Thursday 12 November: Music Workshop with Benjamin Macke, and Eurosession

As the news settles down, fettle your fingers up with some musical playfulness

This Thursday, on 12 November, we’ll meet online for a music workshop with the talented Benjamin Macke from Shillelagh, and will follow on with our usual but not-entirely-normal Eurosession. These e-connected sessions are a good opportunity to play tunes, have a dance or to see friendly faces. NB. Please note the earlier start!

Times: 
7:30 – 9:00 pm – Music workshop  
9:00 – 11:00 pm – Eurosession. 

Session Access and Donations:
To keep our Zoom sessions friendly and secure, we ask participants to provide their name and email contact, and make a payment of at least £2. You will then be directed to the Zoom details.  We invite participants who enjoy our sessions to make a donation of around £5.  You can pay/donate via our dedicated donations page at https://eurosession.org.uk/?page_id=3233

If you plan to share a tune, it may sound better if you turn on the Original Sound feature in your Zoom settings before the session.

Introducing Benjamin Macke:

Benjamin Macke
Benjamin Macke, copyright Compagnie Macke-Bornauw on YouTube.

In November, we are excited to welcome back the talented Benjamin Macke for a music workshop.  Benjamin began his career as a musician with classical percussion and jazz drums, but since 18, he has devoted himself to the diatonic accordion (melodeon), and brings playfulness and imagination, to the music, communicating inventively with the dancers and his musical companions.
Benjamin has played with the trio Shillelagh since 2002, applying musical inventiveness to a repertoire from French Flanders, and the other familiar dances found throughout France. He is one half of the superb Macke-Bornauw baroque duo, as well as finding time to participate in a wide range of other projects and teaching workshops all over Europe.
Please join promptly by 7:30pm to participate in the music workshop.

The rest of the evening should provide the same experience as the our previous virtual sessions’ – marvellous musicians, delicious dancing, and a bit of chatting. Here are some tips for maximum enjoyment:

Everyone:
To switch views between one musician and all participants, see top right on your screen, or https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362323-How-Do-I-Change-The-Video-Layout.  Please mute your audio when you are not speaking / leading the music, and use the Chat feature for background communication. There are also likely to be intermissions for general chat and catching up.

Musicians:
In our sessions we play tunes for dancing, prioritising dances from the balfolk scene and other traditional genres from across Europe (preferably not English and Irish, because we have plenty of those in other local sessions!).
In the Zoom sessions, only one person (or device) can broadcast at any one time; if you want to play a tune then put a note in the chat about the genre of dance you’ll be playing for – this will help the session organisers to figure out a running order. A few of our session regulars will be on hand to get the music going.
When you’ve been chosen to lead, it’s helpful to tip the dancers off about the dance type you’ll be playing, then select Original Sound (top left) when you want to play, and turn it off again for normal voice transmission.

Dancers:
Get your dance shoes on; if you have a danceable space, book it for the evening, You can attempt to dance the right genre of dance at the right time (albeit half a beat behind!). More important is to dance as though no-one is watching, or as though you can cheer up everyone else who is watching! Or turn your video off if you feel freer dancing in private.

Eurosession is an inclusive and caring space for all.
Invite your co-space-sharing mates / family / teddy-bear along if appropriate 🙂

See you soon,
xx Eurosesh