Mandolin at Willie Clancy Week & Feakle Festival

[4 Course Meal]

Have any mandolin players participated in a workshop at either the Willie Clancy Week or the Feakle Festival? I assume you would be included in the banjo workshop since there isn't one for mandolin. I am trying to decide between these two festivals for this summer.

Any input or insight would be greatly appreciated.

Tim

[Jill McAuley]

I've done a tenor banjo workshop at the Feakle Festival, taught by Kieran Hanrahan. The Feakle Fest will be less hectic than the Willy Clancy Week due to it's smaller scale. I thoroughly it meself. If it was me I'd make my decision based on who is teaching the workshop.

[whistler]

I too have taken my mandolin to a banjo workshop with Kieran Hanrahan at Feakle (2002, I think. Perhaps we were there at the same time, Jill ;-) ). I've also been to banjo classes (as a mandolin player) at Drumshanbo and Tubbercurry. Just how much you get out of it will depend somewhat on the teacher (i.e. whether or not they play the mandolin or are interested in it), on what level you are at (at a basic level, much of the technique is common to mandolin and banjo but at a more advanced level, the mandolin deserves more instrument-specific attention and you might miss out on that in a class dominated by banjos) and on class size (in a smaller class, you are more likely to get individual attention as a non-banjo player). But, if nothing else, it will give you new repertoire and there is not much in tenor banjo technique that does not transfer well to the mandolin.