The course started on Sunday evening, and as of Monday we have had 6 coached sessions so far. We are fitting in quite well with the other players, and learning some excellent tips from the tutors who are members of The Rose Consort, the same group we heard perform in York. Alison is very engaging, and has kindly loaned me her tenor viol, which is a great pleasure to play. We are in an allocated consort group for the whole of each morning, we have time out until 4 when we return for 'choices', which are different each day, then a talk/concert in the evening. Last night we had a group, led by Roy Marks, demonstrate just how many cadences can be found in one piece by Ferrabosco, and how to shape them. Roy had separated out each cadence in their score to help us all hear them more readily. In choices with Alison we played unpublished but very attractive chansons found by her husband Roy in a manuscript in York Minster.
Today we have been trying out some new treble viols, but none tempted us to buy. However the maker/viol doctor moved my sound post and improved the overall sound of my treble quite dramatically.
