyone Gig so all welcome! We will have two 15minute sets, one in each half. In the first half we will play slower tunes so most people can play, especially for younger folk.  In the second half will have some faster sets and a couple of songs, including Wild Mountain Thyme played in C. I SAID IN C. THAT’S C.

Arrive as soon after 7 as possible please to tune up.

First Half.  Twinkle, Twinle and Old MacD.  /  Fairy Lullaby – Twisted Bridge and Poor Man /  Three Craws / Arran Boat set and finally Far O’re Struay – Blachraggan

Second Half.  Bennachie – Hornpipes set / Wild Mountain Thyme and Ye Banks and Braes / Rest and Be Thankful /  Shetland Reels (Pirrie Hoose set)

We hope to see as many as possible there!  Please encourage your friends and family to come –  only £5 and its all for the Red Cross.

Please aim to be at the hall for 7pm to tune up. And maybe we can practice playing Wild Mountain Thyme in C.

Twinning Ceilidh

A big thank you to all who came to support the community Ceilidh last night celebrating the twinning of Blackford and Trebsen, it was great to have such a good crowd along. Hopefully this will be the start of some musical exchanges with our new German friends. The Friday pub session in the Blackford Inn hosted by Tarneybackle was extremely busy, we were made very welcome and it turned into a great evening.

This evening is the monthly Dunning session at the Kirkstyle Inn from 7:30pm, organised by Simon – all very welcome!

New Gigs Coming Up

There are some new everyone gigs coming up on the calendar, the first is on Saturday 1st June in Dunning 1pm for the Dunning fair. The second is on Friday 14th June in Auchterader. The Auchterarder gig is for the Red Cross, and as it is on a Friday evening we are planning to do the gig that night in place of the normal Friday session. Also, Sandy from the Tarneybackle folk band is organising a session on Friday 24th in the Blackford Inn as part of the village twinning activities, so all are welcome to head over to the inn after finishing usual Friday activities in the hall.

Dunning Session

We had a great time at the Dunning Session on Sunday. It was fantastic to see some younger players along too. Thank you to the Kirkstyle for providing us with some excellent chips! Thank you also to the French visitors for buying us a round of drinks (Merci Bien!). We were joined by a drummer with a whole set of strange and unusual instruments – hope he can join us next month also. Very much looking forward to the session in May.

AGM

Thanks to all for a great AGM last night, with sausage rolls, cakes, snacks and tunes. And with our new scapegoat and deputy scapegoat duly elected, we can rest easy now that we know whose fault it is for another year.

For those who can make it, it is the monthly Dunning Session at the  the Kirkstyle Inn on Sunday at 7:30pm, so hope to see some BFG players there.

 

AGM next week

Our club AGM is next week (Friday 26th April), there will be cake and food and cake and tunes and cake! Please submit any nominations for the committee (this can be done last minute if you want – nomination forms are next to the sign in sheet).

Fridays are the best!

In case you thought that it was not possible to improve on the BFG Friday evening sessions, we have just worked out how to do it.  No change for the first hour (all players together then split into small treaching groups and slow session), but then a new 45 minute session learning something new at a slow speed. Only after that will we have the usual session during which we get faster, sometimes on purpose and sometimes because that’s what happens whether we want to or not. Grrrrrrrr!

Last week our slow learning session was the well known melody, Come By the Hills.  For anyone who is interested there is a 4 part arrangment on the music page.  It isn’t easy to arrange four parts in the lower two octaves of the fiddle, so the harmonies are not very interesting on their own. We’ll give it a go next week. Please print your own copies if you can.

Niel Gow Festival – BFG event

Sunday, 17th March. We need as many young players as possible to come and play in Birnam at 1100 a.m. on Sunday 17th.  For lifts /  travel arrangements there will be lists and so at the hall.  A tune list will be available.