Programme Workshops

Workshops 24/25 (listed chronologically)

Festival Choir - Cath King 

First meeting Mon 30 Dec 3.30 pm | Hall

Then Tues 31 Dec, Wed 1 Jan, Thu 2 Jan | 1.30 pm | Hall

Thu 2 Jan | Choir Performance | Evening concert | Marquee

For details see the Festival Choir page here.

Gumboot Tango - Big Gumboot Jam

Mon 30 Dec | 9.30 pm approx. after welcoming concert | Hall

Classic Kiwi songs. Easy three-chord-ish Kiwi songs for all instruments and voices in accessible keys.

May include ‘Haere Mai’ (Sam Freedman), ‘Look What You’ve Done’ (Johnny Cooper), ‘Slippin’ Away’ (Max Merritt), ‘Tumblin’ Down’ (Jay Epae – recorded by Maria Dallas), ‘Don’t You Know Yokomo’ (Recorded by Dinah Lee), ‘Looking Forward’ (Alan Muggeridge), ‘Why Does Love (Do This To Me?)’  (Dance Exponents), ‘Blue Smoke’ (Ruru Karaitiana – recorded by Pixie Williams), ‘Talking Dog’, ‘Down the Hall on Saturday Night’, ‘The Call of the Bellbird’, ‘Bliss’...

Dance - Fiona Murdoch

Tues 31 Dec, Wed 1 Jan, Thu 2 Jan | 10 am | Hall

For details see the Dance page here.

Festival Orchestra - Helen Capes aka The Hexamshire Lass

Tues 31 Dec, Wed 1 Jan, Thu 2 Jan | 10.30 am | Workshop Space

Thur 2 Jan | Orchestra Performance | Evening Concert | Marquee

For details see the Festival Orchestra page here.

Neil Finlay - Blues Jam Session in the Key of E

Tue 31 Dec | 2 pm | Workshop Space 

Bring along your guitar and learn how to get along in the key of E and how you apply it to other keys and life in general.

Ebony Lamb & Gram Antler - Songwriting to Releasing Records

Tue 31 Dec | 3 pm | Workshop Space

Bringing your work to life & a wider audience. Bring a pen & paper & your questions! A guide to navigating your songs from the lounge to future listeners.

Nigel Wearne – Unique Finger-style Guitar and Wonderful Bad Habits

Tue 31 Dec | 4 pm | Workshop Space

Singer-songwriter and guitar picker, Nigel Wearne will present a workshop on his unique, self-taught guitar style. The workshop will cover a range of topics including regular Travis-style thumb-picking, flatpicking, slide and a plethora of tunings as well as a couple songs thrown in. A particular focus will be to accompany oneself solo; something Nigel has specialised in for over a decade. Be ready for useful titbits, the odd bad habit he’s picked up along the way and an offering of insights from one guitarist to another.

The Ebeling Brothers - The Blues Lunchbox

Wed 1 Jan | 11.45 am | Marquee

Not so much a workshop, but now a Whare Flat New Year’s Day tradition, The Blues Lunchbox is an opportunity for musicians to share the stage with a “house” band. This year the wonderful Ebeling Brothers will anchor this event, no doubt interspersing proceedings with anecdotes from their shows, with pop up performances from other guests and from among other festival attendees.

Rhythm & Kin - Learn a Tune

Wed 1 Jan | 2 pm | Workshop Space

Tamsin will teach an original tune consisting of two parts in D major. This will be suitable for any tune instrument to learn and is suitable for players of an average ability on violin, whistle, mandolin, accordion etc. It is a jig and contains ornamental features characteristic of Irish music which can make it more interesting for those more advanced players. 

Phoebe will teach the guitar part to this tune in DADGAD tuning, explaining how DADGAD works and helping everyone tune down. She will teach the relevant chords and the rhythm suitable for a jig, aiming to play the tune parts together with the guitar accompaniment. 

Janet Muggeridge - A Beginner’s Jam

Wed 1 Jan | 3 pm | Workshop Space 

Popular at festivals in the North Island, these are highly successful sessions wherever Janet has conducted them. The format is usually a discussion about jam etiquette, followed by Janet playing the songs, calling out the chords. Participants sing and play along. Participants are also given a chance to play a lead break. The Beginner’s Jam starts with easy material and gets harder but is always inclusive. Discussion may also range to aspects of performance including anxiety and nerves, and how to best prepare for facing your audience.

Krissy Jackson – Fiddle Workshop

Thu 2 Jan | 2 pm | Workshop Space

Inspired by recent travels to a fiddle camp in the States, Krissy will teach a quirky choon (tune) along with everything that goes along with it. Something you can jam along to with your mates, improvise on, chop with as well as play the actual tune.  

A highly experienced teacher, Krissy enjoys connecting with fiddle players of all ages and experiences, encouraging them to find their confidence and unique artistic voice.

Mike Harding – The ‘Traditional’ Songs of the Pakeha

Thu 2 Jan | 2.30 pm | Hall

Songs of the Pakeha, presented and performed ‘chronologically’, i.e. in the order of their first appearance, with much elaboration on their origins, modification and transmission before and during the years of the New Zealand ‘50s and ‘60s folk revival. There may be some myth-busting as recent decades are approached.

Based on and inspired by the work of earlier folk music commentators and enthusiasts such as James Cowan, Rona Bailey, Neil Colquhoun, Phil Garland and in more recent years, Alexander Turnbull’s Michael Brown.

May include: Come All You Tonguers (New Zealand Whales), Davy Lowston (Shore Cry, Whalers’ Rhymes, The Voyage of the Buffalo, The Beautiful Coast of New Zealand), Across The Line (A Long Time Ago), The Wakamarina (Waitekauri), The Shanty by the Way, I’m A Young Man (the New Chum), Bright Fine Gold, Down In the Brunner Mine, The Dying Bushman, John Smith A.B. (At Sea), Captain Matheson, Alexander Whisker’s Song, Soon May the Wellerman Come