QUEBEC NEW TUNES WORKSHOP and JAM SESSION
SATURDAY, March 31st in SW Portland (Hillsdale), 2-:30pm
All Melody Instruments Welcome!

Calling all French-Canadian dance music fans! This two-hour workshop (with a half-hour jam at the end!) will build your Quebecois repertory with irresistibl tunes which are either newly minted or new to the Portland Quebec scene. On the menu:

La moquine: a lively reel from fiddler-singer Claude Méthé, now a session standard in Quebec! Soon to be a session standard on the I-5 corridor from Ashland to Seattle!
Louis Cyr: a great reel from fiddler and singer Jean-Claude Mirandette. A favorite at the Olympia and Seattle jams!
L’air mignonne: a totally charming slow march by singer and fiddler Simon Riopel.
Baptiste à Ned en G: A lovely, lilting 6/8 time jig from Acadian fiddler Claude Austin.

You’ll learn these tunes phrase by phrase, then we’ll dig a little deeper into how to dress them up! Tunes will be taught by ear, sheet music will be available. Recording device recommended and welcome.

Don’t play fiddle? No worries! If you’d just like to learn some tunes and play a melody instrument (mandolin, flute, banjo, accordion, concertina, flute, etc.), can pick up tunes easily by ear or with sheet music (not tablature), and don’t mind sitting through some discussion of bowing, welcome aboard!

Level: If you are comfortable with your instrument and can pick up tunes either from sheet music or by ear without your hair catching fire, this workshop is for you!

WHAT: PDX Quebec New Tunes Workshop Registration
WHEN: Saturday, March 31st, 2-4:30pm
WHERE: At Teri and Ron’s in SW Portland Hillsdale area (details furnished upon registration)
INSTRUMENTS: Fiddle, mandolin, banjo, concertina , flute, and accordion

COST: $25-35 sliding scale

WHAT TO BRING? Please bring yourself, your instrument(s), and a recording device if you have one. if the spirit moves you, please feel free to bring a snack or beverage to to share…

You must pre-register to be part of the fun. It’s easy! Just visit the Classes and Workshops Drop-Down menu!

On Sunday, April 5, I will launch a six-session Spring Quebec Session Class. I want to invite you to join me in making the rafters (safely) ring across the nation and across the border this Spring, pandemic be damned!

The Spring 2020 Quebec Session Class is a six-session group Zoom class (meets every other Sunday over a 12-week period) for intermediate / advanced players who love (!) playing Quebecois dance music and want more pizazz, detail, and stylistic authenticity in their music. Each class will explore two popular Quebec session tunes, delving deeply into the details of ornamentation, bowing, swing, variations, etc., to add sparkle and joie de vivre to your playing! 12 tunes in all! All melody instruments welcome!

Each of the six Zoom classes will be recorded and made available to class members who can’t make the scheduled meeting times. In addition, each class is supplemented by a Google folder with materials about the two tunes explored in that class, including source recordings, learning recordings, sheet music, biographical backgrounds of the folks whose versions we are learning; tune histories, photos, additional related video and links when available–yowza!

These classes will be conducted primarily in English, with supplementary French-language explanations along the way if folks from Québec sign up!

SCHEDULE: The six group class sessions meet via ZOOM every other Sunday from 10am-12pm PST (=1-3pm EST). Class dates are April 5 and 19; May 3, 17, and 31; and June 14.

TUITION OPTIONS. I’m offering a bunch of options so that our community can support each other through this pandemic, and so you can do what works best for your schedule, musical interests, and budget:

• If money is really tight, no worries! There’s a $0-to-whatever sliding scale Pay What You Can option–use it!
• If you have enough money to pay your registration AND help pay it forward for someone who can’t, select and purchase an option from the Regular Tuition button drop-down menu and then add a donation with the Pay it Forward donation button.
• Otherwise, just use the Regular Tuition button drop-down menu to sign up.

REGULAR TUITION OPTIONS:

• $140 US for all 6 two-hour Zoom classes AND class folders;
• Can’t make all six Zoom sessions? Sign up to come to any 3 classes of your choice plus access to the related three class folders for $100;
• Can’t make any sessions at all? Sign up for access to class folders ONLY or $80.
• CLASS/PRIVATE LESSON COMBO DISCOUNT PACKAGE: Attend the class-and-folder option for only $80 when you also sign up for four consecutive 30-minute weekly Skype, Zoom, or Facetime private lessons, with a hefty discount: $40 per 30-min. lesson: total = $240 (30-min. lessons are normally $50).

Pre-registration required! Class starts April 5, so please sign up today! Private message me on FB if you have questions! Merci!

Here’s a great tune from the repertory of Les Montagnards Laurentiens, a hugely popular and successful radio musical ensemble from the Québec City region who performed live every Saturday evening on the airwaves of CHRC from 1931 1962. The show, which ran either a half-hour or an hour, featured traditional dance music with the occasional song, joke, and comic sketch, with an in-house radio host. The original Montagnards were a quartet (three fiddles and guitar), but the band personnel was fairly fluid, becoming much larger in the 1940s and eventually including accordion, piano, bass, and saxophone, and clarinet. The Montagnards Laurentiens show occasionally broadcast live from local theaters or Quebec City’s provincial fairgrounds, playing to packed, enthusiastic crowds. When CHRC went from a 100-watt to a 1000-watt station in the 1940s, the listening audience for the Montagnards’s weekly show expanded significantly to many parts of central and eastern Quebec.
I learned this tune from Marcel Messervier, a stellar accordion builder, player, and composer, who listened to the Montagnards every Saturday night during his childhood.

Quadrille des Montagnards (dance speed, mp3)

Quadrille des Montagnards (dance speed, mp3)

1 file(s) 4.31 MB

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Share a tune, learn a tune, sing a song, dance a step at the PDX Quebec Jam Session. This free, house-party-happens  first Tuesdays 7-10pm every month at various homes in the Portland area. Contact me to get on the e-mail invite list and get directions to this shindig.

Want a head start? Check out the Resource menu for tunes, recipes, and a full description of the PDX Quebec Jam session. It’s a great place to learn and share tunes from La Belle Province and to meet folks who enjoy this kind of music.