Guest blog: Ceitidh Smith Ceitidh Smith has competed in local and National Mods since the age of 5 and is assistant secretary of the Inverness Local Mod, a member of Meur Inbhir Nis, vice-president of Inverness Gaelic Choir and has been involved in the Royal National Mod 2014 committee.

With the Forum’s third AGM coming up next month (November 3) these are among the things that keep me awake at night. Could our collective wisdom help me get a decent night’s sleep?

Guest Blog by Suzanne Houston Suzanne Houston attended the National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music (aka Plockton Music School) during her high school years. In 2011 she was heavily involved in a National campaign to save the centre from closure. Now, as well as doing trad music professionally, she is the coordinator for Friends … Continued

Guest blog by Angharad Jenkins Angharad Jenkins is a musician, and Project Officer of Trac, the Welsh traditional music development agency. This article first appeared in ‘On-Trac’, the agency’s quarterly magazine.

A friend of the TMF wrote this review after attending the much-anticipated premier. “Brave” opens in Scotland on 3rd August, and goes on general release in the UK on 13th August. It features some of Scotland’s finest traditional musicians and Alex Salmond says it will give a massive boost to the Scottish tourist industry, but … Continued

Guest blog by Stuart Eydmann Music researcher and fiddler Stuart Eydmann travelled to the North Atlantic Fiddle Convention in Derry/Donegal in late June 2012 and here records some impressions from the trip.

By David Francis, We are social animals, and of course we need to get along better, be mindful of our rights and those of others (‘once you have rights what are the life possibilities?’ asks the Scottish poet, Kenneth White), keep working on the crisis of our political arrangements, and improving our living conditions through … Continued

Guest blog by Donald Smith TRACS is a new collaboration between three representative Forums: the Traditional Music Forum, the Scottish Storytelling Forum and the newly formed Traditions of Dance Forum. It stands for Traditional Arts and Culture Scotland. In Gaelic that reads Ealain is Cultar Traidiseanta Alba, in Scots, Airts an Tradeetions Scotland.

Guest blog by Christine Martin Taigh na Teud /scotlandsmusic.com began publishing Scottish traditional music in 1985 in Tain, Ross- shire. We moved to the Isle of Skye in 1987. Here is the story of how the name originated:

In our last guest blog post, Clare Button wrote: ‘Traditional music must be nurtured by other soils as well as its own if it is to thrive, and there is little to equal the thrill when musicians from different cultures and traditions meet and spark off each other.’ This is exactly what happened a few … Continued