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The Dorian mode is a lovely ancient ‘scale’ with a minor third and a raised 6th. These elements contain musical light as well as shadow, which is perfect for painting the unfolding stories told by many traditional songs, both secular…

QR codes on business cards are a great idea - theoretically, we can send interested parties straight to a socials page. We're still on a bit of a back foot with all this, but the first stage this week was…

I've finally swapped over from a traditional music stand and sheet music to the mic stand, iPad, foot pedal page turner, and forScore software that most of my friends are using. As somebody who isn't always a fan of new…

In July we went to Forrest, where everything has closed down for Winter. With a lovely wood fire, good food, a nice bottle of Scotch and a variety of instruments, we had the ideal opportunity to play music for three…

Playfords English Country Dancing Master - Leslie Bridgewater edition, 1933

Old music books are an amazing resource for ancient tunes. Traditional dancing master notebooks (like this one) were compendiums of folk music used for set dances, featuring the favourite tunes…

My plans for recording in August were put on hold by an unexpected finger injury.

Towards the end of July, I rescued an elderly cat whose owner had been taken to hospital, and wasn't expected to leave. I brought the…

Earlier this month, we took a short break to the Otways. We stayed in Forrest, at a lovely old cottage with a log fire. It's open plan, and has a great rehearsal space (photo of the kitchen/diner above; Craig, his…

After the Portarlington Festival, I started to arrange O'Carolan's Blind Mary (which we'd played in a workshop session) for two guitars. It hadn't occurred to me until this point that I've never spoken to other arrangers of traditional music about…

I first started arranging for students in 1993, when there were no music notation programmes widely available. Technology wasn't as advanced or cheap as it is today; many of us didn't even have our own computers or printers. We wrote…

Here's a random selection of some of my favourite source material for traditional melodies from the British Isles:

A Northern Lass - Traditional Dance Music of North-West England - compiled by Jamie Knowles, published by Dave Mallinson Music (1995). Suitable…

Turlough O' Carolan, courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland

Today, I’ve finalised my harp and piano arrangements of the Welsh folksong ‘The Queen’s Marsh’ (also known as ‘Conset y Peipar Coch’ - an internet translation site suggested this means…