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Lovely evening at the pub tonight. We (the Ely and Littleport Riot morris dancers, along with some strays from the Sutton Masque morris dancers) normally practice on Fridays and then go to the pub afterward, which means we have our musical instruments on us, and frequently we have a sort of mini-session while we're at it. Tonight, a couple who has just moved into the area were around too, and they were so visibly overjoyed and delighted to find a music session going on that it made the whole thing seem more special to us too.
She broke out a whistle and joined in with several of the tunes. He - being a harmonica player - had a go on one of our melodeons and discovered he was a natural on it. Then we cleared some of the tables and chairs out of the way and taught her one of our dances. According to him, she had not seemed so happy for years - and of course this made us all feel excellent too.
Of course we invited them along on any further Friday they might see fit to attend, and hope to see them around again (and maybe to recruit one or both to one or the other of the morris sides involved.) I guess it must be nice, when you have moved to a new area and don't know anyone, to come across a bunch of people playing, singing and dancing, who are eager to socialize with you. But honestly even if you are a bunch of people playing, singing and dancing, it's also really nice to meet new people who think of that as something special. Everyone, I think, had a jolly good time.
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Date: 2023-04-15 05:30 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-04-18 12:32 pm (UTC)From:It really was :) I'm not a huge fan of going to the pub, but every so often you get a night like that when it really feels special. Plus we may have recruited the new people to either dance with or play for the morris. Fingers crossed that they turn up when they haven't been drinking!
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Date: 2023-04-19 05:12 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-04-16 08:34 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-04-18 12:28 pm (UTC)From:Yes, it was hard to believe how quickly he was playing tunes on it, but he doesn't know what to do with the bass buttons, which of course the harmonica doesn't have. We've got a beginner's group of melodeon players meeting at our house tonight and he's coming, so we'll have a better environment to try to talk him through those there :)
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Date: 2023-04-19 05:43 pm (UTC)From:I usually don't use them. I find it hard to get the timing on many tunes, though I am gradually getting better.
I am a baaad musician...
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Date: 2023-04-29 09:48 pm (UTC)From:I can do the um-pahs as long as the entire song is on one key and I can stick with one pair of base buttons, but when you're crossing the rows on the right hand you have to cross the rows on the left too, and that is currently too much for me :)
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Date: 2023-04-30 11:36 am (UTC)From: