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Developing Your Irish Bouzouki Playing

Monday 5 May 4pm — Friday 9 May 10am, 2025

To make a booking enquiry please complete the form below. We will contact you to confirm availability and complete your booking.

Pricing

This course is currently sold out. We do sometimes get cancellations - if you would like to be added to the waiting list, please fill in an enquiry form and tick the 'Waiting List' box.

Full board per person (tuition, activities, all meals & accommodation):

£460 – single occupancy ensuite room/cabin
£420 – sharing an ensuite room/cabin
£420 – single occupancy non-ensuite room
£380 – sharing non-ensuite room

Camping per person (tuition, activities, all meals):

£275

Non Resident (tuition, activities, all meals except breakfast):

£255

Get a closer look at the accommodation options here.

This course is currently sold out. We do sometimes get cancellations – if you would like to be added to the waiting list, please fill in an enquiry form and tick the ‘Waiting List’ box.

Jon Doran returns to help you make progress with your overall ability on the Irish bouzouki, primarily as an accompanist, but also as a tune player. During the course you will explore different strumming and picking patterns in common time signatures and transfer those skills to work with your melodic playing. You will work on developing your skills in harmony and improvisation and explore how you can apply them to create a countermelodic accompaniment for tunes and songs.

Jon will introduce or reintroduce you to the skills required to adapt your tune playing to allow for self-accompaniment, and will be adding to your accompanist’s toolbelt by sharing his wealth of playing and accompanying experience.

Who is is for?

This course is primarily aimed at players of the Irish Bouzouki (tuned to GDAD), but tenor guitarists who play with the same tuning would also be welcome.

You should be an intermediate level player who doesn’t need to be able to read music, but should be comfortable playing by ear. You will be building on your existing skills, so this isn’t a course for beginners. Some music will be sent out in advance and you will need to put in some work before the course starts so that you’re prepared to get the most out of Jon’s teaching.

The Team

Jon Doran is a Newcastle-based folk singer and multi-instrumentalist from Gloucestershire. He was a 2019 finalist on BBC Radio 2’s Young Folk Awards and a recent winner of Bromyard Folk Festival’s ‘Future of Folk’ competition.

Jon’s sensitive approach to arranging and performing traditional songs on guitar and Irish bouzouki is often said to draw a likeness with revivalists Nic Jones and Andy Irvine. He has a powerful and intricate accompaniment style but never fails to place the narrative at the forefront of his arrangements. His stories focus on all human experience throughout history, whether that be humorous tales, or woeful retellings of tragic events, Jon never fails to capture the beauty and excitement that lies within traditional music.

Although Jon’s roots lie within the English folk tradition, after a year of studying Norwegian fiddle technique at Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge and six years as one half of the Anglo-Scottish duo, Janice Burns and Jon Doran, Scandinavian and Scottish influences now enrich his playing and teaching.