Music is personal, social and a living link between our past and our future. 2013 project Tune-Chain is a series of short films illustrating the way traditional musicians learn and share music. Nine of our finest professional folk musicians, including some significant names in the Welsh music scene, contributed their stories, connections and tunes to the project. Fiddlers Robert Evans and Gerard KilBride, piper Gafin Morgan, accordionists Beth Williams Jones and Stephen Rees, triple harp maestro Robin Huw Bowen, harpist and singer Gwenan Gibbard, flautist Ceri Rhys Matthews and fiddler Elsa Davies create a musical chain playing music they’ve learned and taught and talking about what traditional music means to them as musicians and as people.

Each video is between four and ten minutes long and features one musician playing one or two tunes, leading to the next link in the chain. Created and co-produced by Gerard KilBride and Rhodri Smith, the beautifully filmed series visits the nine musicians in their homes, kitchens and workshops. Though filmed using low-tech audio visual kit – iphones, flip cams and small hand held camcorders – the videos are exquisite cameos exploring traditional musicians ‘in their native habitat’. We hope you enjoy them and will send us your own Tune-Chain to share! Find the first 3 videos here and head to our YouTube channel for the full playlist here.

Tune Chain Series

  • "Masterful playing & interpretation by Wales' finest."

    - YouTube comment

  • "The finest footage of the Triple I've ever seen. Wonderful upload - many thanks (ten years late) for making it available."

    - YouTube comment