2020 Spring Quebec Session Class

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!

Québec Tune of the Month: Quadrille des Montagnards

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)

Next PDX Quebec Jam Session: Tuesday, August 4, 2015, in southeast Portland

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.