The seminar was held from July 4th to July 11th at Academie D'ite in Neufchateau, Belgium, together with other music and dance courses providing a nice environment, full of artists, for the growing Happy Tappers community.

Just before the seminar, on July 3rd, there was Tap Night at Le Travers in Brussels, with performances by teachers, students and friends too. I remember singer Sopie Leys with Marc Voets and Daniel Schell; Laura (Daniel's daughter) on piano; a great flute player named Ariane de Bievre and Pierre Narcisse playing tabla and drums with various performers. I'm sure someone else is going to tell you more about the show.

Students:
Antoinette Francotte (Liege, B), Cristiano Roversi (Mantova, I), Emanuele Gianeri (Albenga, I), Frank Salama (Paris, F), Grobi Okun (Berlin, D), Hafthor Gudbjartsson (near London, GB), Hubert Camus (near Paris, F), Jesus Aunon (Granada, E), Malte von Ramin (near Dortmund, D), Marc Voets (Hasselt, B), Marcello Missagia (I), Myron Edwards (London, GB), Ola Rinta-Koski (near Helsinki, FIN), Paolo Vallebona (Genova,I), Paul Santosi (Aachen, D), Rob Rieter (NL), Roel Van Gils (Heukelum, NL), Vincent Wobbe (D from Brussels, B)

Teaching staff:
Daniel Schell (B), Frank Jolliffe (NJ, USA), Jim Lampi (CA, USA) Kuno Wagner (Limburg, D), Wolfgang Daiss (Stuttgart, D)

Morning Classes:

• Daniel: reading, hand positions and fingerings, scales, technique, the tunes "Laterne", "Volkslied" (trad.) and "Tous les Oiseaux" (Schell)
• Frank: "Bags Groove", building walking bass lines, "Twilight", harmonics, chord voicings, improvisation
• Jim: "Petite Pause", latin rhythms and bass, a lot of nice ideas on dividing voices and fingers, arrange a tune, play relaxed....

Master classes:

• Kuno: use of sound processors, loops, Roland VG8, MIDI synthesizer
• Wolfgang: polyphony on tap guitar
• Daniel: Indian music
• A special class was held on the history of tapping, with tapes, CDs and books ranging from Jimmy Webster up to now

More afternoon classes:

• Antonio Cirri: rhythm reading
• Marc Decrollier: body rhythm - dance for musicians
• Private lessons with Jim, Frank and Daniel
• Harmony Club with Frank and Daniel

Beer is of course the main attraction at the bar, my favorite is Hoegaarden (they call it "blanche"), but very often your attention can be stolen by jams, traditional music, dances and ... women.

Concerts
Real concerts and exhibitions were in the big hall, often used as a ballroom too, while more music and dances went on in the minor hall without a schedule.

One of the concerts in the hall was dedicated to tappers. It featured:

• Daniel Schell playing indian music with Antoinette Francotte and tabla player Carlo Strazzante.
• Kuno Wagner on 8-string Warr® guitar and Jesus Aunon on "normal" guitar.
• Frank Jolliffe in jazz duo with Guy Raiff (the guitar teacher).
• Jim Lampi, Steve Houben (flute, sax) and a percussion section including Antonio Cirri and Didier.

Of course tappers had a part in the final show too; due to the short time available on stage, only two numbers were performed:

• Cristiano Roversi, Emanuele Gianeri, Jesus Aunon and Malte von Ramin played an arrangement of "Bags Groove".
• Marc Voets, Myron Edwards, Ola Rinta-Koski and I played "Tous les oiseaux" by Daniel Schell, with the help of three more musicians on violin and percussion.

Other memories:

• Paul Belgrado was with us at the Tap night in Brussels and then again on next Friday to show his tap-guitar prototype and collect suggestions from the tappers; Hubert Camus played the instrument for the whole week and many others had a chance to test it.
• Jaap Kramer also showed up at Tap Night with his home-made tap-guitar... and Jesus Aunon just played - an ordinary electric guitar! (Well, a very good one, a Paul Reed Smith.) He mixed different techniques and lots of musical taste; the result was so good that I ended up asking Grobi "so why did we buy a Stick if so much can be done with a guitar?"
• 10 and 12 string Chapman Sticks®, new and old ones, wood and polycarbonate, 8 and 12 string Warr guitars, the Belgrado prototype, Wolfgang's new 14 string monster Warr, even a "normal" electric guitar, all instruments were brothers under the Happy Tappers family. I myself was playing both a poly Stick and a TSG12 Warr.
• We also had a variety of different tunings, each one with its own advantages: 4ths/4ths, crafty, 4ths/5ths (once we used to call it "standard"), crossed, uncrossed, mirrored, down/up a step .... A great chance for all tappers to see/try/compare many different possibilities.

Thanks to:

1. Claudia Wester: they say "behind every great man there has to be a great woman"; she's the one doing a lot of work you usually don't notice, you know, something like bass players in rock/pop bands: you only notice about them when they stop playing.
2. Nice women working at the bar were still able to smile and be kind to all guests at 5AM!

Bad note:
omeone entered a classroom at night and stole small things such as a CD player, tuners, a pocket vocal sampler, some tools, etc. so we had the police at the morning class.

Miscellaneous:

• I remember a basketball match with Jim, Kuno and others; the real winner was the couscous we ate just half an hour before, but we had a good time.
• Jams in the bar with a great piano player, the mythical Jim Lampi, lots of good percussion....
• Demos at St.Josef.
• A visit to Orval Abbey.

I remember someone saying: "There is nothing else like this - a week out of time". I think it was Myron, and maybe he was a bit drunk, but hey friends, he was right!

Bye,
Paolo Vallebona

Photos I- Courtesy of Ola Rinta-Koski.
Photos II - Courtesy of Grobi.