The British Banjo Mandolin and Guitar Federation Orchestras

For players and ensembles

Registered Charity SC038957

The British BMG Federation Summer School Weekend

July 2010

Benslow Music Trust, Hertfordshire

The setting for the 2010 Summer School was Little Benslow Hills in semi-rural Hertfordshire where Benslow Music Trust is based. The main building is a Victorian House built in 1862 and set amongst a complex of buildings, some old and some new, which provided not only accommodation but teaching rooms. Each tutor was assigned a teaching room which became the base for each of the groups but there were also ample extra rooms for individual practice or small group work.

It was not all work as there were informal sessions in the bar and the week-end finished with a concert given by each of the classes. This concert was recorded by Bruce Murray and is available for listening here (right click and "Save As"):

          Banjo Workshop          Mandolin Workshop          Guitar Workshop          Mixed Ensemble

Students came to the Summer School from far and wide; Traci from Canada was from furthest a-field and came to join the Baroque Mandolin class. Lots of positive feedback has been received and some have written about their experiences for this review.
I would like to thank Sandra Woodruff for all the work she does towards the Summer School. Henry Girvan, course co-ordinator

Review of Classic Finger-style 5-string Banjo course with Chris Sands:
Course tutor ‘THE’ Chris Sands, a banjo ’god’ teaching a British BMG Federation banjo group? WOW!!!! That’s what I thought about it, until I met ‘the’ Chris Sands - a real gent. Chris came well prepared with scales and technique exercises. Well this is going to be fun, three days with scales, exercises and technique…… NOT. Wrong!! Fun, informative, eye-opening banjo lessons. There were ten people in the group with varying degrees of experience, knowledge and skills, including teachers of the instrument. Chris set the tasks, we worked, he nurtured us to achieve our goals. Everyone, somehow, got one-to-one coaching within the group. I for one did not realise my hands could stretch so far.
The cacophony drifting across the campus (good job they put us in the farthest building) must have been horrendous as ten banjos plinked and plonked through the exercises at different rates and timings. I don’t think there were any bum notes tho…well, maybe."

Chris was like a conduit back to the great players of the past, his anecdotes of what Tarrent Bailey Jr and others had taught and told him, gave us an insight into banjo playing techniques I had not come across before.

Tom Ryan very generously made his rally music books available to the group, for them and Chris to choose their pieces for the Sunday concert. The choices made reflected the experience and abilities of the whole group. The banjo class concert playing was a real joy and reflected the enthusiasm and commitment of ‘THE’ tutor and the players. Well done all, I am so proud to have been a part of the weekend. Roll on next year. Paul Tombs

Review of Baroque Mandolin course with Frances Taylor: The class of 13 mandolin players assembled on Friday night for the first session and an introduction to Sonata solo pieces from Giovanni Battista Gervasio and Fra’ Giuseppe Paolucci. The music was available free from internet sites provided by Frances. After playing through the Gervasio and Paolucci pieces, our main focus was the Sonata Gimo 145 for single Mandolin and Bass.   On Saturday the morning was spent learning to interpret the music as written and as felt with examples of why timing changes had been incorporated and how the flow and emphasis of the beat may not be as written. An example of the original was available to help understand the speech of the music and the questioning musical bars that are followed by an answer. Once the group had mastered each of the pieces, had added dynamics and ‘picking’ directions, and understood the interpretation of baroque music as speech, the correct mood started to come through.

In the afternoon session we were lucky enough to have Anna Langley in the group as she had offered to play the Lute Bass part to enable the Sonata to come alive. A short break out session to discuss our own musical challenges with the piece took place and Frances was available to discuss methods to improve individual’s playing. On Sunday our work culminated in a concert performance of Sonata Gimo 145 with the Allegro, Larghetto Andantino and Allegro Con Molto Spirito. Philip James

Review of Classical Guitar course with Gerald Garcia (Photos: Gerald Garcia):          I joined six other guitarists in Gerald’s class with slight trepidation, having played plectrum guitar for some years and being a real novice at finger-style. It was a most enjoyable class, made all the more fun by Gerald who has a delightful sense of humour. He taught us the basic techniques of playing finger-style with the right hand, the ideal way to hold the guitar and position the fingers of the left hand. Gerald emphasised the importance of good posture, encouraging us to take a break from sitting by giving us some stretching exercises and bending the legs in a Tai-Chi movement. He even had us pulling each other’s hair on top of the head (ouch!), to encourage erect posture; two students had to stand on chairs to reach their tall partners!
The music was enjoyable and challenging for me.

We worked on five pieces including some Hungarian Dances, and just about had them ready for the Sunday afternoon concert. I found this a bit nerve-wracking but fortunately we were on first, and then could relax while the other classes played; it all went pretty well.

Overall I enjoyed the weekend and am grateful to Gerald for his patience. This exercise was to find the pivotal point where the skull rests on top of the spine and finding the greatest distance the head would move without straining neck or shoulders! Alison Fargus

Mixed Instrument Folk with Robin Garside: This was my first BMG Federation Summer School. As a relative newcomer to the mandolin I was advised to join Robin Garside’s Mixed Instrument Folk class. There were 6 ‘pupils’ plus Robin playing a variety of fretted instruments – guitars, mandolins, a banjo and even a chitarra – an instrument similar to a lute. Robin had made available in advance copies of the music for us to look at as well as mp3 audio files so we could work out what it was meant to sound like. This was a good idea since not everyone in the class could read music or tablature. One very accomplished player who could not read music had worked it all out from listening to the audio files – much to everyone else’s admiration.
Robin started us off on Friday evening with a ‘gentle run through’ a couple of the tunes. That was when I realised I had been practising them at about one third the normal speed! However, Robin was very patient and gradually coaxed us all into playing at a faster pace. Throughout the weekend we worked up a number of apparently simple tunes and he showed us how to embellish them, and add harmonies and different chord progressions.

Evenings were spent in the bar. Since a number of people had brought ukuleles along, including a set of brightly coloured ones thoughtfully provided by one of the organisers, Robin was persuaded to run a couple of ukulele classes on Saturday evening – again before repairing to the bar for a less formal sing along.
By the Sunday afternoon concert we were confident enough to perform before the rest of the Summer School - helped along by Robin’s amusing introductions, taken – I think – from his day job as a professional folk singer. This was my first visit to a British BMG Federation Summer School but I hope it will not be my last – I was sufficiently impressed to become a member. Trevor Boyd

Large Group Orchestra Session with Frances Taylor: As per tradition at summer schools of the BMG Federation, an open orchestral session was arranged on Saturday evening to enable Banjos, Mandolins and Guitars to play together in a mixed group. Frances conducted the session in which we played three Latin pieces Bahia Sueno, Bailecito and El Papamoscas, and Eileen Pakenham’s composition for mandolin orchestra In an Old English Garden. This session emphasised the different sounds that a full orchestra can generate and the music moved around the group as intended. Philip James

Ukulele Fun Session with Robin Garside: I took part in the second session of the ukulele fun play. I don’t think there was a ‘proper’ uke player in the group so Rob was gentle with us. Sandra Woodruff and some of the people from Cambridge had kindly supplied extra ukes for those who wanted them. I had my new baritone uke, tuned to banjo, and it was its first outing. The tunes were easy enough for us to strum along to, at first, and we sounded quite good. Then the difficulty level took a severe spike upward, but some played really well even so. I struggled, not knowing the chords. Hey ho, it was still fun and I would do that again. Great idea guys, well done Robin, you are a star.