I know this is primarily a site for fiddle players and trad. fiddle music. As a guitar player, however, playing bluegrass and irish music, I'm constantly looking for new, preferably obscure material to play. Anybody out there with such knowledge? Tab, notation etc.?
Hans,
I just posted a link to a program that converts ABC to tab (in the links section) for just about any instrument you can think of. TablEdit combined with this site or JC's Tunefinder will put you well on your way to learning tunes. If you come across a "~" (roll) i would suggest playing a triplet on the guitar. While the guitar is a great instrument, it doesn't lend itself to playing tunes all that well. It doesn't have the volume or the sustain & it's hard to play in a way that will convey all the subtle nuances of a tune.
Being a guitar player myself (primarily--I also noodle on the whistle and the mouth harp), I agree with Brad that a celtic fiddle tune just doesn't (and can't) come out quite "right" on a guitar. For older Irish and Scottish tunes, written before the mid-to-kate 19th century, guitars weren't even conceived of as potential renderors of the tune. For instance, from my readings, guitars did not begin to appear in "trad" sessions in Ireland until the early 20th century...and then strictly as rythym instruments. (Oddly enough, it seems Irish immigrants to America had picked up the guitar earlier as a useful adjunct to their own music session on this side of the water.) That said, I know some really good flat-pickers who can render a jig or reel in fine, very listenable style...albeit in a way probably never envisioned by the composer. But this is all "folk music" -- which is an evolutionary art form -- so play on, Hans!
Thanks! The guitar not being the logical and intended renderor of these tunes is partly what makes it so fun. It makes you feel like you're adding something to the great tradition. US flatpicker Scott Nygaard is one of the guys (&gals...) who really make a fiddle tune come out with both groove and subtlety. His version of Little Billy Wilson sounds like it was written for guitar... It was a great feeling when I, without having heard anybody else do it first, got down a good sounding version of Sunny Banks on my trusty Martin D-28.
Brad: did you post that link on this site?
Thanks! The guitar not being the logical and intended renderor of these tunes is partly what makes it so fun. It makes you feel like you're adding something to the great tradition. US flatpicker Scott Nygaard is one of the guys (&gals...) who really make a fiddle tune come out with both groove and subtlety. His version of Little Billy Wilson sounds like it was written for guitar... It was a great feeling when I, without having heard anybody else do it first, got down a good sounding version of Sunny Banks on my trusty Martin D-28.
Brad: did you post that link on this site?
Thanks! The guitar not being the logical and intended renderor of these tunes is partly what makes it so fun. It makes you feel like you're adding something to the great tradition. US flatpicker Scott Nygaard is one of the guys (&gals...) who really make a fiddle tune come out with both groove and subtlety. His version of Little Billy Wilson sounds like it was written for guitar... It was a great feeling when I, without having heard anybody else do it first, got down a good sounding version of Sunny Banks on my trusty Martin D-28.
Brad: did you post that link on this site?
I just thought it might be worth pointing out that this is NOT a site mainly for fiddlers and trad fiddle tunes. This is Jeremy's online session that's open to all players of Irish trad. I think it's just that us fiddlers are the mouthiest of the lot -- a pesky bunch, fiddlers. Feel free to talk around, over, under, and louder than us. *grin*
I guess that most irish trad tunes can be thought of as being "good" for a certain instrument eg 'fiddletunes'. You have to look a little harder for good guitar tunes but the fiddlers dont OWN them. These will depend on your style of guitar playing (flatpick or fingerstyle) and your tuning (DADGAD etc).
Might I suggest "Within a mile of Dublin", played with a dropped D tuning (DADGBE) and the tune that Dennis Cahill does on Martin Hayes' Live in Seattle' album => "Exile to Erin".
These are for the flat pick. There are lots of jigs that sound ok in fingerstyle arrangement as long as they are played at below session speed.
If I think of a few more I'll post later.
Cheers
Donough
Stuck my head out there, did I. My father is a banjer player, but presents himself as a string-artist bacause of all the jokes relating to that Loudest of All Instruments.
Jazzman-turn-crooner George Benson said in a Downbeat interwiev, that the guitar as we know it today wasn't designed (tuned, i guess that means) to play the kind of music we play nowadays. The trad guitar tuning (EADGBE) relates to the harmonies and scales of the 16th century (ca...), thus not making the guitar the obvious choise for rendering modern harmonies and tunes written for other instruments. Makes some kind of sense to me... The theory also helps define guitar players as the hardest working musicians on earth.
What's the difference between a fiddler and a dog? The dog knows when to stop scratching....
I wouldn't go looking for "fiddle" tunes for guitar. I'd just find the jigs, reels, hornpipes, and polkas that suited guitar and my style of playing and go for it. My point is that Irish dance music, though perhaps composed on fiddle or pipes or flute (and so sometimes more clearly suited to one instrument over another), doesn't belong to any one instrument. If you can flatpick a tune on banjo, there'll be a way to play it on guitar. I started in Irish music over 20 years ago flatpicking Drowsy Maggie, Tempehouse Reel, Rights of Man, and Off to California on EADGBE guitar. It wasn't difficult to distinguish my sound from that of a bluegrass picker, and I didn't notice any horrible disadvantages to the tuning.
When I eventually switched over to fiddle it wasn't because guitar wasn't suited to Irish music. I had nerve damage that limited my right hand abilities, and I'd always wanted to play fiddle anyway.
So I say change the header for this discussion to "Irish tunes for guitar" and go for it. You might write to Thistle and Shamrock and ask for the playlist of tunes that filled the show Fiona Ritchie did years ago on the guitar in Irish music. It had stellar examples of flatpicked and fingerpicked guitar.
Will
Just when we thought we had the thread safely highjacked, Donough, y'come along and get it back on subject -- you mean, fiddlers DON'T own the tunes?!? I am shocked at the mere idea, shocked, I tell you.
So, in my endless scrabbling search for knowledge and just plain trivial facts, what kinds of tunes work better for guitars than others? What makes a good guitar tune? I mean, what differentiates it from a good flute tune, or a good box tune, or (heaven forfend) a good fiddler tune? I can recognize the good fiddle tunes easily, of course, but what about the others?
Irish tunes fits better than fiddle tunes, every instrument has it's favorite little bunch of tunes. But they aren't restricted to that instrument. I do associate "Col Frazer" with the pipes & "Lord Gordon's" with the fiddle, but I've heard them both played great on a box.
I'm not sure what would make a good guitar tune. Not because I think the question is "what would sound good on guitar", but because for me the question is "what wouldn't sound good on guitar".
I played a lot of Bluegrass a couple of decades ago. A lot of Bluegrass comes from fiddle tunes, many of which derive from Irish-Scot sources. And I've had the fortune of playing with a lot of really good guitar players, who not only played solid backup but also could work flatpicking wonders when their turn at the break came up. These guys studied tons of fiddle tunes and could play any of them - not the same as a fiddler, sure, but smoothly, and fleetly. There's recorded work showing this -- Tony Rice did a version of "Temperance Reel" on one of his albums, and Dan Crary did the same reel version of "The Blackbird" that the Bothy Band did - both on flatpicked guitar.
So I see no reason why the same couldn't be done with any fiddle tune. (Or pipe tune, or box tune, or flute tune, or whistle tune, etc). In fact, considering that one thing that makes many tunes best for fiddle because of notes that some other instruments don't have available, since guitar is chromatic and has a wide range, many of these "fiddle" tunes work better for guitar than they would for flute, whistle, or pipes.
Is it a case of "what sounds good?" as opposed to "what plays well"? There's many a tune that plays easily and well on the fiddle that doesn't play nearly as easily on the pipes, for instance...not that they can't be played, just not easily.
I'd always thought that a "fiddle tune" was one that played easily on the fiddle, a "flute tune" one that played easily on the flute, etc.... wrong?
Joe a tune is a tune - it doesn't matter what it's played on.
If you really want to learn to play Irish tunes I would suggest learning a few tunes then seek out an Irish Melody player (doesn't matter what instrument) and asking them for honest feedback on your melody playing.
When I play tunes on the guitar - I use standard (EADGBE) as opposed to DADGAD. I don't use flatpicks, I fingerstyle them out & use open strings as drone accompaniment. Between E,A,D & G there is usually a nice choice for a drone. I usually stick in the 1st postition, only going up to 3rd postion phrases like g2bg a2fa. I prefer playing jigs & hornpipes - but I can play a couple reels. (But they are hard work)
*Generally*, Irish music is slower & more lilted than bluegrass. So play the tunes with a dotted rhythm, & go slow. Also bending notes fits well into bluegrass - but I prefer sliding up from the fret below to a bend in Irish music. Well you've got enough info to be well on your way, let us know how it comes along.
Brad: Is a tune a tune when it's played on a didgeroo? Or a bodhran? On a more serious note, I am taking your advise about seeking out an teacher type - I have my first meeting on 12/28. Got her name from the session I frequent, she comes highly recommended. She doesn't play flute, but that's ok - I'm more looking for stylistic critique.
That's interesting about the fingerstyling. How do you get a fast reel up to speed? Lots of hammering and pulloffs or a flamenco-style picado? Or something else? I love jigs and hornpipes too, but work a lot on fast reels because they're really difficult for me. My favorite set (as of today, anyway) is The Carillion/Young Tom Ennis/Mouse in the Mug.
Have you thought about getting into some higher position work? Most Irish-style flatpickers (only one, really) I've seen to date play down in the booming range, but the bluegrass guys I used to know used to be able to sometimes travel up the neck and play there right in the fiddle range. It made a nice contrast with the lower range - like one time through low and the next time through high.
I'm not sure about the comment about Irish music being more lilting than Bluegrass. I hear a lot of Irish players playing very straight eighths on reels, and lots of bluegrass players played with a slight swing. Of course, the only basis for comparison, really, is reels. (There are some hornpipes in the Bluegrass repertoire, but they're invariably played as reels.) But the reels in Irish music are often done as fast as those in Bluegrass. The really fast tunes in Bluegrass are the breakdowns - I'd agree that Irish reels are hardly ever done THAT fast.
Zina: What if a tune plays easy on both a fiddle and a whistle? Is it then a fistle tune? Or maybe a whiddle tune (but only if it's really short)?
Waddayaknow; the term fiddle tune, used for generations, the fiddlers prerogative to name trad tunes after their own instrument, is hereby edited out of history. All thanks to this mailing list.
I'll pick up my guitar right now and do a guiddle tune.
The point with the guitar being an illogical choice for rendering 21st century tunes, I guess, isn't that it sounds plain awful, it's just that you have to put an extra effort into playing a tune the same way as, for example, a fiddle or a mandolin player, where the instrument, after all, is tuned more logically. Me think...
Waddayaknow; the term fiddle tune, used for generations, the fiddlers prerogative to name trad tunes after their own instrument, is hereby edited out of history. All thanks to this mailing list.
I'll pick up my guitar right now and do a guiddle tune.
The point with the guitar being an illogical choice for rendering 21st century tunes, I guess, isn't that it sounds plain awful, it's just that you have to put an extra effort into playing a tune the same way as, for example, a fiddle or a mandolin player, where the instrument, after all, is tuned more logically. Me think...
I do use some hammer-ons/offs but I use octave triplets alot too. I use the 1,2 & 3 fingers for the melody & thumb the bass drones. I've never been a "pattern finger picker" I just use what's natural. I put "Drowsey Maggie" into tabledit form that I can send to you Joe to get a perspective of how I play it.
An "octave triplet" is my own little onrament that I found handy for a guitar. in ABC it would be (3AaA or (3DdD - something that wouldn't work to well on a flute or a fiddle. I found that on the guitar if the tripleted note is also the root of the chord the "octave triplet" is a nice way of adding a drone while ornamenting the note.
As a mandolin player, when I pick up a guitar I instinctively do the same sort of thing as I do on the mandolin. The different tuning (I tend to play in standard or 'drop D' tuning) naturally lends itself to slightly different ornamentation - mainly which open strings can be used and where. As on the mandolin, I tend to pick every note rather than hammering on and pullling off. I wouldn't call myself a guitarist, but it sounds good to me. I find the guitar is nice for playing slow tunes (or fast tunes slowly) as notes can be slurred and bent more easlily than on mabdolin.
A good source for fiddletunes if you can use tab is Granger's Fiddle Tunes for Guitar. It's got close to 500 tunes in a form of tab that Adam developed that's pretty easy to read and that convey's timing.
I have it and think that it's one of the most useful sources you can get.
fiddletunes for guitar
fiddletunes for guitar
I know this is primarily a site for fiddle players and trad. fiddle music. As a guitar player, however, playing bluegrass and irish music, I'm constantly looking for new, preferably obscure material to play. Anybody out there with such knowledge? Tab, notation etc.?
Thanks,
Hans M.
# Posted on December 9th 2001 by flatpick
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Hans,
I just posted a link to a program that converts ABC to tab (in the links section) for just about any instrument you can think of. TablEdit combined with this site or JC's Tunefinder will put you well on your way to learning tunes. If you come across a "~" (roll) i would suggest playing a triplet on the guitar. While the guitar is a great instrument, it doesn't lend itself to playing tunes all that well. It doesn't have the volume or the sustain & it's hard to play in a way that will convey all the subtle nuances of a tune.
# Posted on December 10th 2001 by B Rad
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Being a guitar player myself (primarily--I also noodle on the whistle and the mouth harp), I agree with Brad that a celtic fiddle tune just doesn't (and can't) come out quite "right" on a guitar. For older Irish and Scottish tunes, written before the mid-to-kate 19th century, guitars weren't even conceived of as potential renderors of the tune. For instance, from my readings, guitars did not begin to appear in "trad" sessions in Ireland until the early 20th century...and then strictly as rythym instruments. (Oddly enough, it seems Irish immigrants to America had picked up the guitar earlier as a useful adjunct to their own music session on this side of the water.) That said, I know some really good flat-pickers who can render a jig or reel in fine, very listenable style...albeit in a way probably never envisioned by the composer. But this is all "folk music" -- which is an evolutionary art form -- so play on, Hans!
# Posted on December 10th 2001 by Munsondr
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Thanks! The guitar not being the logical and intended renderor of these tunes is partly what makes it so fun. It makes you feel like you're adding something to the great tradition. US flatpicker Scott Nygaard is one of the guys (&gals...) who really make a fiddle tune come out with both groove and subtlety. His version of Little Billy Wilson sounds like it was written for guitar... It was a great feeling when I, without having heard anybody else do it first, got down a good sounding version of Sunny Banks on my trusty Martin D-28.
Brad: did you post that link on this site?
# Posted on December 10th 2001 by flatpick
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Thanks! The guitar not being the logical and intended renderor of these tunes is partly what makes it so fun. It makes you feel like you're adding something to the great tradition. US flatpicker Scott Nygaard is one of the guys (&gals...) who really make a fiddle tune come out with both groove and subtlety. His version of Little Billy Wilson sounds like it was written for guitar... It was a great feeling when I, without having heard anybody else do it first, got down a good sounding version of Sunny Banks on my trusty Martin D-28.
Brad: did you post that link on this site?
# Posted on December 10th 2001 by flatpick
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Thanks! The guitar not being the logical and intended renderor of these tunes is partly what makes it so fun. It makes you feel like you're adding something to the great tradition. US flatpicker Scott Nygaard is one of the guys (&gals...) who really make a fiddle tune come out with both groove and subtlety. His version of Little Billy Wilson sounds like it was written for guitar... It was a great feeling when I, without having heard anybody else do it first, got down a good sounding version of Sunny Banks on my trusty Martin D-28.
Brad: did you post that link on this site?
# Posted on December 10th 2001 by flatpick
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
It's posted in the links section under ABC software. Have fun.
# Posted on December 10th 2001 by B Rad
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
I just thought it might be worth pointing out that this is NOT a site mainly for fiddlers and trad fiddle tunes. This is Jeremy's online session that's open to all players of Irish trad. I think it's just that us fiddlers are the mouthiest of the lot -- a pesky bunch, fiddlers. Feel free to talk around, over, under, and louder than us. *grin*
Zina
# Posted on December 10th 2001 by Zina Lee
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Aww, fiddlers aren't so bad. You can usually drown them out if you strum hard enough.
Joe
# Posted on December 11th 2001 by jomac
Was: fiddletunes for guitar turned to musician jokes
How do you get a guitarist to stop playing?
Ask them to play a tune!!
The same goes for those bodhran/whistlers that felt roll up case with 10 tippers & 20 whistles in every concievable key.
>>Aww, fiddlers aren't so bad. You can usually drown them out if you strum hard enough.
# Posted on December 11th 2001 by B Rad
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
*grin* Yes, but we can all make fun of the bodhran players! hehehe
zls
# Posted on December 11th 2001 by Zina Lee
Drummers
Q: What's a drummer?
A: That guy who hangs out with the musicians.
# Posted on December 11th 2001 by glauber
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Glauber, the version I've heard has more bite...What do you call a person who hangs around annoying all the musicians?
Will
A bodhran player.
What's the difference between a drum machine and a bodhran player?
You only have to punch the rhythm into the drum machine once.
# Posted on December 11th 2001 by Will Harmon
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
How do you get a guitarist to stop playing?
Ask them to play a tune!!
How do you get a fiddler to stop playing?
Ask them to play IN tune!!
Just kidding ...
Joe
# Posted on December 11th 2001 by jomac
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
I guess that most irish trad tunes can be thought of as being "good" for a certain instrument eg 'fiddletunes'. You have to look a little harder for good guitar tunes but the fiddlers dont OWN them. These will depend on your style of guitar playing (flatpick or fingerstyle) and your tuning (DADGAD etc).
Might I suggest "Within a mile of Dublin", played with a dropped D tuning (DADGBE) and the tune that Dennis Cahill does on Martin Hayes' Live in Seattle' album => "Exile to Erin".
These are for the flat pick. There are lots of jigs that sound ok in fingerstyle arrangement as long as they are played at below session speed.
If I think of a few more I'll post later.
Cheers
Donough
# Posted on December 11th 2001 by Donough
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Stuck my head out there, did I. My father is a banjer player, but presents himself as a string-artist bacause of all the jokes relating to that Loudest of All Instruments.
Jazzman-turn-crooner George Benson said in a Downbeat interwiev, that the guitar as we know it today wasn't designed (tuned, i guess that means) to play the kind of music we play nowadays. The trad guitar tuning (EADGBE) relates to the harmonies and scales of the 16th century (ca...), thus not making the guitar the obvious choise for rendering modern harmonies and tunes written for other instruments. Makes some kind of sense to me... The theory also helps define guitar players as the hardest working musicians on earth.
# Posted on December 11th 2001 by flatpick
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
What's the difference between a fiddler and a dog? The dog knows when to stop scratching....
I wouldn't go looking for "fiddle" tunes for guitar. I'd just find the jigs, reels, hornpipes, and polkas that suited guitar and my style of playing and go for it. My point is that Irish dance music, though perhaps composed on fiddle or pipes or flute (and so sometimes more clearly suited to one instrument over another), doesn't belong to any one instrument. If you can flatpick a tune on banjo, there'll be a way to play it on guitar. I started in Irish music over 20 years ago flatpicking Drowsy Maggie, Tempehouse Reel, Rights of Man, and Off to California on EADGBE guitar. It wasn't difficult to distinguish my sound from that of a bluegrass picker, and I didn't notice any horrible disadvantages to the tuning.
When I eventually switched over to fiddle it wasn't because guitar wasn't suited to Irish music. I had nerve damage that limited my right hand abilities, and I'd always wanted to play fiddle anyway.
So I say change the header for this discussion to "Irish tunes for guitar" and go for it. You might write to Thistle and Shamrock and ask for the playlist of tunes that filled the show Fiona Ritchie did years ago on the guitar in Irish music. It had stellar examples of flatpicked and fingerpicked guitar.
Will
# Posted on December 12th 2001 by Will Harmon
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Just when we thought we had the thread safely highjacked, Donough, y'come along and get it back on subject -- you mean, fiddlers DON'T own the tunes?!? I am shocked at the mere idea, shocked, I tell you.
So, in my endless scrabbling search for knowledge and just plain trivial facts, what kinds of tunes work better for guitars than others? What makes a good guitar tune? I mean, what differentiates it from a good flute tune, or a good box tune, or (heaven forfend) a good fiddler tune? I can recognize the good fiddle tunes easily, of course, but what about the others?
Zina
# Posted on December 12th 2001 by Zina Lee
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Will we don't always disagree,
Irish tunes fits better than fiddle tunes, every instrument has it's favorite little bunch of tunes. But they aren't restricted to that instrument. I do associate "Col Frazer" with the pipes & "Lord Gordon's" with the fiddle, but I've heard them both played great on a box.
# Posted on December 12th 2001 by B Rad
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
I'm not sure what would make a good guitar tune. Not because I think the question is "what would sound good on guitar", but because for me the question is "what wouldn't sound good on guitar".
I played a lot of Bluegrass a couple of decades ago. A lot of Bluegrass comes from fiddle tunes, many of which derive from Irish-Scot sources. And I've had the fortune of playing with a lot of really good guitar players, who not only played solid backup but also could work flatpicking wonders when their turn at the break came up. These guys studied tons of fiddle tunes and could play any of them - not the same as a fiddler, sure, but smoothly, and fleetly. There's recorded work showing this -- Tony Rice did a version of "Temperance Reel" on one of his albums, and Dan Crary did the same reel version of "The Blackbird" that the Bothy Band did - both on flatpicked guitar.
So I see no reason why the same couldn't be done with any fiddle tune. (Or pipe tune, or box tune, or flute tune, or whistle tune, etc). In fact, considering that one thing that makes many tunes best for fiddle because of notes that some other instruments don't have available, since guitar is chromatic and has a wide range, many of these "fiddle" tunes work better for guitar than they would for flute, whistle, or pipes.
Joe
# Posted on December 12th 2001 by jomac
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Is it a case of "what sounds good?" as opposed to "what plays well"? There's many a tune that plays easily and well on the fiddle that doesn't play nearly as easily on the pipes, for instance...not that they can't be played, just not easily.
I'd always thought that a "fiddle tune" was one that played easily on the fiddle, a "flute tune" one that played easily on the flute, etc.... wrong?
zls
# Posted on December 12th 2001 by Zina Lee
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Joe a tune is a tune - it doesn't matter what it's played on.
If you really want to learn to play Irish tunes I would suggest learning a few tunes then seek out an Irish Melody player (doesn't matter what instrument) and asking them for honest feedback on your melody playing.
When I play tunes on the guitar - I use standard (EADGBE) as opposed to DADGAD. I don't use flatpicks, I fingerstyle them out & use open strings as drone accompaniment. Between E,A,D & G there is usually a nice choice for a drone. I usually stick in the 1st postition, only going up to 3rd postion phrases like g2bg a2fa. I prefer playing jigs & hornpipes - but I can play a couple reels. (But they are hard work)
*Generally*, Irish music is slower & more lilted than bluegrass. So play the tunes with a dotted rhythm, & go slow. Also bending notes fits well into bluegrass - but I prefer sliding up from the fret below to a bend in Irish music. Well you've got enough info to be well on your way, let us know how it comes along.
PS lots of coffee helps too!!
# Posted on December 12th 2001 by B Rad
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Brad: Is a tune a tune when it's played on a didgeroo? Or a bodhran? On a more serious note, I am taking your advise about seeking out an teacher type - I have my first meeting on 12/28. Got her name from the session I frequent, she comes highly recommended. She doesn't play flute, but that's ok - I'm more looking for stylistic critique.
That's interesting about the fingerstyling. How do you get a fast reel up to speed? Lots of hammering and pulloffs or a flamenco-style picado? Or something else? I love jigs and hornpipes too, but work a lot on fast reels because they're really difficult for me. My favorite set (as of today, anyway) is The Carillion/Young Tom Ennis/Mouse in the Mug.
Have you thought about getting into some higher position work? Most Irish-style flatpickers (only one, really) I've seen to date play down in the booming range, but the bluegrass guys I used to know used to be able to sometimes travel up the neck and play there right in the fiddle range. It made a nice contrast with the lower range - like one time through low and the next time through high.
I'm not sure about the comment about Irish music being more lilting than Bluegrass. I hear a lot of Irish players playing very straight eighths on reels, and lots of bluegrass players played with a slight swing. Of course, the only basis for comparison, really, is reels. (There are some hornpipes in the Bluegrass repertoire, but they're invariably played as reels.) But the reels in Irish music are often done as fast as those in Bluegrass. The really fast tunes in Bluegrass are the breakdowns - I'd agree that Irish reels are hardly ever done THAT fast.
Zina: What if a tune plays easy on both a fiddle and a whistle? Is it then a fistle tune? Or maybe a whiddle tune (but only if it's really short)?
Joe
# Posted on December 12th 2001 by jomac
Fistle
Yes, you got it. There's even a radio program called The Fistle And The Shamrock, dedicated to tunes of this kind.
# Posted on December 12th 2001 by glauber
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
*snicker* A "whiddle" tune...hehehe
# Posted on December 12th 2001 by Zina Lee
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Waddayaknow; the term fiddle tune, used for generations, the fiddlers prerogative to name trad tunes after their own instrument, is hereby edited out of history. All thanks to this mailing list.
I'll pick up my guitar right now and do a guiddle tune.
The point with the guitar being an illogical choice for rendering 21st century tunes, I guess, isn't that it sounds plain awful, it's just that you have to put an extra effort into playing a tune the same way as, for example, a fiddle or a mandolin player, where the instrument, after all, is tuned more logically. Me think...
# Posted on December 12th 2001 by flatpick
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
Waddayaknow; the term fiddle tune, used for generations, the fiddlers prerogative to name trad tunes after their own instrument, is hereby edited out of history. All thanks to this mailing list.
I'll pick up my guitar right now and do a guiddle tune.
The point with the guitar being an illogical choice for rendering 21st century tunes, I guess, isn't that it sounds plain awful, it's just that you have to put an extra effort into playing a tune the same way as, for example, a fiddle or a mandolin player, where the instrument, after all, is tuned more logically. Me think...
# Posted on December 12th 2001 by flatpick
And yes, there is something wrong with my computer...
# Posted on December 12th 2001 by flatpick
Drowsey Tabby
I do use some hammer-ons/offs but I use octave triplets alot too. I use the 1,2 & 3 fingers for the melody & thumb the bass drones. I've never been a "pattern finger picker" I just use what's natural. I put "Drowsey Maggie" into tabledit form that I can send to you Joe to get a perspective of how I play it.
If anyone else wants it let me know...
# Posted on December 13th 2001 by B Rad
Octave triplets
What are octave triplets?
# Posted on December 13th 2001 by glauber
Octave Triplets
An "octave triplet" is my own little onrament that I found handy for a guitar. in ABC it would be (3AaA or (3DdD - something that wouldn't work to well on a flute or a fiddle. I found that on the guitar if the tripleted note is also the root of the chord the "octave triplet" is a nice way of adding a drone while ornamenting the note.
# Posted on December 13th 2001 by B Rad
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
As a mandolin player, when I pick up a guitar I instinctively do the same sort of thing as I do on the mandolin. The different tuning (I tend to play in standard or 'drop D' tuning) naturally lends itself to slightly different ornamentation - mainly which open strings can be used and where. As on the mandolin, I tend to pick every note rather than hammering on and pullling off. I wouldn't call myself a guitarist, but it sounds good to me. I find the guitar is nice for playing slow tunes (or fast tunes slowly) as notes can be slurred and bent more easlily than on mabdolin.
# Posted on December 14th 2001 by CreadurMawnOrganig
I beg your pardon - mandolin.
# Posted on December 14th 2001 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: fiddletunes for guitar
A good source for fiddletunes if you can use tab is Granger's Fiddle Tunes for Guitar. It's got close to 500 tunes in a form of tab that Adam developed that's pretty easy to read and that convey's timing.
I have it and think that it's one of the most useful sources you can get.
You can order it from Adam Granger at
http://www.granger-music.com/
# Posted on December 17th 2001 by jeff_willner