Bob Hallett And Friends... Learning traditional NL music (8/365)

When I was kid growing up in southwest Australia I was given the opportunity to learn music at school. In school I was given a cheap and nasty recorder to play. I met my best childhood friend learning music as we would practice together during our lunch breaks.

When I was a teenager a great aunt dumped her big old piano on my family. At least one day a week throughout my teenage years I would go to piano lessons, learn music theory and practice thumping out a range of exercises and tunes.

As I grew older I gave it away. The old out of tune piano still sits in my parent's house. The plastic recorder in the piano stool. When I learned the piano I always played what the teacher wanted or followed the piano book. Today I can still read music and play some pieces very badly.

So it was with great interest I read this article titled 'On with the slow: Learning traditional music, but at a temperate speed' by Annie Corrigan' published on 21 October, 2018 at cbc.com about the music sessions Bob Hallett and his friend Kelly Russell were having at Erin's pub in St. John's, Newfoundland to help pass on the Newfoundland music tradition to other musicians still learning their craft. The music these people want to play and love.

From the article...

"... At Erin's Pub on Water Street in downtown St. John's, there is a new weekly session intended for musicians like Hornell, who are still honing their skills and might be intimidated by the speed of regular trad sessions.

At the Slow Sessions, each musician takes a turn leading the group in a tune they know, at a speed they prefer. Russell runs the Tuesday night sessions, starting at 7:30 p.m.

Erin's Pub proprietor Bob Hallett — best-known as a former member of Great Big Sea — is the mastermind behind Slow Sessions. Erin's Pub hosts a Friday trad session that features top-notch musicianship and speedy tempos, but he says players who are still learning the tunes may feel out of place.

He and Russell are trying to create a different scene.

"Our goal here is to spread traditional music into the wider world, and one of the ways to do that is to make it easy to learn it," Hallett said..."

I can imagine myself being a fly on the wall at Erin's pub. This experience would be so awesome. The full article 'On with the slow: Learning traditional music, but at a temperate speed' by Annie Corrigan' published on 21 October, 2018 at cbc.com is available from the following link https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/slow-sessions-1.4870720

I have included a photograph of Bob Hallett and Kelly Russell doing what they do best from the article by Annie Corrigan. No copyright infringement intended.