The Maniac’s Return – improving dull tunes!

Name: The Maniac’s Return – improving dull tunes!
Start: 2025-09-12T16:00:00+01:00
End: 2025-09-14T16:00:00+01:00

Friday 12 Sep 4pm — Sunday 14 Sep 4pm, 2025

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Accordion player Paul Hutchinson and fiddle player John Dipper playing folk music

Pricing

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

£330 – single occupancy ensuite room/cabin
£285 – sharing an ensuite room/cabin
£285 – single occupancy non-ensuite room (limited availability)
£225 – sharing non-ensuite room

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

£215

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

£200

Get a closer look at the accommodation options here.

Have you ever browsed through a tune book hoping to add your repertoire with some lesser known tunes only to experience disappointment when you find them all to be either exceedingly dull, or just not very good? This was certainly Paul Hutchinson’s experience until three very rare books came into his possession, packed with musical gems…

The discovery has led Paul to put together a tunebook and CD, plus a series of ‘The Maniac’ courses to help musicians delve into the 60 tunes contained in these books: ‘12 Fashionable Country Dances for the Year 1800’, ‘24 Country Dances for the Year 1796’ and ‘Cahusac’s Annual Collection of 24 Favourite Country Dances for the Year 1800’, and explore how to bring new life to tired tunes.

Once again, Paul will be joined by John Dipper, who shares his love of reworking and revitalising old, forgotten tunes.

If you would like to learn some new material for country dances, this weekend course will be a good opportunity to do so. If you’ve been to one of Paul’s earlier ‘Maniac’ Weeks be assured you’ll be looking at different material this time.

Who is it for?

This course is for players of all instruments and will be aimed at intermediate level and above. You will need to be able to read music, and some confident sight reading will be required.

The Tutors

Paul Hutchinson studied piano and church organ before being persuaded at the age of 17 to take up the accordion and form a ceilidh band. Since then he’s become one of the best-known and in demand players on the folk scene – in the UK and beyond – with trio Hoover the Dog, Pagoda Project (with Karen Wimhurst), and PLF. Paul is a regular tutor and musician at Halsway Manor.

A respected and established performer, composer, teacher and instrument maker, John Dipper grew up steeped in the traditions of Southern England. His unique playing style and compositions convey a deep understanding and passion for indigenous culture. Three of the albums John recently recorded and performed on have been in The Times Top 10 Folk/Roots albums of the year. Playing the Viola d’Amore tuned to his own unique tuning, John composes and also rewrites melodies from manuscripts, breathing new life into tunes that have been overlooked and uncelebrated for too long.

Unless otherwise specified, our midweek courses check-in from 4pm on a Monday and check out by 10am on Friday, and our weekend courses check in from 4pm on a Friday and depart on Sunday by 4pm. Dinner on the first night is usually at 6.30pm, and in general, no formal teaching or introductory sessions take place until after this.

Enjoy the area, bring a friend, share a room, & save money

You can book on a course at Halsway and bring a friend who can explore the area while using Halsway as a base for meals and accommodation. Halsway Manor is in the Quantock Hills (England’s first designated National Landscape (formally AONB). We’re just minutes away from the West Somerset Railway (Britain's longest steam railway), a short drive or bus ride from Somerset’s Jurassic coast (ideal for fossil hunting), and surrounded by dramatic scenery and changing landscapes, from the wild hills of Exmoor to the flat expanse of the Somerset Levels.