I was playing tunes with some friends the other day and we did "Maud Millar" in C major, just playing on different fiddle strings, and also "Cooley's" in Ador. I usually get a bit bored with Cooley's but I'd heard talk of it done in this key before, and it sounded amazing - I couldn't get both tunes out of my head for days. It left me wondering how many tunes could be given extra life with such a simple alteration. Does anyone know if there is any sort of etiquette to introducing key changes in sessions, or do you just have to wait until someone famous records it in a different key to "validate" it?
I think by playing a tune in a different key on the fiddle you get a whole new set of resonances coming through from the instrument, and this must give that extra life.
Regarding etiquette, I guarantee you'll get funny looks from the flutes and guitars if you transpose up half a tone from D to Eflat ...
The following note about the origin of the word "didgeridoo" appears in today's edition of World Wide Words (www.worldwidewords.org), Michael Quinion's well-known website about the day-to-day development of the English language.
[Quote starts] The name isn't recorded in Australian English until 1919. And it isn't Aboriginal - native names include "yidali", "illpera" and "bombo", but nothing that sounds even vaguely like "didgeridoo". Lexicographers have traditionally got round this by saying it is imitative, but "didgeridoo" bears scant relation to the noise the instrument makes. Now Dymphna Lonergan, currently working on a PhD thesis about the Irish influence on Australian English, may have solved the problem. Her theory appeared in Australian newspapers six months ago, and is reported in more detail in the current issue of Ozwords, published by the Australian National Dictionary Centre. She points to a possible Irish source in two words "d
I play the wedding reel in E, sounds great but not many people will join in (that can be a good thing sometimes). Great, If a tune trully sounds more unique in a different key, but most players wouldn't want you to make a habbit of it, it's trouble enough learning the tunes without having to get our fingers round them in two keys as well!
I'd like to get highland pipers to change the key they play in, from Eflat/Aflat or whatever rediculousness! maybe thats why they're not popular at sessions......
I'm off to try Cooleys in Ador, and to dig out a black trumpet.
Changing the key of a tune can have a number of different connotations in a session. It depends on the session as well. If changing key improves or lifts the tune, then, in isolation, there can be nothing wrong with it (unless, of course, the tune has a copyright, and you wish to perform it publicly or record it commercially - but I'm no legal expert). If you are in a session where the general level of musicianship is such that the other musicians will be able to transpose at the drop of a hat - and are not averse to doing so - then I can't see anything wrong with it, although an advance warning might not go amiss. On the other hand, as Kenn says, it is not necessarily a bad thing if nobody joins in - I can't see anything wrong with somebody playing a solo, whether it be an obscure tune, or a common tune in an unusual key, provided they don't take over the whole session.
Regarding bagpipers, most bagpipe tunes sit well on an E-flat whistle, the bagpipe scale being roughly equivalent to B-flat mixolydian. A lot of guitarists and bouzouki players use capos even for the common keys. Fiddlers are probably best advised to have a spare fiddle tuned up a semitone. Incidentally, I have found than a lot of D tunes transpose quite nicely down to B-flat on the mandolin - useful to know if you ever have occasion to play with B-flat set of uillean pipes.
While an interesting story, how in any stretch of the imagination does the entomylogical history of the word didgeridoo have any remote connection with playing tunes in other keys?!!! Maybe it would have better fit a new thread.
assuming it isn't overdone, i think doing a change-up from the stadard key of a tune can be quite interesting and exciting. and, if you know a tune really well, you'd be surprised how easy it is to do. Of late, i've been learning 'toss the feathers' in both Edorian (standard) and down a step in Ddorian. Makes a cool set to start by playing the Ddorian version, and then play the standard Edorian version. Also, tunes in Amajor, such as Frank's Reel, yield easily to Gmajor, athough Amajor i find to be a brighter, more interesting key in general.
As Trevor says, we get a whole set of new resonances, probably different bowing and therefore different accents etc, but more importantly, every key has a different "energy feel" for want of a better way of describing it, it's this that makes a tune feel livelier, deader, or too "strung up" played in the different keys.
All tunes have a one key in which most people will think best suits the mood of the tune, tho' there's nothing wrong with experimentation too try out the different feels.
In general (not all tunes ofcourse), of the common major keys I think, G feels grounded and solid, A feels more aggressive and high energy, with D somewhere between, E way out, man, on acid, and C layed back and going to sleep at the end of the night.
A lot of G tunes easily go into A for a higher energy version, tho' A tunes in G more often sound dead.
Anyway, most tunes are already played in their ideal key, tho' the acid factor of D tunes to E I sometimes like, I guess the same might follow for A tunes to B, if I can hack the black notes! (never tried that I don't think!).
I think there are, speaking of in terms of session etiquette, a few things to keep in mind about changing keys on an oft-played session tune:
1) Is it *possible* to play the tune in this different key on the instruments that are there? If you play the fiddle or banjo or some other instrument with a wide range and availability of accidentals, it's all very well for you, but what if you're going well out of the range of say the flute or pipes or whistle? If you're the only one who can reach the key and this is not a "hey, listen how good this sounds in this key!" moment, then it'll look like you're grandstanding or angling for a solo tune, which is rude, or, at a session that no one knows you in, makes you look like you're inexperienced at session playing because you don't know what key the tune is normally played in, or worse, don't care.
Of course an excellent, say, piper or fluter can still make it work by popping the melody up and down the octaves and by hitting alternate notes, but if that level player isn't sitting in that circle, it's not going to happen at session speed.
2) Sometimes the session standbys that everyone knows are nice to help everyone feel included if you have a wide range of playing level in the session. This shouldn't necessarily stop you, as beginners need to learn to reach a bit more, but if a player only knows five tunes up to session standard and you play around with it past their ability to join in, that player is going to be playing even less than usual. Just something to take into consideration -- a lot of players would say that it simply sucks to be them (which would tell me a lot about that player as a person, though). Of course, if everyone is at the same playing level or if you're the least experienced of the bunch, then this isn't a consideration.
3) It would, of course, be a good thing to tell people ahead of time what you're going to do instead of just launching into the newly keyed tune.
4) Why wait for a "famous" player to change key for you and make it okay? If you like it, play it that way, especially if it's for performance or whatever.
The thing to remember is that the point of a session is to make music together and enjoy yourselves as a group. That's all any "session etiquette" is about, really.
Now, personally speaking, I endeavor to be rarely bored with a tune, even as it's normally played. (I admit that this can be a stretch sometimes the jillionth time through the Kerry Polka.) Shannon Heaton emphatically taught that a player who can be bored with tunes is in danger of being a boring player who can't lift a tune past the boring level -- that, she told me, is what variation and ornamentation are for, to make the tune your own. I'm still at the "pretty boring player" level, but I'm working at it.
Heh, I know a fiddler who has a whole evening of tunes in F, but he trots them out only when someone else threatens the integrity of the session. He figures if he plays enough tunes in F, sooner or later the offending party is going to leave, and the rest of the group can get back to the tunes.
I'm not sure I'd want to wait that long (although some of the F tunes are really beautiful in that key), but there have been times I wish I had such a subtle tactic available.
Personally, I don't usually start messing around with a tune in a "non-standard" key until I know it well in the key(s) its most commonly played in at sessions. And then, yes, you have to think about your session mates--can they follow it? Will they *want* to? Or does it become your party piece? I notice that I have a handful of tunes I really enjoy that aren't so popular among my friends, and I'll never give them up (the tunes, that is , but I also don't trot them out very often. Mostly, I play them when I'm at home, just enjoying some one-on-one quality time with my fiddle. And that's a fine thing, to have tunes that don't show themselves often at sessions. Every so often, some newcomer will start one of those up, and I'm tickled to join in then.
I love this website - I can post a discussion, leave it overnight, and get up the next morning and have something to read because of the time difference. I like the last bit of advice, Kenn. I suppose it all depends on who's at your session and what instruments they play. I know of a couple of people at least who can play Cooley's in Ador at my local, so that wouldn't be a controversial one to try.
Zina, you certainly know your session etiquette maybe you should write an education pamphlet or something:
["Clause 46: Whistle players with multiple instruments in different keys must arrange them correctly on the table. Bb whistles are to be placed on the player's right as he/she is facing the table, with the mouthpiece pointing away from the player square with the table edge (or radiating towards the centre for circular tables). The other end of the whistle must never be flush with the table edge, and any overhang is unacceptable. As with knives and forks at a dinner table, Bb whistles must lie as part of the 'inside set of cultlery' to be used after the outside set"]
I read an article about the supposed Gaelic origins of the didge recently in the Sydney Morning Herald. I think they are made to play comfortably in a particular key, and if they're to be used for trad a low D is probs best. A good player can sharpen or flatten this note by altering lip compression, and of course the really good ones can hit all the high harmonics ["Grrrrr-whoomph-whoomph-bada-*BOOOOOOP*-grrrrr"]. Some of the didge buskers on the streets of Sydney are absolutely awesome. As you can see, it's quite difficult to post a decent impression of one.
["Clause 47: Spittle from the bore of wind instruments must be disposed of appropriately and discreetly under the table. Dribbling on the shoes of others is unacceptable. The throwing of spittle from a flute or whistle across the room in an emphatic chopping action would also be frowned upon."]
All us wicked classical musicians out there could probabley transpose as we play, so if we want to get someone out of our session we just play ITM in really odd keys like F#minor (not so strange in classical music but extra ordinary in folk music) or go up the fingerboard (another classical trick) and make the music sound vivaldisque) I can guarentee this will P****S off the offending musician, and everyone else can get back to normal..........
I have to agree with Zina as well--especially about how a session is about playing *together*--it's a community thing. A performance solo or with your band is a whole nother game.
Is "nother" a real word?
I vow to always remember how "it sucks to be me" (i.e. a beginner) and to always try to be inclusive and encouraging of beginners as I progress.
Dow, you crashed my sooperdooper convertamatic abc tune virtual transcriber with your new didge composition.
Do you find your tunes convert well to fiddle? or should i stick to my expensive-recently imported from Ireland-superlow drainpipe whistle(drillit yourself model)?
Mea Culpa...Mark I didn't think that Cooleys would haunt you for that long. The reason I like to play it in this key is simple. I recently retuned my banjo from GDAE to a lighter gauge of CGDA (and then cranked up the C to D for sympathetic drone and ease of fingering up the neck). So to play tunes in "normal" keys I have to run up (or down depending on your viewpoint and the key) the neck and/or change my fingering.But when I play a banjo tuned to G you get what I think is a liberating change for tunes that are in danger of being played to death.
I agree entirely about sessions being a communal experience and believe that without the free exchange of music and ideals our world will be far worse off.
On the subject of keys I think ITM has been around longer than the accepted standardised format of music. I remember when I began playing (as a teenager) I first heard "Merry Blacksmiths Reel" at a session and went home humming the tune and dutifully learnt it on the mandolin and went back the next week to play it and found I had transposed it from D to C! An older muso told me "you can't do that...it's not traditional" and for the next twelve years I complied. Only now I am regaining the freedom that comes from being a controversial contrary malcontent.Free the notes from the Staves! Krank it up !!!!!!
Harking back to earlier comments in the thread, and just for interest's sake... Australian fiddler Marcus Holden has a CD called Strung Out which includes an arrangement of that "much-loved" tune Music for a Found Harmonium that features didgeridoo in the line-up. 8>)
Heh heh heh...ah yes, two of many players' FAVORITE things together in one track...(that was sarcasm, just in case anyone was wondering...) Actually, I have to say that I really don't particularly have anything against either Found Harmonium nor the didge, but do have a certain level that I can deal with either in a session past which I would rather not go.
Tish,
Ah Marcus! He has a wonderful job! The National Junk Band is one of the funniest and best live bands around in Oz. The fiddlers festival CDs (Strung out etc) are quite good too. Is that the one with Malachy Bourke (Dublin) playing on it?
Zina,
The found harmonium is certainly a tune that a lot of us would rather had stayed lost...Penguin Cafe Orchestra played it first but I wish they had the foresight to include 'didge' and nose flute solos. I think it is a tune best played under the influence on the spoons with the tempo increasing after the third or fifteenth time through...heh, heh.
Ther are quitew a few pentatonic tunes that can be played on the GHP in 2 Keys, and are. One good example is Paddy's Leather Britches which can be played in A(Bb) or B(C).
I play Crucaharan Cross in 4 Keys on the D Whistle; G, A, C, and D.
PP
Dafydd, there is one traditional tune that is commonly played in F#m - a slip jig, The Cock and the Hen (I think it's been posted). It's not as bad as it sounds, being the relative minor of A major. Since it doesn't have a G# in it anywhere, it sits very comfortably on the whistle, and is equally playable in Em and Bm - and Am, if you don't mind the half-hole on the F-natural.
Goodness me now that the didge has officially become a Celtic instrument I wonder if the humble gum leaf is on its way - did they bring holly leaf playing over with them as well - the smooth leaved version of course. Do other countries play the leaf, does anyone know? We have talked of having a world leaf playing conference here in Australia.......but is there anyone else to invite?
Hi David. That is a Great Tune, also known as
"The Peacock Followed The Hen" (presumable for carnal reasons)
and "Mad Moll".
I play it on the big Pipes with the Bass drone re-tuned to B(C) using the cross-fingered G#(A), but you can play it in A(Bb) if your chanter reed combination will play the cross -fingered Minor 3rd.
All the best PP
Interesting to see the post that F#min is a key not used a lot in folk music. The traditional band I play with tend to do a lot of our songs in F#min as it allows our 12 string player to stay capoted on the 2nd fret which saves a lot of tuning breaks.
Biggest problem for me was getting a B natural whistle to allow me to play in F# easily but there are a few out there.
As for getting a piper to change key, good luck! It would be easier to get two mandolin players to play in tune! (apologies to all mando players.....)
Controversial Key Changes
Controversial Key Changes
I was playing tunes with some friends the other day and we did "Maud Millar" in C major, just playing on different fiddle strings, and also "Cooley's" in Ador. I usually get a bit bored with Cooley's but I'd heard talk of it done in this key before, and it sounded amazing - I couldn't get both tunes out of my head for days. It left me wondering how many tunes could be given extra life with such a simple alteration. Does anyone know if there is any sort of etiquette to introducing key changes in sessions, or do you just have to wait until someone famous records it in a different key to "validate" it?
# Posted on January 3rd 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Controversial Key Changes
I think by playing a tune in a different key on the fiddle you get a whole new set of resonances coming through from the instrument, and this must give that extra life.
Regarding etiquette, I guarantee you'll get funny looks from the flutes and guitars if you transpose up half a tone from D to Eflat ...
trevor
# Posted on January 3rd 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Controversial Key Changes - the didgeridoo
The following note about the origin of the word "didgeridoo" appears in today's edition of World Wide Words (www.worldwidewords.org), Michael Quinion's well-known website about the day-to-day development of the English language.
[Quote starts] The name isn't recorded in Australian English until 1919. And it isn't Aboriginal - native names include "yidali", "illpera" and "bombo", but nothing that sounds even vaguely like "didgeridoo". Lexicographers have traditionally got round this by saying it is imitative, but "didgeridoo" bears scant relation to the noise the instrument makes. Now Dymphna Lonergan, currently working on a PhD thesis about the Irish influence on Australian English, may have solved the problem. Her theory appeared in Australian newspapers six months ago, and is reported in more detail in the current issue of Ozwords, published by the Australian National Dictionary Centre. She points to a possible Irish source in two words "d
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Trevor Jennings
Re: Controversial Key Changes
I play the wedding reel in E, sounds great but not many people will join in (that can be a good thing sometimes). Great, If a tune trully sounds more unique in a different key, but most players wouldn't want you to make a habbit of it, it's trouble enough learning the tunes without having to get our fingers round them in two keys as well!
I'd like to get highland pipers to change the key they play in, from Eflat/Aflat or whatever rediculousness! maybe thats why they're not popular at sessions......
I'm off to try Cooleys in Ador, and to dig out a black trumpet.
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Kenn
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Changing the key of a tune can have a number of different connotations in a session. It depends on the session as well. If changing key improves or lifts the tune, then, in isolation, there can be nothing wrong with it (unless, of course, the tune has a copyright, and you wish to perform it publicly or record it commercially - but I'm no legal expert). If you are in a session where the general level of musicianship is such that the other musicians will be able to transpose at the drop of a hat - and are not averse to doing so - then I can't see anything wrong with it, although an advance warning might not go amiss. On the other hand, as Kenn says, it is not necessarily a bad thing if nobody joins in - I can't see anything wrong with somebody playing a solo, whether it be an obscure tune, or a common tune in an unusual key, provided they don't take over the whole session.
Regarding bagpipers, most bagpipe tunes sit well on an E-flat whistle, the bagpipe scale being roughly equivalent to B-flat mixolydian. A lot of guitarists and bouzouki players use capos even for the common keys. Fiddlers are probably best advised to have a spare fiddle tuned up a semitone. Incidentally, I have found than a lot of D tunes transpose quite nicely down to B-flat on the mandolin - useful to know if you ever have occasion to play with B-flat set of uillean pipes.
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Controversial Key Changes
While an interesting story, how in any stretch of the imagination does the entomylogical history of the word didgeridoo have any remote connection with playing tunes in other keys?!!! Maybe it would have better fit a new thread.
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by B Rad
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Does a diddgeridoo have a key, or is it all controllable by the vocal chords, or the raspberry blowing mechanisms?
Dow?, you might know
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Kenn
Re: Controversial Key Changes
assuming it isn't overdone, i think doing a change-up from the stadard key of a tune can be quite interesting and exciting. and, if you know a tune really well, you'd be surprised how easy it is to do. Of late, i've been learning 'toss the feathers' in both Edorian (standard) and down a step in Ddorian. Makes a cool set to start by playing the Ddorian version, and then play the standard Edorian version. Also, tunes in Amajor, such as Frank's Reel, yield easily to Gmajor, athough Amajor i find to be a brighter, more interesting key in general.
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Brendan
Re: Controversial Key Changes
As Trevor says, we get a whole set of new resonances, probably different bowing and therefore different accents etc, but more importantly, every key has a different "energy feel" for want of a better way of describing it, it's this that makes a tune feel livelier, deader, or too "strung up" played in the different keys.
All tunes have a one key in which most people will think best suits the mood of the tune, tho' there's nothing wrong with experimentation too try out the different feels.
In general (not all tunes ofcourse), of the common major keys I think, G feels grounded and solid, A feels more aggressive and high energy, with D somewhere between, E way out, man, on acid, and C layed back and going to sleep at the end of the night.
A lot of G tunes easily go into A for a higher energy version, tho' A tunes in G more often sound dead.
Anyway, most tunes are already played in their ideal key, tho' the acid factor of D tunes to E I sometimes like, I guess the same might follow for A tunes to B, if I can hack the black notes! (never tried that I don't think!).
...just mutterings....
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Kenn
Re: Controversial Key Changes
I think there are, speaking of in terms of session etiquette, a few things to keep in mind about changing keys on an oft-played session tune:
I'm still at the "pretty boring player" level, but I'm working at it.
1) Is it *possible* to play the tune in this different key on the instruments that are there? If you play the fiddle or banjo or some other instrument with a wide range and availability of accidentals, it's all very well for you, but what if you're going well out of the range of say the flute or pipes or whistle? If you're the only one who can reach the key and this is not a "hey, listen how good this sounds in this key!" moment, then it'll look like you're grandstanding or angling for a solo tune, which is rude, or, at a session that no one knows you in, makes you look like you're inexperienced at session playing because you don't know what key the tune is normally played in, or worse, don't care.
Of course an excellent, say, piper or fluter can still make it work by popping the melody up and down the octaves and by hitting alternate notes, but if that level player isn't sitting in that circle, it's not going to happen at session speed.
2) Sometimes the session standbys that everyone knows are nice to help everyone feel included if you have a wide range of playing level in the session. This shouldn't necessarily stop you, as beginners need to learn to reach a bit more, but if a player only knows five tunes up to session standard and you play around with it past their ability to join in, that player is going to be playing even less than usual. Just something to take into consideration -- a lot of players would say that it simply sucks to be them (which would tell me a lot about that player as a person, though). Of course, if everyone is at the same playing level or if you're the least experienced of the bunch, then this isn't a consideration.
3) It would, of course, be a good thing to tell people ahead of time what you're going to do instead of just launching into the newly keyed tune.
4) Why wait for a "famous" player to change key for you and make it okay? If you like it, play it that way, especially if it's for performance or whatever.
The thing to remember is that the point of a session is to make music together and enjoy yourselves as a group. That's all any "session etiquette" is about, really.
Now, personally speaking, I endeavor to be rarely bored with a tune, even as it's normally played. (I admit that this can be a stretch sometimes the jillionth time through the Kerry Polka.) Shannon Heaton emphatically taught that a player who can be bored with tunes is in danger of being a boring player who can't lift a tune past the boring level -- that, she told me, is what variation and ornamentation are for, to make the tune your own.
Zina
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Controversial Key Changes
In short, don't do it at a session unless the others know you well enough to be comfortable about telling you to quit playing in that wierd key!
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Kenn
Re: Controversial Key Changes
If you want to be really antisocial, "The Pinch of Snuff" is a prime candidate for playing in the "wrong" key .....
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Concertina Player
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Ditto everything Zina said.
, but I also don't trot them out very often. Mostly, I play them when I'm at home, just enjoying some one-on-one quality time with my fiddle. And that's a fine thing, to have tunes that don't show themselves often at sessions. Every so often, some newcomer will start one of those up, and I'm tickled to join in then.
Heh, I know a fiddler who has a whole evening of tunes in F, but he trots them out only when someone else threatens the integrity of the session. He figures if he plays enough tunes in F, sooner or later the offending party is going to leave, and the rest of the group can get back to the tunes.
I'm not sure I'd want to wait that long (although some of the F tunes are really beautiful in that key), but there have been times I wish I had such a subtle tactic available.
Personally, I don't usually start messing around with a tune in a "non-standard" key until I know it well in the key(s) its most commonly played in at sessions. And then, yes, you have to think about your session mates--can they follow it? Will they *want* to? Or does it become your party piece? I notice that I have a handful of tunes I really enjoy that aren't so popular among my friends, and I'll never give them up (the tunes, that is
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Will Harmon
Re: Controversial Key Changes
I love this website - I can post a discussion, leave it overnight, and get up the next morning and have something to read because of the time difference. I like the last bit of advice, Kenn. I suppose it all depends on who's at your session and what instruments they play. I know of a couple of people at least who can play Cooley's in Ador at my local, so that wouldn't be a controversial one to try.
maybe you should write an education pamphlet or something:
Zina, you certainly know your session etiquette
["Clause 46: Whistle players with multiple instruments in different keys must arrange them correctly on the table. Bb whistles are to be placed on the player's right as he/she is facing the table, with the mouthpiece pointing away from the player square with the table edge (or radiating towards the centre for circular tables). The other end of the whistle must never be flush with the table edge, and any overhang is unacceptable. As with knives and forks at a dinner table, Bb whistles must lie as part of the 'inside set of cultlery' to be used after the outside set"]
I read an article about the supposed Gaelic origins of the didge recently in the Sydney Morning Herald. I think they are made to play comfortably in a particular key, and if they're to be used for trad a low D is probs best. A good player can sharpen or flatten this note by altering lip compression, and of course the really good ones can hit all the high harmonics ["Grrrrr-whoomph-whoomph-bada-*BOOOOOOP*-grrrrr"]. Some of the didge buskers on the streets of Sydney are absolutely awesome. As you can see, it's quite difficult to post a decent impression of one.
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Are you kidding, Dow? I could almost HEAR a didge as I read your post! Perhaps we could get you to a session and you could grunt out a didge part.
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by cuchulain54
Re: Controversial Key Changes
..."Grrrr-grr-bada-woo-woo-WHEW, grrr-bada-boomph-grrr-BOOOOP!!!"...
["Clause 47: Spittle from the bore of wind instruments must be disposed of appropriately and discreetly under the table. Dribbling on the shoes of others is unacceptable. The throwing of spittle from a flute or whistle across the room in an emphatic chopping action would also be frowned upon."]
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Dr. Dow
Re: Controversial Key Changes
All us wicked classical musicians out there could probabley transpose as we play, so if we want to get someone out of our session we just play ITM in really odd keys like F#minor (not so strange in classical music but extra ordinary in folk music) or go up the fingerboard (another classical trick) and make the music sound vivaldisque) I can guarentee this will P****S off the offending musician, and everyone else can get back to normal..........
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Dafydd Monks
Re: Controversial Key Changes
I have to agree with Zina as well--especially about how a session is about playing *together*--it's a community thing. A performance solo or with your band is a whole nother game.
Is "nother" a real word?
I vow to always remember how "it sucks to be me" (i.e. a beginner) and to always try to be inclusive and encouraging of beginners as I progress.
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Andee
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Dow, you crashed my sooperdooper convertamatic abc tune virtual transcriber with your new didge composition.
Do you find your tunes convert well to fiddle? or should i stick to my expensive-recently imported from Ireland-superlow drainpipe whistle(drillit yourself model)?
# Posted on January 4th 2003 by Kenn
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Mea Culpa...Mark I didn't think that Cooleys would haunt you for that long. The reason I like to play it in this key is simple. I recently retuned my banjo from GDAE to a lighter gauge of CGDA (and then cranked up the C to D for sympathetic drone and ease of fingering up the neck). So to play tunes in "normal" keys I have to run up (or down depending on your viewpoint and the key) the neck and/or change my fingering.But when I play a banjo tuned to G you get what I think is a liberating change for tunes that are in danger of being played to death.
I agree entirely about sessions being a communal experience and believe that without the free exchange of music and ideals our world will be far worse off.
On the subject of keys I think ITM has been around longer than the accepted standardised format of music. I remember when I began playing (as a teenager) I first heard "Merry Blacksmiths Reel" at a session and went home humming the tune and dutifully learnt it on the mandolin and went back the next week to play it and found I had transposed it from D to C! An older muso told me "you can't do that...it's not traditional" and for the next twelve years I complied. Only now I am regaining the freedom that comes from being a controversial contrary malcontent.Free the notes from the Staves! Krank it up !!!!!!
# Posted on January 5th 2003 by Greenwiggle
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Harking back to earlier comments in the thread, and just for interest's sake... Australian fiddler Marcus Holden has a CD called Strung Out which includes an arrangement of that "much-loved" tune Music for a Found Harmonium that features didgeridoo in the line-up. 8>)
# Posted on January 5th 2003 by Tish
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Heh heh heh...ah yes, two of many players' FAVORITE things together in one track...(that was sarcasm, just in case anyone was wondering...) Actually, I have to say that I really don't particularly have anything against either Found Harmonium nor the didge, but do have a certain level that I can deal with either in a session past which I would rather not go.
zls
# Posted on January 5th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Tish,
Ah Marcus! He has a wonderful job! The National Junk Band is one of the funniest and best live bands around in Oz. The fiddlers festival CDs (Strung out etc) are quite good too. Is that the one with Malachy Bourke (Dublin) playing on it?
Zina,
The found harmonium is certainly a tune that a lot of us would rather had stayed lost...Penguin Cafe Orchestra played it first but I wish they had the foresight to include 'didge' and nose flute solos. I think it is a tune best played under the influence on the spoons with the tempo increasing after the third or fifteenth time through...heh, heh.
# Posted on January 5th 2003 by Greenwiggle
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Yes, Greenwiggle, that's the one!
# Posted on January 5th 2003 by Tish
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Ther are quitew a few pentatonic tunes that can be played on the GHP in 2 Keys, and are. One good example is Paddy's Leather Britches which can be played in A(Bb) or B(C).
I play Crucaharan Cross in 4 Keys on the D Whistle; G, A, C, and D.
PP
# Posted on January 6th 2003 by Pied Piper
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Dafydd, there is one traditional tune that is commonly played in F#m - a slip jig, The Cock and the Hen (I think it's been posted). It's not as bad as it sounds, being the relative minor of A major. Since it doesn't have a G# in it anywhere, it sits very comfortably on the whistle, and is equally playable in Em and Bm - and Am, if you don't mind the half-hole on the F-natural.
# Posted on January 6th 2003 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Goodness me now that the didge has officially become a Celtic instrument I wonder if the humble gum leaf is on its way - did they bring holly leaf playing over with them as well - the smooth leaved version of course. Do other countries play the leaf, does anyone know? We have talked of having a world leaf playing conference here in Australia.......but is there anyone else to invite?
# Posted on January 6th 2003 by stewardy
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Hi David. That is a Great Tune, also known as
"The Peacock Followed The Hen" (presumable for carnal reasons)
and "Mad Moll".
I play it on the big Pipes with the Bass drone re-tuned to B(C) using the cross-fingered G#(A), but you can play it in A(Bb) if your chanter reed combination will play the cross -fingered Minor 3rd.
All the best PP
# Posted on January 6th 2003 by Pied Piper
Re: Controversial Key Changes
Interesting to see the post that F#min is a key not used a lot in folk music. The traditional band I play with tend to do a lot of our songs in F#min as it allows our 12 string player to stay capoted on the 2nd fret which saves a lot of tuning breaks.
Biggest problem for me was getting a B natural whistle to allow me to play in F# easily but there are a few out there.
As for getting a piper to change key, good luck! It would be easier to get two mandolin players to play in tune! (apologies to all mando players.....)
# Posted on January 7th 2003 by ParaHandy