Wester Ross Weekend

by Karen Marshalsay - 15:57 on 31 October 2006

It's been a busy month, but very successful too. The Distil Showcase was great, and I was really pleased with the performance of my piece, Thomas the Rhymer (see news story for  more details). And I'm just back from the weekend harp course up at Mellon Charles, Wester Ross, where great fun was had by all.

We were fully booked with 10 on the course, and they all managed to get there despite the weather - which was full on October rains and winds, with roads being closed and all sorts of shenanigans, including an army exercise in full swing so we got to watch the jetskis and warships and planes out the window during lunch. And speaking of which the food was fantastic - thanks Anne!

We all worked hard during the day learning new tunes and techniques, and played hard at night too - with a house ceilidh on the Friday and a dancey one in the Aultbea Hotel on the Saturday, with contributions from both visitors and locals.

Tunes worked on in the course were The Montgomery Bell Waltz, which I learned from whistle player Marc Duff; The Rhymer's Reel and The Elfen Queen from my new piece; The Old Men of Aran (lots of triplet practice ladies!) and  Iain Sinclair of Skaldister, a beautiful slow air by fiddler Louise Mackenzie. We also had a lot of fun putting Twinkle Twinkle and Ally Bally over a Paraguayan bass line, and playing about with other rhythmic patterns. New exercises and techniques were practiced each day as well.

A new development for me in teaching courses was the involvement of Garry Nimmo, an orthopedic massage therapist from Aberdeen, who talked to us about the abuse and neglect that musicians routinely subject themselves to and showed us some very useful stretches to counteract the damage.  Gary was also available to treat people individually, both locals and players on the course, and  I for one am standing up a lot straighter today because of it! Seriously though, this is something that has made a big impression on me and I'll be doing these stretches as part of my regular playing and practicing from now on.

So all good things come to an end, but a big thanks to Carole Miller for hosting and organising the course, and to Madhu the black lab for looking so soulful all the time. When can we do it again Carole?!!

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