Welcome to the North East Fiddle School.

Bookings are now open for our next half-term of classes – 5 weeks, beginning on Weds 25th April. Details of the classes are below and you can email or use the contact form to reserve your place. The themes for this half-term include a lyrical approach to the Irish repertoire for Level 1 students, and the Wonderful World of Hornpipes in Level 2. You can be sure that a great selection of tunes and techniques will be covered.

The North East Fiddle School offers weekly classes on Fiddle Technique and Style on a Wednesday evening at the Westfield School in Gosforth. Tutors Stewart Hardy and Grace Smith each teach two classes, one based on technique and one based on style, for two different ability levels. Over the course of each evening both ability groups will be taught by both tutors. Students should be aged 16 or over, and these classes are not suitable for absolute beginners.

The evenings run from 6.30 – 9.15 pm and aim to provide an encouraging and stimulating environment for those wishing to improve their fiddle playing and musicianship. For those not able to come for the whole evening, each half can be attended separately (6.30 – 7.45 pm focusing on technique, and 8 – 9.15 pm focusing on style). The cost of the whole evening for £80 per five-week course, or a single class is £45 for a five-week course. Please use the contact form to get in touch and for booking details.

The Technique Classes will cover bowing techniques (tone production, soundpoints and articulation, bowing patterns and groove); intonation and dexterity through scales and exercises, motifs, passage work and ornamentation techniques. The Style Classes will put these together through tune acquisition, applying the relevant mix of techniques to each specific tune, and adding ornamentation, chords and harmonies, to cover the interpretation of the tune. Alternative approaches and related material will be considered.

The tunes for each half-term of five weeks will cover a stylistic theme (such as a particular groove, a named composer or collection or a particular key, for example). Full resources (both written and audio) are provided for all participants.