Tutors
Meet the Fyne Fiddles Team
Amy Geddes
Amy is a teacher with huge experience and an equally great passion for it. She has worked in mainstream education as an instrumental tutor, as a teacher trainer in schools, nurseries & ASN and in countless community based projects. Amy is also a performer and writer. She is able to draw on all this experience in her Fyne Fiddles workshops to create a comfortable learning space; to inspire aspiring musicians, helping them to achieve what they might previously have thought unachievable.
Her teaching is full of a special energy that she brings into every session. Amy has a deep understanding of the barriers people encounter - the musical mountain they are trying to climb. She possesses an innate ability to make a group gel, yet at the same time is also able to support each individual within that group. It’s obvious that she cares passionately about what she does.
Amy says “I love teaching people of all ages, musical abilities and experiences - I am really interested in people and what makes them want to play music. What challenges or barriers is someone experiencing? How can I help them to make the sound they want, or to find the confidence to make that sound become a reality? Teaching brings me joy & laughter, occasional tears and once in a blue moon a bit of a headache. But the difficult days are 100% offset by the good ones.”
Donald Knox
Donald Knox has been playing guitar for forty years and has been a full time musician since 2005, concentrating on guitar teaching, playing and repair as well as writing and transcribing music.
Donald has been resident guitarist, transcriber and arranger at Riddell Fiddles since 2006, working closely with Amy as well as Catriona Macdonald and Iain Fraser. He has also taught at the Merlin Academy of Traditional Music in Melrose since its inception in 2011 and has led guitar workshops at many Borders-based festivals.
He plays guitar and sings in several bands including The Matt Seattle Band and Carlenjig. Donald lives in the Scottish Borders with his wife, cat, three dogs and a lot of bees.
Together Amy and Donald founded the annual Fyne Fiddles Summer School in 2014, which has provided the inspiration and material for Fyne Fiddles Volume 1.
Sarah Northcott
Amongst her many talents Sarah is a highly skilled and experienced music teacher - last December we asked her to join our Fyne Fiddles tutoring team. After she edited and proof read Fyne Fiddles Volume One what else were we to do? She did such an amazing job that we had to grab her and keep her!
Sarah is a gentle & supportive tutor working regularly with both fiddle and mixed instrument groups. She will lead some slower beginners workshops at Ardkinglas this summer, meaning there is always a space for you to go if you like to work at a slower pace or if you are nearing brain overload in the main workshop.
As well as tutoring, editing and dog walking her beloved Freddy, Sarah is the mastermind behind the Scots Music Group Inspire Project. Inspire pairs musicians and Edinburgh organisations who work with adults facing extraordinary life challenges; imprisonment; addiction; additional support needs; mental or physical health problems. Through Inspire, Sarah and her team have brought singing, instrument playing and writing into many people’s lives - raising confidence, self esteem and bringing joy and happiness through music and creativity. There are some beautiful recordings of these creations and most recently a fabulous songbook of new work created by participants and tutors at Inspire sessions.
Sarah also composes many splendid tunes and plays at ceilidhs across the land. We are delighted to have her working with us again in December.
Janie Davie
Janie has been a fitness instructor since 1986, a yoga teacher since 1996, and sports therapist since 2014. She has been coaching and training in the Health and Fitness industry for over 20 years and specialises in injury prevention - designing stretching programmes that are specific for groups and individuals.
Janie has worked with several training providers as Head Yoga Tutor for Scotland, delivering Yoga, Personal Training, Gym, Exercise to Music, Outdoor Fitness, and on Physiology & Anatomy Diplomas. She also runs yoga weekends, day workshops, seminars & consultations with a variety of groups.
Her first love is delivering yoga sessions and workshops for cyclists, runners, athletes and now musicians! Janie makes yoga accessible for all.
Yoga leads her...........Namaste
Alison Carlyle
Alison Carlyle is a stepdancer with a wealth of experience in teaching and performing. She was a founder member of pioneering stepdance showcase The Scottish Stepdance Company, which is how she and Amy met in 1998 - they have been sharing tunes, steps and fun ever since.
Alison was taught by Cape Breton dancer Harvey Beaton as part of the reintroduction of stepdance back to Scotland, and is known for her traditional style and the musicality of her dancing. She loves sharing the improvised and spontaneous joy of stepdance through her creative and empathetic teaching, developed over years of tutoring for organisations such as Scots Music Group, Ceòlas and Fèis Rois. She is also developing her fiddle playing and has a deep understanding of the relationship between the music and dance.
Alison is chair of Scots Music Group, organising classes, ceildhs and events in Edinburgh. She has made her home in Portobello with her husband and two young boys, and loves spending time there coastal rowing, writing, running round Arthur's Seat, making music on the prom or building sandcastles on the beach - though she's still a Highlander at heart.
