🎻 The post St. Patrick's Day lull is real

Hi Reader!

Another St. Patrick's Day come and gone! Bear and I were lucky this year to have two pretty tame and enjoyable gigs the day of and avoided the more drunken crowd.

Even so, we're closing out a busier gig season and looking at a fairly light Spring ahead. For me that means turning more of my focus to working with students, Tune Library members, and sitting down to record a few new podcast episodes after about a year's hiatus from Find Your Lilt.

I love seasonal living -- eating food that's in season, letting the focus shift to different areas of the business, and seeing the colors change outside. With Irish dance tunes being cyclical in nature (i.e. coming back around to repeat A and B parts), this style of music tends to fit in well with that kind of seasonal rhythm!

On a side note, this is also the time of year where I play The Coming of Spring quite a lot. I'm also loving the jig Bluebells are Blooming from Aisling Drost Byrne, Brendan McCarthy and Conal O'Kane's latest album, Jump Out of It (fondly known as ABC around here).

What tune names are in season for you right now? Any southern hemisphere folks tuning in this week?

It really does feel like a shift in seasons right now with the mainstream buzz for all things Irish dying down, gigs moving from listening rooms to session co-hosting, and the start of our third false Spring in Michigan (aka the time when the weather wants to be Baltic and snowy one day and then practically summer the next).

I find this time to be a bit of a paradox... Spring is so often associated with blooming, with new budding energy, and perhaps ramping up into new goals.

But after St. Patrick's Day, I think any of us Irish musicians could use a period of naps, reflection, and restorative activities! It can also be a time where we think "we've been so motivated with gig projects... what's next?? What do we practice?"

Bear has already been working on some new jigs and reconfiguring sets to work up for our next round of gigs, or for just playing for fun. I'm always inspired by his dedication to practice and how easily he can find reasons to pick up the guitar and continue to hone his craft.

If you're more like me and trying to come up with new tunes or new motivations for practice, here are a few ideas:

• Liz Carroll blessed us with her third tune book, Collected III, and many of these tunes haven't been recorded yet. So it's a rarer opportunity to think "how would Liz play this" and get creative with what you come up with!
• Spring cleaning... are there tune books sitting on a shelf that you haven't picked up in awhile? What about albums you've been wanting to listen to more deeply?
• See who's teaching in person near you, whether that's a one-off workshop or private lessons. Any new skills you want to develop this season? (We've got a great lineup of musicians headed to Detroit over the next couple months if you're in the area.)

And of course there's always online opportunities! Fiddle Hell Online is coming up in a couple of weeks, and early in June I'll be teaching online with QuaranTUNES for their SummerFest (will share more when registration and workshops open).

I may sneak in a couple of workshops through my own site before then too...

Weekly Tune Library Update

I'll be recording the Chicago Reel this week, and should be able to squeeze in a second tutorial this week if you have any requests! Otherwise I'll pick a * tune -- aka one that's in the library but only has an audio and not a video tutorial yet.

In case you're new here or skipped the email from a few weeks ago, I've been getting into baking sourdough bread + other baked goods using the discard starter. I named my starter Eleanor (after one of my Tune Library members + Eleanor Plunkett). Last week I made a lemon poppyseed loaf that was oh-so light and Spring vibe-y, and this week I've done my second attempt with bread baking.

I've been sharing this process because in so many ways it relates to learning an instrument and delving deep into Irish traditional music. It takes patience, mistakes, troubleshooting, wins, curiosity, and attention to detail.

You can expect to see a lot more letters this season leaning into creative curiosity -- both from the bread and the tune side of things.

I think when we take the time to slow down, have patience and find ways to enjoy things that stretch on for a long time, that's a more sustainable approach for facing everything else in our world.

Wishing you many moments of deep breaths, enjoyment, and fulfillment this week!

~Hannah