Irish Traditional Music Ensemble Starting Up at Gualala Arts Weekly Thursday Get-Together Begins July 7
There are plenty of music lovers on the Mendonoma Coast, and some of them are musicians too. For many of them there is something irresistible about traditional Irish music, and now there is an opportunity to come together in a weekly, informal workshop. Beginning Thursday, July 7 and continuing weekly, Shelley Connolly will host local musicians from 4:00pm to 6:00pm at Gualala Arts. This is an open invitation to learn to play popular reels, jigs, hornpipes, polkas and slide. The fee for the workshop is $10 per class for Gualala Arts members, $15 per class for non-members.
It should be noted at the outset that this is a beginning Irish music course, but NOT a beginning musician class. In short, intermediate knowledge of some appropriate instrument—guitar, mandolin, flute, whistle, accordion, violin/fiddle—is required. The workshop is also for someone who is interested in learning another instrument during the course of learning the tunes. (If someone isn’t quite ready for prime-time, they can contact Shelley Connolly about private lessons to get them up to speed, but “I wouldn’t want to take the class time from the others to focus on learning the basics.”)
In addition to learning tunes and sets of tunes, Connolly adds, “I will teach how to “lift” the tune, that is, give it life so that it is fun for the dancers, and in time, and in tune.
An enthusiastic musician and lover of Irish traditional music, Connelly initially played guitar, but soon found a fiddle and also learned to play it was well.
Having recently arrived on the Mendonoma coast to live and work, Connolly knew she needed to find her “tribe of Irish musicians", and starting this gathering at the Gualala Arts Center will hopefully bring them out into the open as well as ignite the passion in someone else who may want to enjoy the music. "It is my hope to pass on all the passion of the music, the lift and lilt of the tunes that make it dance music, and keep the tradition alive and moving forward.”
The goal of the workshop is to perform for events at the Arts Center, and perhaps a weekly session at the Sea Ranch Lodge, as well as simply for the enjoyment. The possibilities are boundless, but the joy of playing the music together and giving it life is the main intention. More information and registration is available by by contacting the instructor at GoodGolf4u@gmail.com.
