🎻 No, I'm not just saying this because my parents read this newsletter

A warm hello to you Reader,

It is very easy to get caught up in routine. To do the same work day after day, to come back to our scales and our exercises that are all meant to build skills and help us get further along whatever path it is we've decided to set ourselves on.

I am in Atlanta for a week visiting my parents, and this thought has been running over and over in my head all week.

It's a 10 hour drive (without stops) to get down here from Detroit. I'm still rebuilding financially from a life pivot two years ago (meaning the travel I did back in 2023 has definitely slowed down).

It would be very, very easy to say "I need more [time, money, sleep] before I can take a trip." Even though trips to see family and friends spread across the globe is exactly what I am working towards in life.

And I am so glad that I took this trip before I felt fully "ready" to be back on the road.

Last Saturday I stopped at the Berea Celtic Fest for a night to see friends and play tunes late into the evening (and yes there were many polkas -- is that even a question?). It was a healing time for me two summers ago, and while I was only there for less than a day this year I felt the same warmth and strong sense of community just as before. Not just because it was 91 degrees!

And the time spent with my parents this week has been priceless. I am all too well aware that any time you get with the people you love is precious and worth prioritizing.

How often do we get so absorbed in the process that we can almost forget to enjoy the progress?

I have a wonderful group of 1:1 students, Tune Library members + friends with good gig opportunities who made it possible for me to decide a couple weeks ago that I'd take this week to go be with my parents.

I still taught a few lessons and still worked throughout the week. It didn't have to be a completely cleared calendar in order to seize the opportunity.

After seeing friends at Swannanoa back in July, I knew I couldn't pass up Berea to get another opportunity for tunes and a hang with some of them.

It would have been so easy to stick to my routine. To let the week get busy and to have a lot of different factors keeping me at home.

Just like it's easy to stick to the same sets of tunes... bow a tune the same way every time... put an ornament in exactly the same place every pass through the tune.

You know I love my metaphors (and if you're new to these Sunday letters, there's your fun fact about me), so it's fun to bring habits over from one area of my life to another. Part of my fiddle practice lately has been trying new combinations of tunes (trying to finally free Martin Wynne's No. 3 and 4 from always being played together in my own playing patterns).

I'm intentionally breaking patterns that I've learned in an attempt to go deeper into the tunes.

And that's the nature of Irish traditional music. It's not meant to be played quite exactly the same way every time. A phrasing difference here, a new ornament there...

The meaning and the beauty and the life is in the variation.

And in spending time with your parents while you can... hi M&D!

Weekly Tune Library Update

New tutorials are up in the Library for Pigeon on the Gate and our third slip jig for August's slip jig theme, Hardiman the Fiddler!

One more slip jig for you this week -- how did you like doing a tune type theme for tutorials? I like the idea of doing more of these for non-jigs and reels... your thoughts?

You'll also see below that I'm opening up registration for my 3 part Zoom Irish Fiddle Lilt-Up workshops again this Fall. As a Tune Library member, you get a $10 discount off of registration (pre-filled for you here)!

Two quick announcements to wrap up this week's newsletter:

1. My duo Sionainn Laoi has a couple shows coming up in September and we officially have a website and a mailing list! If you'd like to keep up with our gigging and recording news, please do subscribe!
2. Irish Fiddle Lilt-Up is coming back this Fall! This is a 3 part workshop series where we spend an hour each on note learning, bowing and ornamenting 1-2 tunes. There are replays if you can't make the live class (and for my Spring registrants, hand-on-heart I will triple check the time and date before I send the reminder emails for this round)! Register here!

Hug someone you love this week (self-hugs and pets count too). Happy playing!

~Hannah