NEW COURSE with Ale Carr!

Published on December 25th, 2020

Ale has recorded several hours of tunes and instructional lessons for The Folk Music Academy focusing on melody playing with a plucked instrument. He presents a detailed deconstruction of his style of playing nordic traditional tunes on the cittern, in an attempt to show what he has discovered during his journey up to now.

Ale is giving away all his secrets and covers topics like "Ergonomics", "Gear & Tuning", "Tone", "Pick vs. Bow" etc., and also teaches several great tunes: a Hambo, a Waltz, several Polskas, and even a Springleik!

"This is an introduction to the style, you will learn to play Nordic traditional music on this instrument".

Hailing from the Skåne region in southern Sweden, Ale Carr was raised in a family of folk musicians, performing with the family band his whole life. This created a strong foundation for his musicianship. Also a prominent fiddler, he became a Riksspelman at the age of 19. In his early teenage years, determined to challenge and develop the traditional music that he loved, he started composing and to broaden his musical spectrum. Influenced by his father’s Danish heritage, Ale found his way into Denmark’s folk music scene and together with Nikolaj Busk and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen founded the band Dreamers’ Circus in 2009, as well as joining the Danish band Basco in 2010. Other collaborations include duos with Esko Järvelä and Bjarke Falgren, and through his various projects, he has performed his music with symphony orchestras, big bands, choirs, and chamber ensembles like the Danish String Quartet. Ale now performs on stages all over the world as diverse as Sydney Opera House, Roskilde Festival, Washington Performing Arts, and Hayao Miyazaki’s personal atelier in Japan. He has been awarded 10 Danish Music Awards, including Artist of the Year and Composer of the Year. 

Ale particularly enjoys teaching - as he believes the essence of tradition is based on sharing experiences and one’s cultural inheritance. Ale has wide experience in delivering workshops and music classes at festivals and concerts internationally and has been teaching at the Malmö Academy of Music since 2011, as well as being a guest teacher at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg among others.

We are delighted to have Ale start this chapter on the Academy, the first teacher on a plucked instrument. There will be many more to come and they will cover other areas as chords, accompaniment, and tunings on guitar, mandolin, and other instruments.

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