It is two months to go before 'Feltonbury2018' and although the updates have been a little sparse in the last couple of weeks that's only because there have been significant changes to the schedule - which will be updated very soon. What are those changes? Subject to final confirmation we will be having additional performers at new venues in the village, a contemporary dance group and a rock band as the final act in the village hall.

The rock band is local and the set-list will be arranged so that there's plenty of dancing! And now that the village hall has a licence we can sell alcohol - so there's no reason not to 'get up and boogie'! All of this has meant that the existing schedule (as well as what else will be going on in the village) is being updated and will be posted soon.

The first real blog post. Now that www.feltonmusic.co.uk is bouncing off the satellites, hopefully this update will shoot out automatically to all subscribers (if not, check you're spam/junk folder as it may end up there)....

Another website related excitement. This afternoon, Emma George patiently took me through the basics of tending and propagating one's site. More tutorials are offered and will definitely be needed. It's going to take some courage, patience and lots of practice. I always felt that anyone who wanted to be involved in teaching other people should face up themselves to learning something they know little or nothing about. 

So getting to grips with being a website custodian is firmly on my agenda for the next few months, and there's another learning project for me too – being able to learn tunes by ear. I find that really difficult, and have to resort to a convoluted process, envisaging the notation in my mind's eye then reading what I can “see”. Daft. I'd love to hear how people who can learn by ear do it – but it's often difficult to explain how you do something when it's second nature.

I think I know how instrumentalists make it happen. When you play a lot, you develop a relationship between how the music feels under your fingers and what you hear. I use that technique to help sort out tricky bits when I'm sight-singing, imagining playing the notes so I can hear how they should sound. But I can't seem to go straight from listening to playing. And what about people who can pick up songs by ear – you may be one of them? How do you hold the song in your memory – is it the sound of it, or the physical sensations of singing?

Clearly I'd have a lot of learning to do in a purely aural music culture. 

I've always worried about any implication that people or musical genres are divided into ears and eyes when it comes to accessing new tunes. It's really uncomfortable to be told that one “must” read or “must” learn by ear because of the type of music. Or that aggravating “I know you'll find it easier to do it this way”. Last summer I experienced more than an hour of frustration as a group of us struggled to get to grips with a short tune. The workshop leader played confidently by ear, and was clearly amazed that adults who played instruments couldn't pick it up that way. Finally she gave in to our pleading and let us have the printed copies. Okay if the purpose of the session had been to help us learn how to play by ear, but it was supposed to be about putting the music together and we barely had time to get onto that. 

A salutary lesson for a music reader to bear in mind.

All this stuff about ears and eyes came to mind when I was thinking about the content of this blog. One of the priority jobs on the website was adding another event to the calendar. Alistair Anderson together with one of his playing colleagues, Dan Walsh, is giving a concert at Gallery 45 in just three weeks time (click here for more details). It will be wonderful. Even in the far reaches of Devon, where I worked in long ago days, we had heard of Alistair, an internationally known folk musician. He was one of the few facts I knew about Northumberland, together with Hadrian's Wall, coal mining, and romantic notions of castles, moorlands, beaches and islands gained from Lorna Hill's books for children. Alistair came to Devon to run folk music workshops for schools and I was bowled over by his musicianship and the energy of Northumbrian tunes. A couple of weeks later Northumberland advertised for a music adviser – how could I not apply?

Alistair's one of those enviable people who can access, recall and perform music any way. If you got to “Beyond the End of the Road” in the Village Hall earlier this year, you'll have enjoyed his high energy ceilidh calling, and if you get to Gallery 45 on Thursday, September 28th, you can have another great evening.

Even Alistair must once have been at the stage of having to learn a simple tune slowly, and that's what I'm hoping we can give people the chance to do more often. We followed up the Tin Whistle Workshop with an Irish Evening in July, a grand mixture of instruments and singers and lots of tunes and songs to join in with. I'm wondering whether there might be people who'd like to get together for a regular monthly follow up. We could do it on a Felton Music Saturday afternoon. An hour and a half of working with a few tunes and songs, building up confidence and a repertoire. No plans for playing for anyone else – just for the fun of it. Let me know if you might be interested.

And it'll be fine to play by ear or by eye of course!

• Get ready for Calamity Jane on Saturday October 7, 9.30 – 12.30, Felton Village Hall as usual. There's more info about it on the calendar.

• We've sorted out the themes for the next three Drop In Singing Sessions. See the Drop In Singing page for more information. Get in touch if you've got suggestions.

• Great concert coming up at Gallery 45 on Thursday, September 28th - Alistair Anderson and Dan Walsh come to Felton - don't miss it!

• Don't forget it's Felton Music Saturday this weekend!

• Can you contribute any information for the Calendar or the Resources page? Email anything you think should go in to Alison at felton4music@gmail.com. Also, these updates should go out automatically to all subscribers, if you don't receive them - check your spam/junk folder as it may have unintentionally ended up there.

We ended an amazing June and launched a slightly less busy July with our pop-up Pirates of Penzance. What a weekend! It takes a good dose of courage even to sign up take part in the project, and buckets-full to arrive and follow it through. Nearly forty adults prepared to give up a summer weekend to work very hard to put on an instant and very entertaining show.

When I was getting going with music things as a teenager, I was rather snooty about G and S. Maybe I was put off by the performance I was taken to as a child. In my memory it was terribly long, boring and full of screechy women. There were the songs we had to learn in school choir - including Poor Wand’ring One, in order to bolster some G and S concert - more screechy women. There was the occasional orchestral experience - being passed a couple of polo mints by a bassoonist just before two pages of non-stop playing, or the wig which fell from a cast-member onto my head during a difficult bit. I enjoyed playing for “The Sorcerer” at university, but put G and S into the not-me category for years.

Then, when Felton Music was just getting going a few people said they’d fancy returning to their G and S glory days, and, with lots of input from Chris Jones the concept of the instant show emerged, with the Mikado in 2016. It would be a way of afficianados getting their fix, and a fun project for all. This year has made it clear that we’ve got the capability to put on a thoroughly rehearsed show really well, but hardly anyone has the time, so we’ll pop up again in 2018.

I’ve found it all tremendously enjoyable. The more I get into Sullivan’s music, the more I value it. Glorious tunes, and all eminently singable. Scoring the music for our resident band means one really gets to know each piece, and I’m beginning to get a feel for how Sullivan’s harmony works. Yes, lots of tumti-tum, but that allows the words through - and now I find them so funny.

Of course, the main pleasure is working with everyone involved. Those intoxicating qualities of commitment, creativity, collaboration, stepping-forwardness, good humour and generosity of spirit energise everyone. Even the electricity had to good manners to spark back into life when we were ready to start on the Saturday.

It’s been fun for me to do the directing bit. That’s something I did little of in previous existences. Very good for the waist-line too. Easier this time with a larger, sturdier music stand - I’ve bought one for myself and one for Felton Music as well so pianists using the big keyboard at the Village Hall are at less risk of the music capsizing.

I’ve learned a lot from these two G and S celebrations, and look forward tremendously to next year’s - whichever it is. Meanwhile, it’s back to business with a Felton Music Saturday coming up and the end of term Instant-Irish-Evening on Tuesday. I look forward to seeing people there - and at Felton Fair.

• Enjoy musicals? Our next one is Calamity Jane on Saturday October 7, 9.30 – 12.30, Felton Village Hall as usual. See the Musical in a Morning page.

• See and hear recorder players and madrigal singers at Rock Hall on Wednesday August 30. Oh – and the Handlebards will be doing “A Midsummer Night's Dream” as well!  Read more about the event here.

• Drop In Singing returns to weekly sessions from Tuesday August 29. See the Drop In Singing page for more information.

• Can you contribute any information for the Calendar or the Resources page? Email anything you think should go in to Alison at felton4music@gmail.com

A key job for today is planning a short programme of Elizabethan music. This is going to greet people arriving for the Handlebards performance of “As You Like It”, and perhaps entertain them in the interval as well. If you haven’t been to a Handlebards play before, how do I begin to explain? Spellbinding, funny, creative, utterly professional, zany, motivating you to open your Shakespeare the moment you get home? Bicycle-powered Bard with a cast of four. Take a look at www.handlebards.com for the full story. Our show is at Felton Park, on Friday August 4 and if you haven’t yet got a ticket, Tim Cooper has a few for sale at Felton Fair on Saturday.

August 4 seemed ages away when we thought of putting on some music. What a great opportunity for all the recorder players who are emerging all over the place - some home grown. And for people who enjoy the odd madrigal or two. Now it’s only a month ahead, and the Felton Music machinery creaks into action, emailing all who had volunteered to check their availability for practices. That’s the worst step in the whole process. Everyone is so busy, inevitably at different times - it’s cause for celebration if we find a single time slot that everyone can do.

The recorder players are well away. More and less experienced are going to join forces for a set of eight popular tunes - that’s popular in the early 16th century, but you’d recognise Greensleeves and, if you came to the Regency Ball, Sellenger’s Round. The more skilled will whizz their fingers round a few more pieces as well. We haven’t started the singing stuff yet. It’s just women this time - unusually, few of the men were available this time and the little group who were could have been overwhelmed, so they’ve got the evening off.

The next task is finalising the choice of songs and writing them out on my trusty software. There are loads of wonderful songs from the Elizabethan period - when England (pace Scotland etc) was acknowledged throughout Europe to be having a golden age of music. True, lots are fa-la-la-ish, but when you’re in the mood, a bit of fa-la-la goes down a treat. If you’re not up in this sort of stuff, think “Now is the Month of Maying” and you’ll be in the right zone. Fortunately for us, it was a time when printers and publishers flourished and there was a thriving market for sheet music. That means we’ve still got copies, though they are not that easy for modern music readers to cope with. Nowadays, we’re used to having all the parts in a song written out on the same sheet, one above the other. Handy - you can see what the others are doing. They just had their own part. No bar lines either. We’re told that every educated person was expected to be able to sing and play at least one instrument. Recorders and viols of different sizes inhabited chests and were liberated when people fancied a bit of instrumental music.

This culture of domestic music making will only have involved the wealthy who had the leisure to pursue it. I suppose, in a way, I’m about trying to help recreate that culture, but for everyone, making music-making a normal thing to do.

More details and booking info on the calendar