Winnipeg Slow Session

This is a basic little site with information on the bi-weekly Winnipeg slow session. This session is loosely affiliated with the Winnipeg branch of the Comhaltas organization.

Our session is, basically, a group practice session; we play slowly (often with a metronome), and repeat the same tune repeatedly until folk want to move on. This session is for beginning musicians that would like to learn to play some Irish/Celtic music and are comfortable with their instrument (ideally have been playing for at least a year), are looking to meet more like-minded folk, get some experience practicing playing with others, and are interested in building up a repertoire of tunes. A goal is that participants eventually become comfortable enough to try out joining the more experienced sessions at the Irish Association, or Sam's Place; otherwise, we aim to be a fun and inclusive group of folk to learn and play with.

The intent is that we will work our way up gradually to faster and faster speeds as we practice a tune, but we top out at a much slower tempo than you will find at a typical session. When we're first learning a new tune we will play only as fast as everyone can handle. Everyone is encouraged to call a stop if a tune is getting too fast, so that we can slow it back down.

We try to choose our tunes primarily from the Comhaltas' Foinn Seisiún Books 1 to 3 (Books available here), but will deviate from that from time to time. The goal is to accommodate both ear and sheet music learners by selecting tunes for which matching recordings and sheet music are available.

If you are interested in joining in or trying out this session, then come on by one of our sessions. Everyone is welcome!

Schedule

We meet every second Tuesday from 7-9pm at the Irish Association of Manitoba (https://irishassociationofmanitoba.ca -- 654 Erin St, Winnipeg, MB R3G 2V9 https://goo.gl/maps/xkkpFbprgMr). Note: You do not require a membership with the club to participate in the session, but we strongly encourage you to join as a way of showing appreciation for the club providing a space for us to play.

Generally, we spend the first 30-60 minutes of each meeting going very slowly over the new tune listed in the schedule below (see the tune list for sheet music & such) plus the tunes from the previous session if desired by those attending. The expectation is that all participants have at least tried to learn these few tunes in preparation for the session, but by no means do we have to have them perfect before the session. We do this so that new & current participants have some common tunes to play together at the beginning of the session, and can focus their practice time on a tune that they know will be played. Then we typically have a small break, and the remaining time is for revisiting tunes from previous sessions.

January

  • 8th - Brosna Slide
  • 22nd - Dingle Regatta

February

  • 5th - MacPherson's Farewell
  • 19th - The Haughton House March

March

  • 5th -
  • 19th -

April

  • 2nd -
  • 16th -
  • 30th -

May

  • 14th -
  • 28th -

June

  • 11th -
  • 25th -