The farewell session at Ma Cameron’s. (c) John Crawford

Well, what a weekend we had in Aberdeen in November! This was the second annual event in the Granite City and was again based upon a day of flute and whistle workshops. This year we had three tutors — Dougie Pincock, Sharon Creasey and Gordon Turnbull — with a very strong turn-out to the classes and sessions and lots of positive feedback.

Sharon Creasey and Kenny Hadden on whistles. (c) John Crawford

Thanks to everyone who attended and to Kenny Hadden and the supporters for helping it run so well on the ground. A big thank you too to Inchgarth Community Centre for looking after us and to the Blue Lamp and Ma Cameron’s for their hospitality with the sessions.

Dougie’s workshop (c) John Crawford

One pleasing comment that stood out referred to the unified thread of musicality running through the workshops, of going beyond the notes and into phrasing and rhythm. While this wasn’t consciously planned, all of the tutors and those involved in organising FluteFling events do have a clear idea of what good traditional flute and whistle playing sounds like and there are many ways to achieve this.

Gordon’s workshop (c) John Crawford

By having different tutors with different approaches and experiences, we do hope that this opens up possibilities for others. And let’s face it, we are all learning and continue to learn from each other — tutors included — which is why these events are always a joy and an inspiration to everyone involved.

Tunes taught on the day included repertoire from Aberdeen, highland pipe tunes and others with technical challenges, and port-a-beul.

Sharon Creasey and Kenny Hadden listen to Dougie Pincock talk about his experiences and thoughts on playing the flute and whistle. (c) John Crawford

The Saturday afternoon ended with Dougie Pincock in conversation with Kenny Hadden. Dougie is full of entertaining anecdotes about his early experiences learning the pipes, entering the Glasgow folk and session scene and learning to play the flute. It was an hour but it flew by and we could have all listened to many more.

The weekend sessions featured strathspeys, marches, slow airs, jigs, reels, Border hornpipes and tunes old and new. One particularly memorable moment was Sharon and Dougie duetting on piccolos, which is not something you see every day!

Upcoming in 2019

Participants and tutors continue to have ideas to develop our weekends together and we will try an implement them as and when we can. The Aberdeen weekend will return in November 2019.

The next weekend will be in Edinburgh April 26-28th. Dates and details for other events will appear on the website very shortly, so look out for those.