Summer School 2023 - Musicians' Ensemble course

Kathryn Heath tells us all about her time at Summer School 2023

I attended the Musicians' Ensemble course at the RSCDS Summer School 2023 and what a wonderful week it was.

We had 3 fabulous tutors, accordionist Susan McFadyen, violinist Shona McFadyen and Màrtainn Skene playing a variety of instruments , but for our course, mostly piano. There were 22 pupils playing a variety of instruments accordions, pianos, a concertina, flutes, whistles, a cello, lots of violins and a superb bass section of 2 double basses and a bass guitar. Altogether the instruments complimented each other and made quite a mellow  sound  compared to the usual harsher sound of a Scottish dance band with a snare drum for rhythm.

We all worked very hard but were rewarded at coffee time with Susan’s delicious tray bakes and Sandra’s (one of the violinists) melt in the mouth shortbread. In the mornings we practiced as a total ensemble but then broke out into instrument groups to tackle any bits with which we were struggling,  I personally found this extremely helpful.  We had a talk from Ewan Galloway (accordionist) and Debbie Roxburgh (dance teacher) about playing for practices, both from the musician’s and dancer’s point of view, with tips on how best to communicate with each other.

The days flew by and just when I thought things couldn’t get any better, two of the musicians on our course announced their engagement! How wonderful! The class presented them with a card and the following day Susan and Shona presented them with a tune they had written overnight to commemorate the occasion. The tune was a lovely Strathspey, entitled  “St Andrews Engagement”  which  we played in class for them. There are no secrets at Summer School so the next presentation was a bottle and card from the organizers of Summer School, however there was still something missing. What good is a beautiful tune without a dance to go with it! Yes, before you could blink, David Queen had written an elegant and flowing Strathspey to complete the gift. What an amazing memento for Edward and Alison to have their very own dance.

This brings us towards the end of the week and I was expecting to run through all the tunes one last time, instead of which we were given music to be used as introductory and finishing music on Saturday night; some gorgeous Gaelic waltzes, a polka and Auld Lang Syne. Susan then gave us music for some commonly played session tunes and explained common chord progressions and gave us tips for busking. It was like a light being switched on in my brain, she answered all the questions about jamming that had been puzzling me for years.

The highlight at the end of the week was the dance on Saturday night at the Younger Hall. The programme had been thoughtfully and carefully constructed to celebrate 100 years of The RSCDS and to my mind was a resounding success.

All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable week during which I learned an amazing amount, made some great friendships and I would strongly encourage any musicians considering attending next year’s course, not to hesitate and just go for it.