About CelticTradHub

I heard my first Irish trad session on a trip to Ireland in 2018. I have no idea what tunes were played — I just remember sitting in the pub, completely mesmerized. There was something about the way the musicians played together, no conductor, no sheet music, just this shared language that had been passed down for generations.

I came home and bought a concertina.

A few years later we noticed something that was lacking in Nanaimo: an Irish trad session. A couple of social media posts and a website later, and we had a real live trad session up and running. I loved everything about it — the music, the community, the feeling I had walking out of a session having played just a few more notes than I had the week before. I started out as an absolute beginner and I knew firsthand: getting into Irish trad is intimidating. The music moves fast, the sessions assume you already know the tunes, and if you're a beginner it can feel impossible to find your footing.

Slow sessions exist specifically to solve this — they're a space where tunes are played at a pace beginners can follow, where nobody judges you for missing notes, and where the whole point is to learn together. But not everyone lives near a slow session. And not every slow session is truly beginner-friendly.

That's why I built CelticTradHub.

I wanted to take the format I'd seen work so well in person — small group, patient instructor, learning by ear, no pressure — and open it up to anyone in the world with an instrument and an internet connection. Whether you're in a city with a thriving trad scene or a small town where nobody's ever heard a bodhrán, you deserve a place to start.

I'm not Irish. I grew up in Canada with no particular connection to Celtic music. But Irish trad has never cared where you come from — it travels, it adapts, it welcomes anyone willing to sit down and listen. That spirit is what CelticTradHub is built on.

Pull up a chair. Tune up. We'll do the rest.

— Christine