Music and musicians

A morris dance not only requires several dancers, it requires at least one musician - it's hard to dance without any music!

Music for the Morris can be played on a wide variety of instruments. The Men of Wight are fortunate to count several accordian and melodeon players as members, so we are rarely short of a musician, and often have a substantial band playing. The accordians and melodeons are the mainstay instruments, but we also have one or two musicians who can add variety on fiddle, mandolin, and concertina.

Our chief musician is accordianist Mike Howley (gracing the photo on the right), who not only leads the band, but has written several original tunes.

You can hear Mike playing some of the tunes we dance to in these MP3 files:

• Jockie to the Fair
• Balance the Straw
• Four Cross
• Sherrif's Ride
• Upton on Severn Handkerchief
• Lollipop Man
• Young Collins
• Broad Cupid