About Nelligan School of Traditional Music

Online and Safe Distance, Covered Outdoor Music Lessons For All Ages with Moira Nelligan

Aug-Dec ‘20 SESSION

Fiddle Violin Keyboard Accordion Recorder Ukulele Singing Percussion. Vast experience with kids 2to 92! Organic music learning,

•Stress Free
•Pressure Free
•Learn Music as Effortlessly as Language
•Experience based
•Joy based

Learn how to play by ear because it engages musical instincts in a way that most conventional lessons don’t. In the same way the kids are allowed to mimic, approximate, experiment, babble and develop fluency so effortlessly in their native language before they are expected to read and write, the Music as Language movement promotes the order of gaining musical fluency before music notation.

My music lessons are not focused on standardized, easily measurable achievements and formal performance. I believe what is more important to the blossoming musician is the freedom to experiment, explore, and to set one’s own goals and pace in the creative process.

Learn Roots Music for the joy and beauty of ancestral music and because it is a beautiful foundation for any music journey!

I bring a large repertoire of old tunes and songs to my students from the British Isles and Appalachian traditions and I always encourage students to explore their own family’s cultural music or any they find fascinating. I encourage students to follow their passion, sharpen their listening skills, and organize their musical thinking so that they can step into their own power to teach themselves. I help them understand that with ear skills they can approach any instrument and teach themselves how to play it, if they want to. It is not a magic trick: people who do that have developed the skill of playing by ear and organized their musical thinking.

There are music lessons that also promote the more natural way of learning often called “Music as Language”, but they are geared more to rock ‘n’ roll, plugging in, formal performance. Roots music, aka traditional music is, at its core, music for the home to be shared with friends and family: unplugged intimate, personal. It is the music whose main purpose is to enrich the the lives of the musicians and their friends and family. I think this is a much better musical foundation.

The following small group lessons and Waller’s music event are on hold during the pandemic.

One-on-one lessons/Small group lessons available

Students also have an opportunity to listen to and participate in “Wednesdays at Waller’s in Decatur with Moira and Friends” community roots music musical happy hour 6-7:30 www.wallerscoffeeshop.com