Hello Simon, I am pleased to see we agree on all points; I have been trying to promote the same ideas for years. It is certainly worth making a long journey to have one good lesson from a leading teacher, which is regularly done by serious players of other instruments. But there seems to be an idea that the HG is a folk instrument and that folk music players can teach themselves. What rubbish! Especially with such a complex instrument as the hurdy-gurdy. Traditional players have always been taught by their elders. The cost of travel, teachers, books, is all part of owning such an instrument just as car driving lessons and maintenance are. Don’t venture in unless you are fully committed, for such pleasures do not come free. A group lesson at a festival is no substitute for 1 to 1. Tyros can not assess what they are doing for, by very nature, they don’t know where they are going or how to get there. Identifying ones’ mistakes is almost impossible, even using a CD – unless it is able to comment. And a poor teacher can be a matter of the halt leading the blind. There are many aspects to teaching beyond the technical. Doreen took her first lesson with Gaston Rivière in the late 60’s and, being a keyboard player, took to it naturally. Later we spent some days with Clastrier, who is very hot on wheel technique. We were taught by both to start the first stroke at a notional 12.00 by the clock, but there seems to be a new school who start at 3.00. I don’t see any advantage in this. Perhaps some new timer would explain the reasoning. Onwards and upwards!
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