YCC welcomes Alex Wade

The continuing national lockdown meant that our 21 March meeting was again online, and this time we welcomed leading UK concertina tutor Alex Wade who ran a workshop from her home in the North East.
We always enjoy her workshops as she likes to challenge us with something a little different, and this time it was with a Danish piece Den Toppede Hone Fra Vensyssel, sometimes called The Peat Dance, a popular session tune in parts of Scotland. 
A rough translation is "The topped hen from Vensyssel", though whether this means a hen with an impressive comb or a headless chicken we are not sure - what we do know is that it was a great tune, a bouncy jig with three parts, arranged for band playing by Alex.
This workshop focussed on technique for getting lift into a dance tune, and giving it shape.
The notation is available on The Session here, and a version of it played by Random Quartet, a Danish string quartet, here.
While online workshops are not ideal, as we can't get a real sense of band playing on our own at home, it was good to have a go at something new and really drill down into technique.

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