On Trac: free bilingual magazine on Welsh traditional music | If SSIW is helping you, why not help us? Get DAILY lessons: Become an SSIW Member!

[Tahl]

I came across this magazine from TRAC ('Folk Development for Wales'). I haven't looked at it, but I understand it's bilingual in handy columns.

Description/link:
on trac is trac's free magazine. It keeps you up to date with trac's work, and features news, views and information of interest to the traditional music community. Contributions, news and photographs are always welcome. To receive your free copy three times a year by post, just send us an email including your postal address.

You can download the magazine and many past issues here:
http://www.trac-cymru.org/On-Trac/

[JeanB]

Thank you Diane.Looks great for keeping up to date with folk music and also for having a go at reading. I have just asked for it to be sent to me.
You are always so resourceful!
Diolch yn fawr iwan

[Tahl]

Thanks -- but in this case, I'm just passing along info I learned from someone on Twitter, and now I can't recall who.

[tehuti]

Those of you who are going to the Eisteddfod can meet trac people in Ty Gwerin, where they always have a stand round which people congregate to hold impromptu music sessions.

They organise the fantastic BEAM (Big Experiment/Arbrawf Mawr), which I have attended for the past two years on Anglesey. This year, BEAM is going south to the Stackpole Centre near Pembroke.

BEAM is long weekend of Welsh folk music for instrumentalists and singers. The singing workshop with Arfon Gwilym is awesome. Arfon runs it in Welsh, but has an interpreter along, armed with headphones for those who need a simultaneous translation.

The instrumentalists get top people like Steven Rees as tutors. The groups are split into beginners, intermediate and advanced groups. The advanced group gets the guest tutor, who is an eminent folkie from outside of Wales. This is seen as a way of building bridges to the wider folk world. Last year, we had Alistair Anderson. The guest tutor also runs a joint workshop for all participants, in which everyone takes part at whatever level they can manage and the whole is put together into one performance piece.

Last year, there was also a separate harp group with Robin Huw Bowen, while the year before, Sian James tutored a group that focused on singing with the harp.

I've already booked BEAM for this year (first days of November). It's become the high spot of the year for me.