When a young chorister looks at the sharp symbol in the key signature of a piece of music (#) and notes its similarity to a twitter hashtag, one realises one is perhaps dealing with a brand new generation of musicians! There have been a number of moments over the last few months that have brought the existence of this newer and fresher generation to the forefront of my mind.
In February, I spent a couple of days on Islay teaching at the Fèis alongside a great team of musicians and friends. I always enjoy a trip to Islay and, as I walked up the gangway onto the ferry (suitcase, guitar, and accordion in hand) I was greatly looking forward to experiencing the delights that Bowmore has to offer – namely Duffy’s Bar and Lucci’s! While we managed to make a little bit of time to visit those essential tourist attractions, the real enjoyment of our stay on Islay was experiencing the enthusiasm of the youngsters at the Fèis. Due to the weather, we were only across for two days rather than the anticipated three; but, despite time constraints, the kids knuckled down and worked extremely hard in order to produce a show to be proud of for the parents on the Thursday night.
It was great to see a Fèis so well attended with young islanders that were so eager to learn and such great company. One wee lad took great joy in telling me his success in making drum tutor, Alasdair Murray, search for at least 10 minutes for a set of left-handed drum sticks! This kind of good-humoured nonsense was a fairly regular occurrence over the two days – but so was hard, conscientious learning.