News
Last Minute.com Update - 31/03/2023
31st Mar 2023
LAST MINUTE.COM UPDATE
ingers Week 2023 – 10th to 14th April, 2023
Arrive Sunday 9th - Depart Saturday 15th
Kingham Hill School – Chipping Norton – Oxfordshire – OX7 6TH
In just a week today Moira and I will be in position at Kingham Hill School getting ready to greet the team who will diligently work their socks off (or else!) to get the place shipshape for when Tutors and Students arrive on Sunday.
There are a few last-minute things we need to bring to your attention as you get yourselves ready for one of the best musical experiences of the season.
Let’s dive in!
Arrivals on Sunday 9th
PLEASE DO NOT ARRIVE BEFORE 3PM we will not be ready to register you before then.
Travel
Finally, it’s all quiet on the railways and threatened strikes have been cancelled. So, if you are travelling by rail, there shouldn’t be any delays as a normal service will be operating.
The shuttle bus is booked and will be meeting trains from approximately 14:30 to 18:00hrs to ferry people up to the school.
On the other hand, Security Personnel at Heathrow airport are taking industrial action right up until 9th April, our main arrivals day. The airport will be open but there may be disruption clearing immigration.
However, Heathrow Airport are maintaining that the facilities will be operating as normally as possible, and the industrial action will not affect flights especially those terminating there.
Your airlines might send you notices indicating any expected disruption.
We’ll endeavour to keep you up to date with developments.
Money, Cash and Cards
Since the pandemic, people have got used to using credit and debit cards for everything right down to a cup of coffee. The banks love this as they make a fortune in transaction charges which of course get pushed back to you!
We consulted with the school and concluded that it isn’t cost effective to set such facilities up for one week in the year. So, we’re back to the old-fashioned ways of, “Hard Cash”, “Mula”, “Readies” or even “Nelsons” as I have heard them referred to (Nelson Eddy?).
As a broad guide we think that a sum of between £150 and £200 would cover the most extravagant student.
Items you might buy are tea coffee (daily), Tuck Shop indulgences, Tutor CDs and books, Tee Shirts, Sweatshirts and other SFSS “must have” Fashion Garments, Replacement Strings, Showcase Tickets, and of course a couple of Pints of Beer or so after a hard day at the “Banjo Office”.
D’Addario will be visiting, and they will no doubt bring some goodies for sale and I know of several instruments that will be on show for private sale.
Unfortunately, once on site the nearest cash-point facility is one mile away in Kingham Village Stores. Otherwise, the next most nearby facilities are in Chipping Norton and Stow-on-the-Wold both five miles from the school.
Health Issues
There are no COVID specific restrictions on entry to Sore Fingers Week this year. We are pleased to report that the last event, the Sore Fingers October Weekend did not give rise to a single report of infection.
So, perhaps we can put the pandemic behind us now and enjoy normal life if surrounding yourselves with banjos for a week is considered “normal”.
Scratch Bands and Slow Jam
Our good friend Kevin Shannon cannot attend this year and we have ensured that a slow jam will take place in refectory nightly. Thanks to Will Pinnock and Roland Emmanuel for steeping up and taking the initiative to get things organised.
Roland has set up a download zone on his Acapella band’s website so that students can download song lyric sheets to their I-Pads, Laptops, etc.
This material is been made available exclusively to 2023 students and represents quite a lot of work and access is password protected.
The download instructions are at the end of this update.
Pre-registration for the scratch bands will close next Sunday, April, 2nd. If you miss the deadline, you will be able to register for the scratch bands when you arrive at Sore Fingers on Sunday 9th.
Link, login and password below to access the protected form.
https://www.sorefingers.co.uk/Scratchbands/sbregform.php
Login: is as follows:
User: “members23”
Password: “SBRFEs23”
Last Minute Course News
Classes that are now fully booked are: Bluegrass Banjo, Old Time Banjo and Old-Time Fiddle. For the “Last Minute.Com Lot”, there are still some places available on other classes if you’re quick.
Reminders, etc:
Be Prepared
Now, few of us play all day long. Life and work get in the way. However, when you get to Sore Fingers Week, that’s exactly what you will be doing, and it can be a bit of an endurance test – Sore Fingers anyone?
It does no harm at all to try and get twenty minutes a day on your instrument or voice to build up a little resilience. No one has come to any harm in 27 years but you will find it easier if you have warmed up. You might do a bit of intensive listening too, immerse yourselves into Bluegrass and Old Time. It’s all good preparation. Right, second sermon over.
Here are some useful links and a reminder of the complete line up for now.
Detailed Bios are on the website (see link below).
AUTOHARP - MIKE FENTON
BANJO 1 - GINA FURTADO - CLASS FULL
BANJO 2 – GABE HIRSHFELD - CLASS FULL
BEGINNERS (All Instruments) – ED HICKS/PETER EARLE
BASS – MISSY RAINES
DOBRO – NOEL DASHWOOD
FIDDLE - ANNIE STANINEC
MANDOLIN 1 – DAVID BENEDICT
MANDOLIN 2 – MARK STOFFEL
MUSIC DEVELOPMENT – ANDY MACKENZIE / MIKE PRYOR
GUITAR 1 – ROSS MARTIN
GUITAR 2 – PETER MCLAUGHLIN
OLD TIME BANJO – CHRIS COOLE - CLASS FULL
OLD TIME FIDDLE – JOHN SHOWMAN - CLASS FULL
SINGING – KATHY KALLICK
SONGWRITING - JOHN LOWELL
UKULELE - PERCY COPLEY
More details, booking forms and tutor bios at this link: https://www.sorefingers.co.uk/courses.php
We have loads of useful information on the website and you might like to read the following web pages for insight:
The “Experience” page describes both the classroom experience and all the extra-curricular activities: https://www.sorefingers.co.uk/experience.php
The “What Course Should I Go On” if you are a little confused as to which class would best suit your musical needs: https://www.sorefingers.co.uk/whatcourse.php
Check the “FAQ’s” page for answers to general and practical questions such as “What should I bring?”, etc: https://www.sorefingers.co.uk/faq.php
Follow this link to get a daily schedule of activities: https://www.sorefingers.co.uk/docs/Master%20Daily%20Programme%20Easter.pdf
Instructions for SlowJam lyric sheets down load:
Here are instructions to get this material:
• Google - Singing Armadillos
• Click on Singing Armadillos – FACEBOOK
• On the FACEBOOK page - Move down to Info section
• Click on - gamedigits.co.uk/armadillos
• Access the HOME PAGE
• At the top of the HOME PAGE – click on GOWER MEMBERS
You’ll now need to submit the password for the members area.
The password is - glaswellt (all lower case)
[Glaswellt is the Welsh word for Bluegrass]
You now have access to 3 categories :
• Bluegrass PDFs (200 song files)
• Contemporary PDFs (loads more files)
• Nashville PDFs (TAB using the Nashville number system)