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Gordon's FluteFling at TribePorty
Join Gordon Turnbull in a relaxed and supportive setting to learn and develop traditional techniques while building up a repertoire from Scotland, Ireland and beyond.
Gordon has been running FluteFling traditional flute and whistle classes and workshops in Edinburgh for almost 20 years, drawing on his extensive experience as a teacher and as a musician performing at concerts, ceilidhs, festivals and sessions in Scotland, Ireland and across Europe.
FluteFling Saturday half-day workshops are held every month at Tribe Porty in Portobello, Edinburgh. Combining elements of the popular fortnightly classes and the annual Scottish Flute Day in a new format, flute and whistle players will find plenty of inspiration and ideas to further develop their music.
Dates and technical focus
- Saturday 8th October: including improving flow, expression, tone and breathing
- Saturday 19th November: including pulse, rhythm, variations and improvisation
- Saturday 17th December: including voices, tone, harmony, listening, festive tunes
- Venue: Tribe Porty, 19 Windsor Place, Portobello EH15 2AJ
- Time: 1pm – 4pm
Workshop prices: (including tea and coffee)
- Workshop Standard price: £22.50/ Concession: £17.50
- All 3 workshops Standard price: £60/ Concession: £45
You can enrol for the October, November and December workshops individually or for all three at a special rate.
The workshops are suitable for adults already playing tin whistles and low whistles in D or wooden simple system (Irish) and modern classical (Boehm) flutes. Musicians returning to the instrument are most welcome. If in doubt, please contact Gordon. To get an idea of what we might cover, check out the blog archive and the Resources section.
Gordon’s traditional music classes and workshops evolved out of The Flow, his website on Irish flute and whistle playing. He has also taught with Scots Music Group, Fèisean nan Gàidheal, The Royal Conservertoire of Scotland’s outreach programme in traditional music and at the Border Gaitherin’.
He led creative music classes for P1s and traditional whistle classes with the Portobello Music School. Gordon continues to lead creative music workshops with storytelling in schools and you can find out about these activities on The Flow Music Workshops. A Primary School teacher, he has been teaching music in West Lothian special schools since 2011.
Gordon has been published in the British Flute Society’s journal FLUTE and in Music Education UK.
The main focus for the workshops will be on developing technique while exploring traditional tunes, which can change as things arise. Aspects of ornamentation and tuning challenges will also be covered while exploring traditional tunes.
Teaching is by ear, but sheet music and recordings will be provided. Different experience levels will be accommodated within the workshop.
There will be a short break for tea and coffee during the workshop, which is included in the price.
Please note that this workshop is for adults. However, those under 18 may be considered if accompanied by an adult. Please contact Gordon if considering this.
Photos © Ros Gasson
– See more at: https://tribeporty.org/gordons-flute-fling-at-tribeporty/#sthash.u3AmoGvq.y5JRvf5A.dpuf
Mothertime Sadness
Have you ever heard the song Summertime Sadness? Now I know I’m late to the party, but I only just heard it for the first time the other day. It got me thinking about the fact that summertime is meant to be this fun, happy time and this wistful song is all about sadness. And the thing is that summertime CAN be full of sadness, of longing, of unfulfilled dreams, but it can be hard to express that because culturally it seems ‘wrong’.
There is a great term for how you feel and how you believe you should feel when you are out of whack… It’s called cognitive dissonance. If you don’t feel or behave the way you think you ‘should’ then that causes a kind of anxiety, or cognitive dissonance, which we often tend to try and avoid or reduce.
Many people experience cognitive dissonance when they have a baby. If you don’t ‘fall in love’ with your baby immediately, you worry that there is something wrong. This is especially true if you have had fertility issues. However research shows that over 1/3 of mothers have difficulty bonding with their babies immediately, so it’s actually pretty normal.
There are so many expectations about how you should feel as a mother – grateful, joyful, proud, empowered, nourishing, glowing, fulfilled… and so when you don’t feel like that it can be hard not to believe that something is wrong. And when you don’t check out these feelings with others but keep pretending that you feel the way you think you ‘should’ then the anxiety can become even more overwhelming. It can begin to feel as though something is wrong with YOU.
‘Is this normal?’ is a question that mothers ask their health visitors and GPs and other mothers about their baby’s health. But it’s a question that we’re often too scared to ask about our feelings. “Is it normal to be scared I’ll be too selfish to be a good Mum?” “Is it normal to think that my newborn baby looks pretty ugly?” “Is it normal to be angry with the hospital where I had an emergency section, even though my baby and I are safe?” “Is it normal to occasionally wish I hadn’t become a mother, when I had tried for so long?” “Is it normal to sometimes wish that people would just give me some space with my baby, rather than coming around all the time?”
These are all normal, and if they’re causing you anxiety then you might want to talk to someone. Finding the right person is important, as you don’t want to speak to someone who also thinks that something is ‘wrong’ if you’re not feeling all the ‘right’ things, but when you do find the right person it can be an immense relief. Our Mother Kind group, led by Sarah Wheatley, is a great place for this kind of chat, and if you’d like to know more, check out the calendar here.
Friends and Journeys
I was recently tagged in a tweet from Cultured Mongrel Dance about what my #RelationResolution for #MHAW16. For those of you who are just about to google the acronym, that stands for Mental Health Awareness Week. My video tweet back was about enjoying the commutes and journeys to places. I was mostly thinking about getting to Tribe and how I feel like I am rushing everywhere and am missing the spaces in between. For me, the time to myself in a present and relaxed state helps me the most when it comes to supporting and keeping good relationships. When I move from one thing to another or one task to another, I find my self winding up like a piece of string-which eventually has no give left. And considering, relationships are what make everything worth it for me; it is important to pay attention to the elasticity of that string. With the current times wedging divisions between people, I have been thinking about how important relationships are even more. How can we find ways to connect better? Here is something which made sense for me.
Present to Life, Moment by Moment — Jon Kabat-Zinn
We are matter, kindred with ocean and tree and sky. We are flesh and blood and bone. Mind and spirit are as physical as they are mental. The line we’d drawn between them was whimsy, born of the limits of our understanding.
Emotions and memories, from despair to gladness, root in our bodies. Our brains lay physical pathways and lay bodily direction. Our bodies are longing and joy and fear and a lifelong desire to be safe and loved, incarnate.
To listen or read more, go here.
One thing that has really helped me enjoy my journeys more is my new scooter! Tribers have also followed the scooting trend and it makes me smile every time I see one around Porty. So the scooter gets a 10 out of 10 for journeys and friends. Scoot on.
Let's Play!
For me, yoga is play. It makes me forget about commitments and work. It adds joy to my life, relieves stress, connects me to others yogis, and I feel refreshed, more productive and balanced.
In our busy, hectic and modern lives, many of us focus too much on work and commitments and hardly ever make time for pure fun. At some point between childhood and adulthood, most of us stop playing. When we carve out leisure time, we end up in front of a screen, social media, or the TV, but we don’t actually engage in rejuvenating play like we did when we were young.
Just because we are adults, doesn’t mean we have to take ourselves so seriously and make life all about work. We all need to play!
When I go to a yoga class, I feel I connect with my inner child. Do you remember doing handstands and cartwheels as a child? Challenging yourself to balancing acts, playing with your strength and being upside down?
Children do it because it comes naturally to them. And it’s good for them. It helps the brain, stimulates balancing mechanisms and helps learning. It’s all really beneficial for us adults, too!
So – imagine yourself to be as solid as a tree or a mountain, or envisioning your body to move like an eagle, a cow or a dog, connecting yourself to nature by doing sun salutations or sheltering in child pose; it all helps finding the lightness of being that we were all so familiar with when we were a child.
At Tribe Porty, we are all about this healthy work/play balance, about making good things happen, and living the good vibes. To make sure we play enough we are introducing new lunchtime yoga classes.
Come play with us. Whether you are an advanced Yogi or looking to start your yoga journey, let TribePorty be your doorway to yoga!
Monday – 12.30pm Vinayasa Yoga with Rebecca Pitkin
Tuesday – 12.30pm Kundalini Yoga with Sharon Jacobson
6.15 pm Vinyasa Yoga with Sarah @Yogabeet
Thursday – 12.30pm Vinayasa Yoga with Rebecca Pitkin
Saturday – 16.30pm Beginners Vinyasa Yoga with Charlotte Gardiner (starting 30th July)
Special charity event on the 17th July 10.30am – Donation-based yoga session in aid of Street Child Nepal with Rebecca Pitkin: 108 Sun Salutations.
About Vinyasa Yoga
Vinyasa yoga is a dynamic practice where held yoga postures and transitions flow together to create a fluid feel. There is a focus on synchronising breath and movement, with students moving through pose groups built around sequences such as the Sun Salutations and their variations.
At Tribe Porty, our Vinyasa classes are energetic and upbeat. We focus on building towards key poses or pose groups, with the long-term aim of building strength, flexibility and balance. In these classes, expect to break a sweat while developing a greater awareness of your body, its edges, and component parts.
About Kundalini Yoga
Wake up. Heal. Evolve.
For more than 40 years, Kundalini Yoga has been on the leading edge of therapeutic yoga. Kundalini Yoga is one of the most comprehensive, effective, safe and healthy forms of yoga.
Kundalini Yoga can produce immediate results as you travel on your path to consciousness. It balances the glandular system, strengthens the nervous system, expands the lung capacity, and purifies the bloodstream. It brings balance to the body, mind and soul. It trains your mind to think positively and be in control of your thoughts and attitudes. It builds your inner strength and self- awareness to its maximum, assisting you in reaching your highest potential.
Our Teachers
About Sarah @Yogabeet
Sarah is passionate about well-being, mindful movement and real food.
She leads Vinyasa yoga classes, food and yoga workshops …aimed at inspiring people to find balance and wellbeing with ease.
Her yoga classes are dynamic and energising with focus on the individual, finding space on and off the mat and most of all enjoying the moment. Sarah was born in Malaysia and grew up in Brazil, after a short spell on the Isle of Lewis. Since leaving school she has lived in Edinburgh.
About Rebecca
Rebecca has been practicing yoga since 2002, and teaching since 2014. She practices a variety of styles, including Ashtanga, Hot Yoga, and Yin Yoga, and teaches Vinyasa Yoga.
Her key teachers are Aki Omori, Jeff Phenix and Jason Crandell, whose ‘Power + Precision + Mindfulness’ approach strongly influences her teaching style.
About Sharon
My background includes writing, directing, producing, dramaturgy, creative Camp; project development for theatre and film, designing and facilitating experiential group processes – and a lot of challenging life experiences.
I believe that connecting with people from a place of intuitive knowing – that unique composite of wisdom gained through the challenges, conflicts, lessons and insights of lived experience – is the most potent and authentic form of transmission.
My own healing journey has shown me that Kundalini Yoga is a powerful tool for raising awareness and clearing negative subconscious patterns in the form of limiting beliefs and emotional conditioning that keep us on the merry-go- round of fear, pain and lack of self-acceptance. By committing to the process of transformation we can heal the wounds of the past, uncover our gifts and offer them in service to others as we come to align with who we really are – the truth beyond the ego.
About Charlotte
I practice for the awareness it brings to mind and body – which allows me to recognise what I need to progress, strengthen or heal. Every body (and mind) is different but I think yoga is a great tool for almost everyone who tries it, whether you just want to stretch out tight hamstrings, want it to be a ‘moving meditation’ or want to gain strength and flexibility in body or mind.
Choreography of Space, People & Myself
At North Carolina School of the Arts, my least favourite class as a modern dancer major was choreography. I had trained in ballet for far longer than contemporary dance and was used to be told what to do- no improvisation allowed and perfection was the aim.
When we were asked to create new movements as well as put them into new choreography, I was lost. The most I could imagine was replicating some modern choreography that I learned at Alvin Ailey one summer into almost all of any new choreography I was asked to design. It was hugely frustrating to be asked to do something without being given the tools to learn how to. I didn’t know that the key to choreography was drawing from what made me uniquely me, or movements which were created from feelings, thoughts and visual inspirations which came from my own experiences.
Recently I have been challenged a bit by some of the complexities which communities quite often have and Jo said to me, ‘Tribe is your art’.
This made a few things fall into place for me. Designing the space and enjoying being creative with the look and feel of Tribe was easy. What is hard is bringing the community with me yet stay true to my art. At times, I questioned my own wants for Tribe being the same as the people who use Tribe.
I have decided to view it more like a choreographer.
How can I make the most of the stage, the dancers, the set and the audience? What does each dancer bring to the overall performance and how can I make my own vision for the piece be realised?
Physical Health Personal Training at Tribe
Situated in the fabulous White Hall at Tribe Porty, Physical Health Personal Training (PHPT) offers expert Pilates training for all levels of fitness and abilities. Here you will find our very own Pilates Studio, complete with the latest Joseph Pilates equipment designed to work every muscle in your body through a proven method of strength and resistance techniques. Each session lasts 1 hour and is available on a 1:1, 2:1 or 3:1 basis with our professional Pilates teacher, Sabrina Severo.
If group sessions are more your thing then we run 3 Mat Fitness Pilates Classes each week. These sessions are aimed at strengthening your core and include the varied use of Dyna Bands, Balance Discs and Pilates Rings. We can’t promise that it will be easy, but we can promise that it’s worth it!
We also offer a unique Mother & Baby class every Monday at 10:30am. While one of the aims of this class is to help you regain your pre pregnancy figure, strengthen your core and pelvic floor, the bigger goal is to help new mums back into a routine after child birth and building their confidence along the way. This small class provides a lovely warm environment for you to meet other new mums in Porty, spend some quality time bonding with your baby, and giving you a workout too! It’s a win win!
In addition, we also run our Conquer Gravity class every Monday at 7:30pm. Designed using the principles of Pilates, Callisthenics and Suspension Training to develop inner core, functional strength and improve flexibility, this class with take your Pilates to a whole new level. Conquer Gravity classes will enable you to master your body, making you stronger and more confident in every facet of your life, physically and mentally.
Physical Health Personal Training offers a holistic lifestyle training method including personal fitness training, injury recovery and prevention, Pilates and nutrition guidance – everything is designed to help you achieve your personal goals.
Whether your goals are to lose weight, change your body shape, improve your strength, recover from injury, keep healthy Pre or Post pregnancy, cope with life’s stresses or just generally feel more energized and alive, PHPT will work with you along the way.
For further information, email sabrina@phpt.co.uk or call 07922 202 968.”
LIGHTCRAFT BELMONTE
“ Her silent sonata” (2015) is large neon thread embroidery piece inspired by marks on Belmonte’s façade in partnership “His silent dance” (2015) is an elegant bespoke furniture piece, which a built-in UV lamp was added. The piece carries an embroidery detail of one of the Azulejos (traditional Portuguese tiles) in the room representing music players in the field. The viewer is invited into little play trying to find the tile in this silent puzzle.
Mother Kind at Tribe Porty
The Mother Kind group has grown in a really gentle way, and has provided a welcoming space for mums in the early stages. A lot of the mothers have been relieved to find that they are not the only ones to feel the way they do and there has been a lot of laughter along the way. There has been no fixed agenda, although we’ve talked about topics ranging from tricky relationships, to coping with holidays, to how to cope when your baby isn’t an ‘easy’ baby. There’s space for more taboo topics as well as to enjoy the lighter side of parenthood.
The group is on a drop in basis and so far we’ve regularly had 2-3 people each time. Babies’ timetables are variable things and don’t always allow mothers to get along each week, so it would be lovely to see the group grow a bit more. Please do spread the word with any local mothers you know.
And if cake is your thing, the homebaking has gone down a treat, although there’s a bit more pressure now that we have a food blogger in our midst! The group aims to be nourishing in more ways than one…
Check out the Tribe Porty events calendar for more info on events.
2016: The Year of the Tribe
We get the opportunity to work with some amazing folks over here at Tribe Porty. Eugenia was in the audience of our first ever TEDxPortobello and recently blogged about some of her amazing upcoming projects at Tribe. We are so glad to support such great people like her. You can read the full blog post and check out her website here.
– – –
Last year I met a swell woman by the name of Johanna. I could tell you all the amazing things she does, but there are simply too many things to list here in this wee post – so if you’re inclined, see her stuff at Cycle-Hack, Penny in Yo’Pants or via @JoHoltan.
Anyhoo, through Jo I was introduced to another totally awesome lady by the name of Dani Trudeau. Together they have been busy laying the foundations for a community and place called Tribe Porty:
Tribe Porty is a place to make good things happen-a connectivity hub which promotes a healthy and happy community.
I had good fortune of discovering the wonder of Tribe Porty for the first time in May 2015, when they hosted the first ever TEDx Portobello (watch out for info on the 2016 event, coming soon). There I witnessed enthusiasm that was like a contagion. Dani, Jo, Steve Earl and the team were so full-hearted and earnest in their support and encouragement of the local Portobello community, and those surrounding it, you couldn’t help but be inspired. My imagination was captured in that day and I wanted to know more!
The Tribe Porty story starts when Dani, having been a dancer, and educator and later working in the social enterprise sector, was inspired by it’s the community minded values and grass roots affects of social entrepreneurism. A vision began bubbling and she dreamt of creating a place where good people could work together not only for their own growth and enjoyment, but for the common good too. You can get more full-hearted than that! (Find our more by watching Dani’s Melting Pot Q&A session here).
So fast forward to 2016 and the seeds of inspiration planted way back at Tribe Porty’s TEDx Portobello in May 2015 have now met with intention, encouragement and commitment. I’m committing to several creative actions this year and the first of those is a Tribe Porty Creative Circle in the tradition of Julia Camerons’ The Artist’s Way.
PS. I’m super excited and hope you can join me.
Why community development?
There is increasing evidence that bringing people together is good for their health. In addition, working with communities in such a way that their strengths are emphasised, their experience is recognised and their views and outlook is respected, leads to improved services, better health outcomes and maybe less cost.
There has long been good evidence that social networks offer significant benefits for all of us. Being linked to other people seems to confer not only better health but also emotional and economic outcomes.
Community development is one key way of developing and supporting social networks.
The NHS is keen to make Patient & Public Involvement effective across the service. Although the NHS is getting better at listening to what local people are saying to us, we often need support with responding to those recommendations. Community development can become a key approach to participatory democracy.
Community development is one key way of supporting local people in getting their voices heard.
It appears that health inequalities in a rich economy are mediated not only through poverty, but also through isolation and a profound feeling of powerlessness.
Community development is a key way of reducing isolation and supporting empowerment.
Health improvement through engagement and self-care is essential to the functioning of the NHS, as Wanless made clear. Working closely on a long-term, systematic basis with communities is essential to make this a reality.
Community development is a powerful technique for community engagement for health.
Community development is increasingly seen as a coherent response to many key problems both in the NHS and in local authorities. Indeed, local authorities have seen support and development of social networks and Community development as a key part of their procedures.
More from the Socialist Health Association here.
…Communities, which included the greatest number of the most sympathetic members, would flourish best…
Great talk about sympathy in communities and why we care.
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