Disclaimer, this topic is about performance, so it you want to keep your heart pure, close the window and move along.
WIth the Saint Patrick's season approaching, I was wondering what different people are doing about arranging songs. Do you have any favorite songs you are doing, and how have you arranged them?
Our own little group tends to play the tunes pretty straight, three of us on melody, and one on guitar, but we try to mix things up a bit on the songs. For example, City of Chicago gets whistle fills in the background, with an instrumental restatement of the verse in the middle. Ride On gets a mournful blues harmonica solo. Because we have played it so much, FIelds of Athenry gets played like it was a Jimmy Buffet song, with an island feel. We have been doing The Streets of London lately, and because the tune evokes Pachabel's Canon, we have woven that in and around the verses, with accordion, fiddle and flute doing the various and sundry variations.
Any other interesting approaches to songs out there?
Hey Al, nice to see a thread on this, as it's a topic of substantial interest to me -- St. Patrick's Day and otherwise.
Sounds like you and your guys are very inventive in your arrangements; nice to change things up sometimes, especially for songs that have been, and continue to be, played many times over. Wow, "Pachabel's Canon" AND "Streets of London" together.
I don't usually have a steady band to play with for St. Pat's. It's usually a case of getting asked to do a gig by a friend or acquaintance (or vice-versa) and working out what we can in the days beforehand. Sometimes the person(s) I play with feel comfortable in devising an accompaniment for my guitar and vocals, sometimes not.
I have some songs in my repertoire, like "Wild Mountain Thyme" or "Banks of Red Roses," that I dust off for this time of year, and a few years ago hit upon arrangements to make them enjoyable for me (and hopefully the audience). For "Thyme," I play a little with the tempo and time signature, syncopated, but not obnoxiously so. For "Banks," I turned the first verse into a chorus, which not only gives the audience a singalong but stretches the song out for a few extra minutes.
I haven't done this on St. P's yet, but might just this year if I work up the nerve: Instead of doing the familiar "Wild Rover," I've taken the version popularized by Willie Beaton -- "Wild Roving I'll Give Over" -- and transmogrified it into a kind of faux-Leo Kottke blues number.
Well, you're stimulating me to thought, as we are playing St P's at one of our usual session venues. Hmmmm. We don't normally do (m)any songs at all. However, there are enough highly competent musos in the bunch that I reckon one can just set to and know that a good job will be done. But maybe I'm lucky in that respect. Certainly I'll now give some thought to the song repertoire. But NEVER the Fields of Athenry. I fear that it only encourages woolly thinking. IMNSHO
My band is playing at the San Francisco St Patrick's Day parade festivities. Besides our original stuff, we'll be doing "Sleepy Maggie," "Morning Star," "Musical Priest," "Oro Se Do Bheatha Abhaile," and "Wild Rover"--all tweaked to our mixed genre/style arrangements. It's hard to describe exactly how we tweak the tunes, but people seem to like what we do.
That said, we have a horn section--tuba, trombone, sax and clarinet. The rest are drums, upright bass, guitar and accordion. Let your mind wander...
St Pat's is only celebrated in few places over here so that doesn't bother us. With there being 7 or 8 of us in the band we have to give arranging some thought. We play some tune sets that move from slow to fast, we take turns at solos or we fit tunes in between the song verses like Red Haired Mary in Muirsheen Durkin. Nothing spectacular. Do what you feel happy with. We've got a clarinet/saxophone player (shock,horror) who makes a nice job of Dirty Old Town.
The landlord who hired us for the St. Pat's explicitly demanded songs; as there are just two of us playing, I needed to turn singer (that's what you get when you play guitar). It took some time to find a few songs that do not cause allergic symptoms in me - of course, I had to give in in case of Wild Rover; but we'll be doing one good French song (disguised as Breton, which is almost Irish to punters here) called Dame Lombarde, Arthur McBride, which is entertaining enough, probably Raggle Taggle Gypsy, House Carpenter and Brown Eyes (by Shane McGowan), and the said unfortunate Wild Rover. At least people do not expect to hear Fields of Athenry.
We have also been adding old Irish American favorites to our repetoire. Last year we added I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen, and this year it was My Wild Irish Rose. Our guitarist and singer has a huge amount of experience doing old time jazz, and the old music hall chords just come flowing off his fingers, real nice.
The funny thing is, these songs are even more popular than we expected. We thought they would be popular with old folks when we did them in nursing homes, but everyone seems to enjoy them, and play one, and requests for others in that vein follow.
Just shows you that in the USA, there is a strong connection between the Irish American community and these old songs from the late 19th and early 20th century (I can't say turn of the century any more, people think I am talking about the millenium).
It's a sing-a-long that many people know so it adds a bit of fun interplay between the musicians and the audience. Nothing "unfortunate" about that--IMHO, of course.
I said "unfortunate", because this song was adapted into Polish as a "song of the sea" at least two decades ago and gained immense popularity, it's a part of every booze party (bit like F of A in Ireland), so for me it is much more associated with drunkenness and testosterone than fun. Anyway, of course I'm not going to whine. He who pays the piper calls the tune, and positive attitude works miracles.
Funny that - the Polish version might have been inspired by the German translation of the Wild Rover. 'An der Nordseeküste' - 'On the North Sea Shore' was a big hit around the same time and is still quite popular.
I have heard that The WIld Rover was written by someone in a Scottish temperance league, if so, they sure missed the mark, as it has contributed to many drinking sessions.
And regarding arranging songs, how many people put tunes, or bits of tunes, into their songs? If you so, which tunes do you pair to which songs, and what challenges do you find in matching tune to song?
Some band in Wisconsin -- can't remember the name -- did something they called "The Morrison Set." It involved the jig coupled with "People Are Strange," by the Doors. It didn't sound like much but it was a clever joke, I thought.
If you can actually find a recorded version pre- or without the influence of the Dubliners, it is actually quite a wistful song. It's that "NO, NAY, NEVER, THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP...." bit that everyone knows. Unfortunately.
I'm not even sure it is originally Irish. ( What?, heresy, I know. )
"Temperance" is overrated. IMHO, "Irish Rover" would be quite dull played and sung wistfully. Nothing "unfortunate" about a good, rousing drinking song.
Sigh.....I guess this thread is just not going to be a long one like I had hoped. Over on Mudcat, all they seem to want to discuss is the words, over here, all they want to discuss is the tunes. Too bad, one of my favorite things is finding that wonderful balance between instruments and voices, where one complements the other. Thanks to all who did chime in.......
"Sleepy Maggie," "Morning Star," "Musical Priest," "Oro Se Do Bheatha Abhaile," and "Wild Rover"...
Our version of "Sleepy Maggie" is done in kind of urban rock style. "Morning Star" is done similarly, but with a trad beginning, ""Musical Priest" we do in a kind of Ska groove. "Oro..." we do in a reggae-ish groove a la Sinead--though I prefer the way we used to do it as a kind of late 60s psychedelic thing. "Wild Rover" is a new one for us (for the SF St Partick's festivities) and we'll be doing it a la the Dropkick Murphys, though not as hardcore.
We don't weave leitmotivs into the tunes, but play them as written--you hear the tune, but with different grooves from the rhythm section and harmonies from the horns.
We sometimes have the bass and drums play the chordal pattern for the be-bop song "Duke of Earl" under the tune of "The Duke of Perth" (and chant "Dook - Dook - Dook / Dook of Perth - Perth - Perth...") for perverse personal reasons. It usually fails as a joke because there won't be many fans in your crowd who would be au fait with both genres - however sometimes these things just HAVE TO BE DONE.
(warning pure drop devotees, you might want to leave now, lest you gag. I appreciate all pure drop and recognize it as the root of ITM, but hey, I'm a guitarist from another country try to adapt the music as well as I can within the limitations of my instrument. Someday, given the time and the right resources, I may try to learn the tin whistle. )
As usual my wife and I will be playing at one of the retirement homes. Since we are limited to 2 guitars and one voice (hers), I decided to try a couple of different things this year. We are tuning Rose's acoustic guitar down a step, and tuning my electric guitar up a half step. So on a lot of the tunes we are playing in the key of F (seems like E to me, since I am tuned up a half step). I am playing in "E", capoed on the ninth fret and playing a lot of melody parts harp style, which is facilitated by the closeness of the frets in the upper register. Rose provides accompaniment playing open in the key of "G" for her, which is really the key of "F".
This has really turned into a fun project, with capos on either or both guitars all over the place, with both melody and accompaniment ranging over at least an octave. And about half of our repertoire is songs that Rose sings, including the familiar ones mentioned above. I am also experimenting with adding some guitar synth woodwind and mandolin sounds for some of the melodies.
Arranging Songs
Arranging Songs
Disclaimer, this topic is about performance, so it you want to keep your heart pure, close the window and move along.
WIth the Saint Patrick's season approaching, I was wondering what different people are doing about arranging songs. Do you have any favorite songs you are doing, and how have you arranged them?
Our own little group tends to play the tunes pretty straight, three of us on melody, and one on guitar, but we try to mix things up a bit on the songs. For example, City of Chicago gets whistle fills in the background, with an instrumental restatement of the verse in the middle. Ride On gets a mournful blues harmonica solo. Because we have played it so much, FIelds of Athenry gets played like it was a Jimmy Buffet song, with an island feel. We have been doing The Streets of London lately, and because the tune evokes Pachabel's Canon, we have woven that in and around the verses, with accordion, fiddle and flute doing the various and sundry variations.
Any other interesting approaches to songs out there?
# Posted on February 28th 2009 by AlBrown
Re: Arranging Songs
Hey Al, nice to see a thread on this, as it's a topic of substantial interest to me -- St. Patrick's Day and otherwise.
Sounds like you and your guys are very inventive in your arrangements; nice to change things up sometimes, especially for songs that have been, and continue to be, played many times over. Wow, "Pachabel's Canon" AND "Streets of London" together.
I don't usually have a steady band to play with for St. Pat's. It's usually a case of getting asked to do a gig by a friend or acquaintance (or vice-versa) and working out what we can in the days beforehand. Sometimes the person(s) I play with feel comfortable in devising an accompaniment for my guitar and vocals, sometimes not.
I have some songs in my repertoire, like "Wild Mountain Thyme" or "Banks of Red Roses," that I dust off for this time of year, and a few years ago hit upon arrangements to make them enjoyable for me (and hopefully the audience). For "Thyme," I play a little with the tempo and time signature, syncopated, but not obnoxiously so. For "Banks," I turned the first verse into a chorus, which not only gives the audience a singalong but stretches the song out for a few extra minutes.
I haven't done this on St. P's yet, but might just this year if I work up the nerve: Instead of doing the familiar "Wild Rover," I've taken the version popularized by Willie Beaton -- "Wild Roving I'll Give Over" -- and transmogrified it into a kind of faux-Leo Kottke blues number.
# Posted on February 28th 2009 by sts
Re: Arranging Songs
Well, you're stimulating me to thought, as we are playing St P's at one of our usual session venues. Hmmmm. We don't normally do (m)any songs at all. However, there are enough highly competent musos in the bunch that I reckon one can just set to and know that a good job will be done. But maybe I'm lucky in that respect. Certainly I'll now give some thought to the song repertoire. But NEVER the Fields of Athenry. I fear that it only encourages woolly thinking. IMNSHO
# Posted on February 28th 2009 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Arranging Songs
My band is playing at the San Francisco St Patrick's Day parade festivities. Besides our original stuff, we'll be doing "Sleepy Maggie," "Morning Star," "Musical Priest," "Oro Se Do Bheatha Abhaile," and "Wild Rover"--all tweaked to our mixed genre/style arrangements. It's hard to describe exactly how we tweak the tunes, but people seem to like what we do.
That said, we have a horn section--tuba, trombone, sax and clarinet. The rest are drums, upright bass, guitar and accordion. Let your mind wander...
# Posted on February 28th 2009 by GDub
Re: Arranging Songs
gw, A friend and I were just talking about going to that parade since Ruth's has hired a blues band(horrors!). I may be there!
# Posted on February 28th 2009 by Fishmonger
Re: Arranging Songs
St Pat's is only celebrated in few places over here so that doesn't bother us. With there being 7 or 8 of us in the band we have to give arranging some thought. We play some tune sets that move from slow to fast, we take turns at solos or we fit tunes in between the song verses like Red Haired Mary in Muirsheen Durkin. Nothing spectacular. Do what you feel happy with. We've got a clarinet/saxophone player (shock,horror) who makes a nice job of Dirty Old Town.
# Posted on February 28th 2009 by kuec
Re: Arranging Songs
The landlord who hired us for the St. Pat's explicitly demanded songs; as there are just two of us playing, I needed to turn singer (that's what you get when you play guitar). It took some time to find a few songs that do not cause allergic symptoms in me - of course, I had to give in in case of Wild Rover; but we'll be doing one good French song (disguised as Breton, which is almost Irish to punters here) called Dame Lombarde, Arthur McBride, which is entertaining enough, probably Raggle Taggle Gypsy, House Carpenter and Brown Eyes (by Shane McGowan), and the said unfortunate Wild Rover. At least people do not expect to hear Fields of Athenry.
# Posted on February 28th 2009 by Janek
Re: Arranging Songs
We have also been adding old Irish American favorites to our repetoire. Last year we added I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen, and this year it was My Wild Irish Rose. Our guitarist and singer has a huge amount of experience doing old time jazz, and the old music hall chords just come flowing off his fingers, real nice.
The funny thing is, these songs are even more popular than we expected. We thought they would be popular with old folks when we did them in nursing homes, but everyone seems to enjoy them, and play one, and requests for others in that vein follow.
Just shows you that in the USA, there is a strong connection between the Irish American community and these old songs from the late 19th and early 20th century (I can't say turn of the century any more, people think I am talking about the millenium).
# Posted on February 28th 2009 by AlBrown
Re: Arranging Songs
"...the said unfortunate Wild Rover."
It's a sing-a-long that many people know so it adds a bit of fun interplay between the musicians and the audience. Nothing "unfortunate" about that--IMHO, of course.
# Posted on March 1st 2009 by GDub
Re: Arranging Songs
I said "unfortunate", because this song was adapted into Polish as a "song of the sea" at least two decades ago and gained immense popularity, it's a part of every booze party (bit like F of A in Ireland), so for me it is much more associated with drunkenness and testosterone than fun. Anyway, of course I'm not going to whine. He who pays the piper calls the tune, and positive attitude works miracles.
# Posted on March 1st 2009 by Janek
Re: Arranging Songs
Funny that - the Polish version might have been inspired by the German translation of the Wild Rover. 'An der Nordseeküste' - 'On the North Sea Shore' was a big hit around the same time and is still quite popular.
# Posted on March 1st 2009 by kuec
Re: Arranging Songs
I have heard that The WIld Rover was written by someone in a Scottish temperance league, if so, they sure missed the mark, as it has contributed to many drinking sessions.
And regarding arranging songs, how many people put tunes, or bits of tunes, into their songs? If you so, which tunes do you pair to which songs, and what challenges do you find in matching tune to song?
# Posted on March 1st 2009 by AlBrown
Re: Arranging Songs
When I was in the band, we used to do Morrison's Jig after Black is the colour. Seemed to work.
# Posted on March 1st 2009 by suesinger
Re: Arranging Songs
Some band in Wisconsin -- can't remember the name -- did something they called "The Morrison Set." It involved the jig coupled with "People Are Strange," by the Doors. It didn't sound like much but it was a clever joke, I thought.
# Posted on March 2nd 2009 by cuchulain54
Re: Arranging Songs
If you can actually find a recorded version pre- or without the influence of the Dubliners, it is actually quite a wistful song. It's that "NO, NAY, NEVER, THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP...." bit that everyone knows. Unfortunately.
I'm not even sure it is originally Irish. ( What?, heresy, I know. )
# Posted on March 2nd 2009 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Arranging Songs
"Temperance" is overrated. IMHO, "Irish Rover" would be quite dull played and sung wistfully. Nothing "unfortunate" about a good, rousing drinking song.
# Posted on March 2nd 2009 by GDub
Re: Arranging Songs
Sigh.....I guess this thread is just not going to be a long one like I had hoped. Over on Mudcat, all they seem to want to discuss is the words, over here, all they want to discuss is the tunes. Too bad, one of my favorite things is finding that wonderful balance between instruments and voices, where one complements the other. Thanks to all who did chime in.......
# Posted on March 3rd 2009 by AlBrown
Re: Arranging Songs
Al, we used to run "City of Chicago" into Elton John's "Daniel". It actually worked.
And "Morrison's Jig" we put onto "Star of the County Down", but you need to do the song with a Van Morrison rhythm.
Many, many others.
# Posted on March 3rd 2009 by bodhran bliss
Re: Arranging Songs
OK,,,
.
"Sleepy Maggie," "Morning Star," "Musical Priest," "Oro Se Do Bheatha Abhaile," and "Wild Rover"...
Our version of "Sleepy Maggie" is done in kind of urban rock style. "Morning Star" is done similarly, but with a trad beginning, ""Musical Priest" we do in a kind of Ska groove. "Oro..." we do in a reggae-ish groove a la Sinead--though I prefer the way we used to do it as a kind of late 60s psychedelic thing. "Wild Rover" is a new one for us (for the SF St Partick's festivities) and we'll be doing it a la the Dropkick Murphys, though not as hardcore.
We don't weave leitmotivs into the tunes, but play them as written--you hear the tune, but with different grooves from the rhythm section and harmonies from the horns.
PHUN!
# Posted on March 3rd 2009 by GDub
Re: Arranging Songs
Sleepy Maggie....?
Drowsy Maggie I know. Heck, I married her......
# Posted on March 3rd 2009 by Guernsey Pete
Re: Arranging Songs
We sometimes have the bass and drums play the chordal pattern for the be-bop song "Duke of Earl" under the tune of "The Duke of Perth" (and chant "Dook - Dook - Dook / Dook of Perth - Perth - Perth...") for perverse personal reasons. It usually fails as a joke because there won't be many fans in your crowd who would be au fait with both genres - however sometimes these things just HAVE TO BE DONE.
# Posted on March 3rd 2009 by Craig Smillie
Re: Arranging Songs
Al,
(warning pure drop devotees, you might want to leave now, lest you gag. I appreciate all pure drop and recognize it as the root of ITM, but hey, I'm a guitarist from another country try to adapt the music as well as I can within the limitations of my instrument. Someday, given the time and the right resources, I may try to learn the tin whistle. )
As usual my wife and I will be playing at one of the retirement homes. Since we are limited to 2 guitars and one voice (hers), I decided to try a couple of different things this year. We are tuning Rose's acoustic guitar down a step, and tuning my electric guitar up a half step. So on a lot of the tunes we are playing in the key of F (seems like E to me, since I am tuned up a half step). I am playing in "E", capoed on the ninth fret and playing a lot of melody parts harp style, which is facilitated by the closeness of the frets in the upper register. Rose provides accompaniment playing open in the key of "G" for her, which is really the key of "F".
This has really turned into a fun project, with capos on either or both guitars all over the place, with both melody and accompaniment ranging over at least an octave. And about half of our repertoire is songs that Rose sings, including the familiar ones mentioned above. I am also experimenting with adding some guitar synth woodwind and mandolin sounds for some of the melodies.
# Posted on March 5th 2009 by ceciltguitar