The Midland Folk Music Festival starts tomorrow (Thursday the 26th) with an open stage evening, followed by two days of workshops, dances, open stages, and performances, and closing off with a Sunday morning Gospel open stage. What I’ve seen on-line is somewhat vague about everything but the workshops, but there are workshops a-plenty, covering a wide variety of instruments and musical styles.

I have a personal interest in this! At 10am Friday I am teaching “Learning Tin Whistle”, aimed at giving beginners an introduction to the instrument. (There is another beginning tin whistle class at 11am, so beginners can get a fair start with more than one teacher!) At 1pm (according to the schedule chart, 3pm according to the class descriptions, still trying to sort this out) I’m teaching Irish Dance Tunes, which aims at all levels from beginner to experienced player. I’ve actually put together a CD / mini tune book for the class including music which ranges from some simple yet tasty Irish polkas to some fairly tricky reels and hornpipes — I’m pretty sure everyone will find something new to learn there, including me! Then on Saturday at 2pm, crookedtunes and I are teaching Newfoundland Dance Tunes, providing an introduction to the style and some relatively easy yet very fun-to-play tunes.