🎻 Mood lifters, book recommendations and the quiet but steady hope

Hi Reader!

Long time readers of these Sunday letters will know that I like to throw in an occasional book reference or recommendation that usually has nothing to do with Irish fiddling...

...and yet our human capacity for making connections and seeing patterns between seemingly unrelated things means that it has everything to do with Irish fiddling!

Like how the world needs many versions of the kindness and community and connection that is so prevalent in this style of music.

Or how we benefit from spending extended amounts of time creating something that is meaningful and rewarding in the process (I am unapologetically in my sourdough era, and will throw as many metaphors about prepping a loaf of bread and learning a new tune as I possibly can).

There are two passages I've read this week that have stuck with me.

One is an article Sahil Bloom shared in his Curiosity Chronicle newsletter about a bakery owner who saw a long line of people standing in the cold outside a funeral home and proceeded to make and bring them all free hot coffee. The bakery owner said all he could do was make coffee in that situation... so he made the coffee.

The second is part of Chelsey Luger + Thosh Collins' wonderful book The Seven Circles -- Indigenous Teachings for Living Well. In the particular section I'm thinking of under the Ceremony chapter, they caution against thinking of well-being as total happiness. Rather well-being is a series of tools you regularly attend to and put in place to help you get through the good days and the bad days -- and it's also acknowledging that you're not any less human for having bad days.

What I'm most taking away from these is a quiet yet steady kind of hope. An acknowledgement that there is always something we can do.

I believe that when you practice a certain skill or have a certain mindset in one area of life, that it expands into other areas of your life as well. So while I'm mostly equipped to share what I observe and learn in the Irish fiddling sphere, know that a lot of what's going on in my head and a lot of what I say is often meant to be taken in a broader context too.

When you're having a bad day with your instrument or feeling low in general... You're human.

This week I've found it helpful to step out into the sunshine and take several walks a day. Touching grass is an extra bonus.

Watching one of our session members' 2 year old son eagerly clap along to every tune we played was also a mood lifter.

So was learning a new Sliabh Luachra slide from Aidan Connolly and Bryan O'Leary's recent release, The Groves of Gneeveguilla (which is both the album name and the fabulous polka that opens the first track).

It's in the spirit of mood lifting and creating more community events that I'd love to invite you to a new 3 part online workshop series I'm teaching in early May called Spring Irish Fiddle Lilt-Up (had to sneak lilt into the title)!

Each workshop will be focused on a different part of the tune learning process: the notes, the bowing and the ornamentation. Funnily enough when I ran a mini poll in a newsletter a few weeks ago, all three of these tied for workshop-focused interest -- hence the decision to make it a three parter. 😊

And yes, there will be replays available!

Weekly Tune Library Update

I have a Member Perk for you, Reader! As a special thanks for being a Tune Library member, please enjoy $10 off of the Spring Lilt-Up live workshop event! You can use this code at checkout: TUNELIBMEMBER

Or click here where I've pre-populated your discount for you!

A lot of what we'll cover in this workshop series will be familiar to you as a member with the ear training learning style. But you and I don't usually get to do this process live together over Zoom so I hope you'll consider attending!

I hope you find many mood lifters this week!

~Hannah

P.S. Quick shoutout here in case you skimmed this week's letter: I'm teaching a live 3-part Zoom workshop series in early May called Irish Fiddle Lilt-Up and registration is now open!