Jul, jul strålande jul

Hello!
It's Christmas, so time for a Christmassy quartet. I'm on the road for the whole of December, so to get this #tunefriday up I've had to make do with the recording room as backdrop. The duvet and washing make good baffles. :) Enjoy!
:)
Vicki

On Christmas Night - Sussex Carol

Hello!
As we draw ever closer to Christmas here is a tune we have on our Christmas album, On Christmas Night All Christians Sing - Sussex Carol. We perform it in two different keys, mostly as a transport to get into a different key to play a tune at the end. :)
:)
Vicki

The Battle of the Somme

Hello,
This week #tunefriday is in honour of the ending of the Battle of the Somme. A pipe tune I learnt from my Dad many years ago.
In the video I play it both down the octave and up the octave.
Enjoy.
:)
Vicki

Keep the Home Fires Burning

Hello!
As soon as I spotted the date of this #tunefriday I knew I had to do something special. So here is Keep the Home Fires Burning for Nyckelharpa quartet.
So I got the Fnyka Ensemble in specially for this one off performance.
Enjoy!
:)
Vicki

Harpa-Fours

Hello!
We've got another special tune today. It's a tune that can be played as a round or as the magical, play with one instrument and four players tune. Upload your videos, I love seeing them! It's a tune meant to make people smile and this is a teaching resource, so I hope I've copied over the links ok. Let me know if there are any broken links!
Enjoy
:)
Vicki

Harpa-Fours

Björndansen

Hello
I originally learnt this as a långdans that we sang as we danced. It's called Björndansen - (even though the image says Björnlåten). I later got to know this tune in Germany, where it was slightly different. So apologies if it's not the same as the version that you know - this is how I learnt and played it!
Enjoy
:)
Vicki

Fixing Sticky Nyckelharpa Keys

Hello!
I'm asked all the time about fixing sticky keys. People are usually really scared of taking the nyckelharpa apart for the first time, but it's actually really simple. You unscrew the top and take them out. Unscrew a little more and take more keys out. It can be a bit awkward to get to the very bottom row, so that's a different video - but the initial stage is really, really easy. So here is a video of me taking one apart (down to the bit where it gets harder anyway).
The scraping of the edge of the key is harder to explain - you need to figure out which key is sticking and then try to figure out where it is sticking on the shoulder or at the end. Then scrape away a tiny amount and apply lots of graphite - or pencil. I use a 4B pencil so it's as slippy as possible.

But the real purpose of this video is to stop people being scared of taking the first keys out of the key box....

Enjoy!

:)

Vicki

Nyckelharpa Four a Day - Day Seven

Hello!
Time for Day Seven.
:)
Vicki

Day Seven - today we are adding the first finger on the C string - this is D (gold note, second key)

Nyckelharpa Four a Day - Day Six

Hello!
Time for Day Six.
:)
Vicki

Day Six - today we are adding a whole new string. The C string - it's the second string.

The Rowan Tree

Hello!
It's Tune Friday! The Rowan Tree is a beautiful Scottish song that I learnt on the Scottish Smallpipes, again from my Dad.
Enjoy!
:)
Vicki