I can't quite put my finger on it, but every session I've been to after St. Patrick's day has just been more... fun. And I remember that being the case last year too!
Maybe we're all de-stressing and enjoying the fact that we still love to come together to play this music when the rest of the public has moved on to the next thing.
Maybe it's the warmer weather and longer days putting us in better moods.
Whatever it is, I can't say I'm complaining! We all need reasons to laugh, smile and be in community with friends at any time, but perhaps especially right now.
Back in my school days I remember that the Spring semester was really when I started to settle in. When we moved from North Carolina to Georgia in high school (secondary school), I started making new friends and getting used to being in a new place.
In college, the same happened where friendships really started to cement in the Spring each year.
And then again in grad school in Cork, I started going to more sessions each week and met some of my closest friends in the Spring.
It's so interesting to see those patterns come up again and again! The renewed energy after the cold season, the spark in leaning into more extroversion (I'm right in the middle of introvert and extrovert -- need my solo time to decompress but also need my people to decompress).
I'm excited to channel that energy into more podcast conversations this season (both as a host and a guest)! And based on your feedback in last week's poll, there's pretty even interest in tune learning, bowing and ornamentation -- so I might just make a three part workshop series that focuses on each. Will share more details soon, but my thought is to offer this in early May with replay options available if you can't attend each one live.
I will be filling out more of our bonus training sections this season as well as * tunes that don't have videos yet, but please feel free to send any tune requests my way as you think of them!
Are you feeling a bit of that Spring energy, Reader? Hope that wherever you are, you're finding reasons to smile and of course spend some time with your instrument!
~Hannah
Hannah Harris
I help aspiring Irish fiddlers find their lilt and get the real feel for the music.
โ