Tutors

Lynn Jones - Autoharp

Lyn Jones was a headteacher who, when leading a music based initiative at her special school, hired Mike Fenton, the premier English autoharpist and was completely blown away by the music of the autoharp.
She followed up this interest by arriving “harpless” at Sore Fingers, where she borrowed an instrument and became committed. She became a regular student at Sore Fingers and also travelled to the US seeking out the best teachers she could find. She is now on the teaching team of the UK Autoharp Association teaching across the UK. She plays solo, and in various groups that celebrate the traditions of music in the UK, Europe and America.
She plays both chromatic and diatonic autoharp and will support you in your personal journey in practice, playing and arranging.
This will be Lyn’s first time as a tutor and we welcome her to the team.

Percy Copley - Banjo

Percy performs and teaches bluegrass, country and old time music and songs and jazz and popular songs of the golden age. He teaches regularly at camps and workshops such as Sorefingers Summer School in the UK and Guitar Groove in France.
After three years at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London he embarked on an acting career doing everything from Shakespeare to musicals, occasionally playing banjo or bagpipes!
Percy plays Banjo, Guitar, Mandolin, Ukulele, Tenor Guitar, Bagpipes, etc…. The list goes on… and on! It’s his 5 String banjo skills we will be concentrating on this time around. Percy is an excellent “Scruggs style” player.
He ended up with a 5-string banjo by accident, with a book of American folk and bluegrass songs. After struggling with the sound he was greatly relieved to discover that you use finger picks on the banjo! He soon discovered the bluegrass scene in the UK, particularly in the south east and London area and travelled all over the country to festivals such as Edale, Guildtown, Ironbridge, Didmarton, Wadhurst, Yorkshire Dales etc.
In 1992 he was hired to play music at Eurodisney in a country/bluegrass/cowboy band.
Since then he has continued to play 5-string Scruggs style banjo and added guitar, mandolin and tenor guitar playing in bands in the park, hotels and resort. More recently he has been playing jazz and singing old popular songs with the Disney Dixieland Band.
He has also played in the bands Paris Texas around Paris, The Hillbilly Hiccups based in the UK (Didmarton and Laroche festivals), with American duo Field and Thompson around Europe (France, Germany, Switzerland), and the Flatland Moutaineers based in Holland.
This October, Percy returns to teach the 5 string banjo class. You are guaranteed to have a great time and learn a lot, he’s a great teacher and very funny man!

Website

Sam Rose - Bass

Sam Rose was raised in Britain’s Bluegrass capital Helsby under tutelage from Stuart and Russ Williams and has studied the double bass for over a decade, specialising in bluegrass, old time and slap styles. He graduated with first-class honours in Guitar Performance (BMus) from The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in London and is in high demand as a session musician on the London bluegrass scene. He teaches and regularly performs with the London based Hot Rock Pilgrims. When not performing, teaching or writing, he spends his time developing property in the North West. Though this is Sam’s first time teaching at Kingham, he is no stranger to Sore Fingers having been as a student several times, he knows the form and is absolutely delighted to make his debut.

Martin Froud - Dobro

The October Dobro class is usually less demanding than the week long Easter session and this provides a bit of an entry for those wishing to take up this fabulous interment. If you are starting out, Martin’s your man. With his background in full time teaching he is well equipped to trigger your inspiration and boost you forward with a series of musical formulas, scales and runs to help speed up playing ability. Martin knows the Sore Fingers spirit having been on several occasions both as student and tutor. Go on: give it a go, you might just surprise yourself!
Martin has played in many bands over the years, some Bluegrass and some not so. An experienced performer and a meticulous player he has all the secrets one needs to get up to speed with playing in band.

Eleanor Wilkie - Bluegrass Fiddle

Eleanor hardly needs an introduction as she’s been an active member of the Sore Fingers team for many years. In more recent times, she has headed up the Beginners series of courses covering both Fiddle and Bass tuition.
As a professional teacher, Eleanor knows the business of teaching and is a pretty cool musician in her own right. Anyone who has seen “El” in action with Midnight Skyracer or some of the other line ups she is involved in will testify to that skill! An absolute rock steady player on stage! And a good songwriter too.
Playing music on a variety of instruments since the age of nine, Eleanor has lots of experience and that’s reinforced by her professional career as secondary school music teacher, a job she been in since 2006.
So, without hesitation, we decided to ask her to come down and teach the fiddle class this October. So, come and spruce up your bowing technique with one of Britain’s best players.

Website

Andy Quelch - Guitar

Don't be fooled by the banjo in the picture, Andy Quelch has been playing guitar for over 25 years. His journey through American traditional styles took off when he heard the playing of Doc Watson & Clarence White. Via these two greats Andy was exposed to the playing of Tony Rice & later on David Grier. Two courses with Grier – 1st at Steve Kaufman’s Flatpicking camp & 2nd at Sore Fingers - a good few hundred hours tied to the metronome and Andy has become sought after in the UK Old-time and bluegrass scene for his driving and inventive guitar playing.
Andy played with Chris Moreton in Trouble and Strife and the Chris Moreton Trio. He now regularly performs with Emily Smith (our Old-time fiddle tutor) in A&E Oldtime String Band. His expert navigation of chord sequences, solid rhythm and creative runs make him a guitarist of choice for visiting American artists and he recently toured with the old-time Fiddle ace Chance McCoy on his 2012 UK tour.
The course is aimed at beginner and intermediate players, and will focus on the building blocks of great guitar playing: navigating chord sequences, developing driving rhythm and achieving great tone. He will also explore the use of runs to liven up back up and as a basis for developing solos. Andy is a multi-instrumentalist and teaches Guitar, Banjo and Fiddle. He and Emily enjoying giving workshops and look forward to developing some shared repertoire across the courses to liven up the evening’s jamming!
Andy strongly recommends the use of recording devices in his workshops & lessons, you never know what might pop out of his guitar so keep those tapes rolling!!
Have a listen to some of Andy’s playing by clicking the website link below

Evan Davies - Mandolin

Evan is a mandolinist, guitarist, singer and composer based in Leeds, UK. He is currently performing and writing for The Often Herd as well as refining his solo performance set. He also performs bluegrass and folk in various professional and casual outfits.
Evan teaches mandolin and guitar and since September 2017 has been a mandolin tutor for Leeds College of Music's BA Folk Music.
Evan has gained experience playing bluegrass and folk music in the UK over the last 5 years. With his own band The Kentucky Cow Tippers he has played festivals across the UK and travelled Europe, playing in Germany, Belgium, Netherlands and France, where the band took 2nd place at the La Roche Bluegrass Festival band competition.
Other musicians/bands Evan has worked with include Ben Somers, Toby Noble in various projects and UK bluegrass stalwart Kevin Garratt.
He took up guitar at age 12 and by age 15 was composing music using a computer software for his heavy metal band. This is where Evan found his passion for creativity, exploring the endless possibilities of melody, harmony and rhythm.
A brilliant opportunity to learn with one Britain’s best players.

Website

Barry Southern - Old Time Banjo

Born and raised in Liverpool, UK and a fixture of the Bluegrass and Old Time scene there, multi-instrumentalist Barry Southern moved to Oregon in 2014 and is a full time player and teacher. He plays driving yet subtle 3 finger style banjo as well as being a tasteful and energetic clawhammer player. He currently plays in his band The Horsenecks (www.horsenecks.net)

Website

Gabrielle Mc Crae - Old Time Fiddle

Gabrielle Macrae hails from the Old Time music hotbed and rain capitol of the USA, Portland, Oregon. She grew up in a musical family and her earliest musical memories are of singing in the church children's choir which her mother directed and falling asleep under the kitchen table while her parents and their friends played music late into the night. She played a variety of instruments a a child, but didn't become interested in Old Time music until she started going to square dances as a teenager. There she was exposed to Appalachian music and dance at the hands of Foghorn Leghorn and the infamous square dance caller Bill Martin. She started playing banjo at age 17 and fiddle shortly after. This was the beginning of a lifelong obsession which brought her to North Carolina where she lived for several years in her late teens and early twenties while learning from and playing with some of the great local players of the region. She began performing with her sisters in The Macrae Sisters in 2008 after they released their debut album Old Sledge. Since then she has been performing and teaching at camps, festivals and venues across the US and the UK . While on tour in England with her sisters in 2012 she met Liverpudlian Barry Southern of The Loose Moose Stringband. The two began playing music together and formed The Horsenecks. They now split their time between Liverpool, England and the second rainiest city in the USA, Astoria, Oregon. Gabrielle can be seen playing fiddle with The Horsenecks and Hook and Anchor, banjo with The Macrae Sisters, and guitar with The Waysiders.

Website

Singing -

Sue and Ishani collectively known as the Rye Sisters did such a brilliant job of the singing class last October, we had no choice but to ask them to come back and do more of that magic!

Sue Pomeroy - Singing

With harmonies at the heart of her performances and song-writing, Sue Pomeroy has always been steeped in bluegrass, old-time and country music. She has hardly missed an opportunity to soak up influence from the masters herself by attending workshops with the likes of Val Mindel and Alice Gerrard (and by being a fierce attendee at SFSS!). It was the quality of vocal harmonies in her previous band The Woodberrys which won them the band competition for Ely Folk Festival in 2012. Sue now performs in a duo The Rye Sisters with versatile singer Ishani Siriwardena. The Rye Sisters won the ‘BBC Song for Lincolnshire 2016’ song-writing competition. As a result of this, and their growing reputation from their busy gig schedule, they are becoming known for beautiful singing arrangements and harmonies in American music with wide appeal. They also love old-time song harmonies and recently performed at Orwell festival to much acclaim. Both teachers by trade, Sue and Ishani can easily demonstrate and impart the techniques and knowledge for singing powerfully and in perfect harmony.

Website

Ishani Siriwardena - Singing

Ishani Siriwardena, singer and fiddler, was born and raised in the Lincolnshire fens. She has a classically-influenced background, learning piano and violin from an early age. During her youth, she spent much time on stage performing musical theatre, jazz and as a member of multiple youth choirs and orchestras. She sang and toured with Pembroke Chapel Choir between 2008 and 10, only venturing into the folk and country music scene in 2015 with the emergence of The Rye Sisters. Now she is enjoying writing performing, playing and singing with fellow Rye Sister, Sue Pomeroy, with whom she has been collaborating closely for the past two years.”

Website