![\"\"](\"http:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/files\/2017\/05\/Nigel-Gathering-LD5969-300x200.jpg\")
\u201cA Happy accident\u201d is how Nigel Gatherer describes the start of his career in music. He grew up in a musical house in Edinburgh- his two older brothers were both guitarists. He recalls “As a child I\u2019d sneak in to of their bedrooms to have a shot on the mandolin when they were out at night”. <\/p>\n
He continues, “It became a passion at a young age, I\u2019d play for hours on end in my room, but it was never serious, I thought I was completely wasting my time!\u201d Leaving school, he moved to Dundee for art college. \u201cUpon graduating I tried to give up music and get a proper job, and of course that didn\u2019t work out\u201d. <\/p>\n
Moving back to Edinburgh, Nigel was playing informally in sessions and such, when the Scots Music Group got in touch, asking him to teach a mandolin class. His reaction: \u201cNo way, I could never do that\u201d. But they persisted, and eventually he relented and agreed. <\/p>\n
Taking this class, and publishing a book of folksongs that he\u2019d collected during his student years in Dundee was the start of two paths that Nigel has followed ever since. <\/p>\n
When he started teaching with the Scots music group, \u201csomething in me awoke\u201d he says. \u201cI just loved it. The teaching just grew and grew while everything else shrunk, until it became the main thing I was doing\u201d. Of course this wasn\u2019t the only thing though, he\u2019s continued to publish books and learning resources of Scottish music, building up an amazing catalogue. <\/p>\n
With his classes for the Scots Music Group in Edinburgh growing and growing, Glasgow Fiddle Workshop got in touch. It hadn\u2019t long started, and they were looking for the first time to expand beyond solely offering fiddle tuition. With his newly-found passion for teaching, Nigel was there.<\/p>\n
Now, some years later, the Glasgow Fiddle Workshop has celebrated its 25th anniversary, and has grown far beyond the size it was when Nigel joined, offering classes to adults and children, from across the ability spectrum, in a range of instruments. Now the lead tutor, he remains a driving force behind its success: It\u2019s emphasis on learning by ear, welcoming of beginners, minimising barriers to participation, employing high quality tutors, and a real community focus, particularly for adult learners. <\/p>\n
He says: \u201cPeople coming to the music is a bit like them discovering an oasis in the middle of a desert. I see it all the time, people whose lives who have changed from coming to the Glasgow Fiddle Workshop and Scots music group. Its not just the music but also the social side of it. People look forward to seeing the tutors and their fellow classmates and friends. I think that’s mainly why we\u2019re still here, we\u2019ve managed to turn so many people on to music. It happens all the time little groups forming and doing their own thing. Its like a contagion but in a good way”. <\/p>\n
The big thing is to make sure that the music is fun: \u201cI encounter a lot of retired people who\u2019ve been put of music when they were young. Now with the connections they make, often after coming to the music again later in life, they are saying \u201cI don\u2019t know how I had time to work!\u201d There\u2019s no doubt that life wouldn\u2019t be the same for these participants had Nigel managed to give up on music and get a \u201cproper job!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cA Happy accident\u201d is how Nigel Gatherer describes the start of his career in music. He grew up in a musical house in Edinburgh- his two older brothers were both guitarists. He recalls “As a child I\u2019d sneak in to of their bedrooms to have a shot on the mandolin when they were out at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2750,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-2736","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2736"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2756,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2736\/revisions\/2756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}