The Melodeon Playgroup

This weekend I've been to the Fleece Inn at Bretforton near to Evesham. Strigolino, of Melodeon.net, organised a beginners to intermediate "Playday" to give people confidence in playing in public. There was only one experienced player, to keep us all on track, give advice, and show us the inner workings of a melodeon - that was Lester, from whom I bought my melodeon, less than 4 weeks ago.

It was enormous fun. Yesterday we met in the barn at the pub, introduced ourselves, then had a 'massed melodeons' playing of "Donkey riding". I tried to play fairly quietly, as I was quite worried about making horrible honking noises with my melodeon, and I kept finding my fingers going to the wrong places, although at home I can play this through without too much difficulty.

At 12 we had lunch, talked, practiced various bits of music. Then at 1 Lester showed us how the melodeon works, giving us advice about basic maintenance we can do ourselves. From 2:30 to 4:00 we did solo pieces. I managed to get through "Skye Boat Song" with some mistakes, and a number of things that I knew that I was doing wrong (air button!), but felt very pleased to have gone out in 'public' and played, less than 4 weeks after starting to play the melodeon.

My husband, who had decided at the last minute to accompany me, came back from visiting the Gloucester and Warwickshire railway in a torrential downpour, and we went to check in to the hotel. By 6 pm we were back at the Fleece Inn, and in the Barn listening to people playing. 

We had a meal booked in the pub for 7 pm, after which one of the other attendees at the 'playgroup' suggested that as the musicians for the evening session were about to turn up we might want to keep our seats.

In the fairly small room there were people playing: 5 or 6 melodeons, three fiddles, a bodhran, two guitars and a concertina, as well as a percussionist with various instruments including a cajon - which he was sitting on most of the time. This was in addition to all the people who were standing around listening.

After a night at the hotel to the north of Evesham we headed back to the Fleece - finding the road blocked by a flood - it had apparently continued to rain throughout the night. As we were deciding what to do about it another car drove through it in the other direction - it seemed no deeper than a ford, so we chanced it, and got through.

We had gone back to see the Belle D'Vain clog morris side who were supposed to be dancing out, but they only had 5 dancers able to get there. They need 6 or 8, so the dance turned into another music session in the pub.

I've added a couple of videos to give the flavour, although I'm afraid the sound poor. It's not just the fact that the camera was pretty basic, but also the fact that it's hard to record a room full of instruments without it being heavily biased towards the nearest instrument.

The Fleece Inn Bretforton November 24 2012:

VIDEO 1
VIDEO 2

The Fleece Inn Bretforton November 25 2012:
 
VIDEO 3
VIDEO 4