Plucked Tunes & Techniques

We’re really delighted to welcome Marit Fält to Halsway for the next in our series of courses for plucked strings (following on from two brilliant years with Jon Doran!).

The course will focus on instrumental music played on two-course instruments. Marit will cover a range of techniques and skills, and look at how to get the most out of your instruments as both a tune player and an accompanist. Although you won’t be focusing solely on repertoire from any specific geographical area, there will definitely be a Swedish polska or two thrown in as a nod to Marit’s Scandinavian roots.

You’ll spend most of your time learning together as a group, with some opportunities to divide into smaller groups during the week.

Who is it for?

This opportunity is aimed at players of the cittern, bouzouki, mandola and octave mandolin and their related instruments who consider themselves to be working at an intermediate or advanced level. Other plucked instruments are welcome, but sometimes the techniques discussed may be less relevant to single-course plucked instruments.

You will be keen to improve your technique, learn new repertoire, boost your confidence as an accompanist, and take home new ideas and inspiration to continue your learning. You’ll need to be happy to learn by ear, as musical notation will not be provided during the workshops. No advance preparation will be required.

The Team

Marit Fält is a multi-instrumentalist based in Scotland, brought up in Norway of Swedish parentage. She grew up playing Swedish traditional music on the fiddle, and has a broad interest and expertise of playing traditional music from Scandinavia, Scotland and England.

She is best known as a Nordic Mandola player and is a leading proponent of using plucked instruments in traditional music, and is as equally comfortable in the lead as in accompaniment. Having graduated from Newcastle University with the highest performance mark ever achieved, she has toured internationally with a range of artists such as LYRE, Tom Kitching and Gwil Bowen Rhys.

Marit is an experienced teacher, used to teaching in both one-to-one settings, as well as working in group settings and workshop situations.