First time at Whitby Folk Week

By happenstance Folk Week was on while we were in Whitby...we bought a copy of the programme from a Musicport a hippyish/world music/faitrade crafts type shop on Skinner Street, and tried to plan an activity for each day- I must say, I was a bit keener than my husband or son, in fact there was a distinct lack of enthusiasm from them.

I was drawn to the idea of mollydancing- from the programme it sounded outrageous- On the first day of the festival, I walked along to a free dance display by the whalebones, and watched the Ouse Wash mollydancers - fantastic anarchic stuff, loud and lusty, banging pots and pans, their costumes made of any old anything, the dance moves looked manageable compared to some of the more intricate moves, say of morris dancing...looks proved to be deceptive. Out of a huge range of workshops on offer and a confusing programme, I decided to go for mollydancing, and fiddle for absolute beginners. It was brilliant at Folk Week as we could just pay for individual things as we went along, and didn't have to have booked way in advance for the whole week.
Went along to the first mollydancing workshop-it was great and the routine was manageable; I should point out here that although I really love music and dancing, I have no co-ordination and two left feet...felt good , the music, although simple has a haunting, melancholy quality. Things got a bit harder the second one I went to, and I was in a group/set with a rather sour faced grumpy woman who got annoyed when I couldn't work out what I should be doing...must be annoying for other people I suppose, as it messes the dance up but it was supposed to be a workshop for people new to mollydancing - I am a slow learner in that I need time to absorb information and maybe have things shown or told to me several times before they sink in...I didn't go again, but got stuck into the fiddle playing workshop instead.
Someone called Emily Ball was running this, very bravely indeed as the room was packed with wannabee fiddlers, all utterly and absolutely beginners....Emily is in a group that were playing at Folk Week called 422.
There was a lady called Geraldine Stephenson, Emily's mother in law at the workshop, she had a second hand violin stall at the festival, and kindly lent me a violin for the week...the noise I made was truly awful, but luckily everyone in the workshop was doing the same. By the end of the week I could just about play You are my Sunshine...I felt determined to carry on with the violin and my husband Phil is a musican, and guitar and violin teacher and he agreed to attempt to teach me more when we got back to London, To anyone reading this who is thinking af trying the violin....it is very, very difficult but if you have a good and patient teacher and practice a few times a week, you do find you get somewhere with it...I only started in August, but now I can play simple tunes like hymns in church, yes, in public! and some jigs - slowly! Phil has the patience of a saint...I work with challenging teenagers during the day, and I feel that when I go home, and particularly during my lessons with Phil, am 'channelling' some of the more unruly young ladies, uncanny. I have felt like giving up, but Phil bought me a bow for my birthday, which showed he had some faith in my ability, and so I persevered!
I wanted Phil to have a go at playing in one of the many sessions on offer; we went to one led by 422, but was so fast- Phil mainly plays folk type stuff with rock and folk rock bands at the moment The Bitter Springs and the Talismen but hadn't played in a session before - we asked Geraldine on the violin stall for advice on a teacher for folk fiddle to give Phil some pointers and straightaway she said Pete Cooper! Phil's had several lessons with Pete and I am going for my first lesson with him next week under strict instructions from Phil not to sulk and stamp my feet like I normally do when I 'can't do it'. Hopefully I'll be ready to join in a tiny bit on the fiddle this summer, we have booked in to do Folk Week properly this time and can't wait.