Tag Archives: Learn Hurdy-gurdy

13th Annual Indiana Hurdy Gurdy Workshop

September 3-7, 2025

The 13th Annual Indiana Hurdy-Gurdy Workshop is happening again this year at the beautiful Waycross Camp and Conference Center in scenic Brown County, Indiana! Learning and playing for amateurs to professionals will take place alongside other enthusiasts in a relaxed atmosphere with renowned teachers and performers. This is an intensive workshop aimed at developing and improving music skills and technique, and providing the knowledge you will need to successfully maintain and play your Hurdy Gurdy now and into the future. We are proud to partner with the nonprofit Bloomington Early Music to bring you the workshop.

Registration is now open! To register, please click here.

Questions? Contact us at hurdygurdyworkshop@gmail.com

If you can’t make it to the festival, why not check out The Secret World of the Hurdy-Gurdy Field Notes On Playing. It’s an opportunity to engage with the minds of your peers and mentors. The book features writing and interviews with over 30 highly respected international players, including names you’ll undoubtedly recognise: Bruno Andersen, Patrick Bouffard, Nicolas Boulerice, Quentin Budworth, Gilles Chabenat, Germán Díaz, Oscar Fernandez, Matthias Loibner, Michalina Malisz, Isabelle Pignol, Benoît Roblin, Steve Tyler, Pablo Caamiña Ursusson, Mary Vanhoozer, and many more. This line-up promises a rich and varied exploration of the instrument.

The Secret Life of the Hurdy-Gurdy

Learn the hurdy-gurdy in 4 days

I had the privilege of being able to teach a musician from the Far East who has never touched a hurdy-gurdy before how to play the hurdy-gurdy, to play tunes and set-up the instrument for optimal play.

This is a huge learning curve and I can report that my student has done very well and also that they are in possession of a very fine instrument made by Neil Brook without the hassle of 1-6 year wait for a new professional instrument.

What did we look at:

Good posture, ergonomics, safe practice.

Playing in a relaxed and attentive way with focus and purpose.

What did we study well all the trompette coups relating to the following time signatures:

2/2

3/4

6/8

12/8

2/4

4/4

Some simple and more complicated tunes

Major and Minor Keys and Modes for G/C instrument

History of the instrument.

Different approaches to fingering on the keyboard

Youtube and Spotify viewing and listening lists.

Identifying, next steps, things to work on and develop over the next few months.

Five hours a day for four days is an intense learning experience and regular cups of tea, biscuits and meals out really helped to keep energy and attention high.

If this sounds like something that is of interest to you email me at: quentinbudworth@yahoo.com

‘I registered a 4-day intensive course from Quentin and it’s super comprehensive! The course started with history, developments and innovations, then recent community moves, famous hurdy-gurdy players, CDs and concerts – it’s not a small world and it keeps on evolving!

Then getting to know the instrument – different strings, the chien, the crank and most excitingly, how it buzzes and works with the rhythm! Then I started to learn the notes, basic music theory, fingering, the rhythms on cranking moves – from beginning to picotage… and that’s how the beat got started! It’s gonna be an exciting journey ahead!‘
J W.

Beginner friendly tunes for D/G Hurdy-Gurdy with Paul Sherwood and Quentin Budworth

During the Lockdown of 2020 Paul Sherwood and I have led classes for D/G hurdy-gurdy players via Zoom and had a lot of fun doing them. Some players described it as the thing that they looked forward to the most during the week. Here are the tunes for you to download and a link to the Youtube playlist Lockdown-tunes All

If you have any questions about the tunes you can contact quentinbudworth@yahoo.com