Last night I was practicing tunes with a friend of mine and she told a funny story about how, several years ago, she was living in an old straw bale house (built of stacked-up bales of straw and covered in plaster/stucco).
One afternoon, she came home from work to find some cows had broken out of their paddock and were actually eating some of the 60-year-old straw that was sticking out through a few small holes in the stucco. She was unfamiliar with cows and had to wait from some other folks to come along to help her stop the cows from eating her house.
That phrase, "Stop the Cows from Eating my House" struck me as a neat name for a tune. Probably something bouncy and up-beat to portray the humorous nature of the situation.
This, of course, leads me to ask some questions about composing tunes.
How many tune authors take an idea (like above) and make a tune to suit?
Or, is it more common to develop a melody and think up a tune name, later?
How would you go about deciding what sort of tune this would become, and why?
Personally, I'd probably go for a jig or a hornpipe because most of the reels I hear sound to "driven" for the imagery.
Mind you, I've never composed a tune, before, so I'd probably go about it all "wrong"
Slip Jig if it was me, in such an instance, and I'd call it "The Cow that ate the wall" because it's shorter and more metrical (at least to the way I'm thinking). It wouldn't have to be *that* bouncy because cows aren't particularly bouncy (the ones I've known).
Inspiration can strike at random. I'm currently reading a book that has a "song" in it, no tune, just the words. This tends to bug me, having words to a song but no tune, so I made up a tune to go along with the words. After singing it, I realized I'm not the best singer in the world. So, I transposed the notes to my fiddle and had a brand new song written. Well, the tune, that is. I'm working on a harmony, maybe for a cello or viola, but that won't come until I actually get the notes down on a staff. There's a computer program, I think it's called Finale (there are a few versions of it) that allows you to plug in notes wherever you want on a staff with just about any instrument you can imagine. Poof - new song! It's easy to write your own stuff with the program, because you can listen to it as you write it. But overall I'd say a tune comes to me before the name or "idea" for it does. One thing's for sure, though; there's no way you can "go about it all 'wrong' ", because I personally don't think there's any wrong way to write a song. It's good to have an idea of where you're going with it, though.
Depends who the piper is. "The Cow that ate Isaac Alderson" would be a bit of a mouthful but what about "The Cow that ate Joe Doyle" - the latter definitely sounds tuneful to me!
Or you could call it
"If you are after complaining about the cows eating your house then maybe you should have thought about making it out of something other than straw"
By Gum, it's music already...
I have the Finale software that Freehorn mentioned, and I would strongly recommend it. You can download a free version here. http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/
~Kit
. . . that reminds me, i still have to write a tune for_ 'dead Blackcap in the glove compartment' _which actually occured during a tour in Norway with 'The Tide'
It's like the joke about the Indian chief who was asked how he named the newborn babies in the tribe and replied that it was whatever he saw first after seeing the baby - you know the rest, 2 dogs f.......
If you come up with a tune then just look around you and the name will come. For example I wrote a tune whilst preforming a lengthy backup in the days when computers were really sloooow. The title: "Backin' Up". How's that for earth-shattering imagination.
i like to give heads titles to write their own tunes to
so still waiting for brendan ring's 'jig from hell', gary connerly's 'coke can in the door' and (more recently) mark conyard's 'the rakes of brackens', to name but a few . . .
I love this sort of thing. I'd think up a name first and then play the tune because I would get inspiration from the name.
"The lonesome boatman" is an example of a tune that really suits its name.
But you also have oddballs like "The Marino Waltz" which is simply so called because John Sheehan (The composer) wrote this tune while in his grandmothers house which was in Marino, Co.Dublin.
Bannerman, I know a Joe Doyle and to picture this Joe being eaten by a cow is really funny :p
Composing tunes....
Composing tunes....
Last night I was practicing tunes with a friend of mine and she told a funny story about how, several years ago, she was living in an old straw bale house (built of stacked-up bales of straw and covered in plaster/stucco).
One afternoon, she came home from work to find some cows had broken out of their paddock and were actually eating some of the 60-year-old straw that was sticking out through a few small holes in the stucco. She was unfamiliar with cows and had to wait from some other folks to come along to help her stop the cows from eating her house.
That phrase, "Stop the Cows from Eating my House" struck me as a neat name for a tune. Probably something bouncy and up-beat to portray the humorous nature of the situation.
This, of course, leads me to ask some questions about composing tunes.
How many tune authors take an idea (like above) and make a tune to suit?
Or, is it more common to develop a melody and think up a tune name, later?
How would you go about deciding what sort of tune this would become, and why?
Personally, I'd probably go for a jig or a hornpipe because most of the reels I hear sound to "driven" for the imagery.
Mind you, I've never composed a tune, before, so I'd probably go about it all "wrong"
# Posted on August 9th 2005 by KeepFiddlin'
Re: Composing tunes....
ha ha, the right's and wrongs of it ... on your marks ... get set ...
# Posted on August 9th 2005 by llig leahcim
Re: Composing tunes....
Slip Jig if it was me, in such an instance, and I'd call it "The Cow that ate the wall" because it's shorter and more metrical (at least to the way I'm thinking). It wouldn't have to be *that* bouncy because cows aren't particularly bouncy (the ones I've known).
# Posted on August 9th 2005 by Innocent Bystander
Re: Composing tunes....
Inspiration can strike at random. I'm currently reading a book that has a "song" in it, no tune, just the words. This tends to bug me, having words to a song but no tune, so I made up a tune to go along with the words. After singing it, I realized I'm not the best singer in the world. So, I transposed the notes to my fiddle and had a brand new song written. Well, the tune, that is. I'm working on a harmony, maybe for a cello or viola, but that won't come until I actually get the notes down on a staff. There's a computer program, I think it's called Finale (there are a few versions of it) that allows you to plug in notes wherever you want on a staff with just about any instrument you can imagine. Poof - new song! It's easy to write your own stuff with the program, because you can listen to it as you write it. But overall I'd say a tune comes to me before the name or "idea" for it does. One thing's for sure, though; there's no way you can "go about it all 'wrong' ", because I personally don't think there's any wrong way to write a song. It's good to have an idea of where you're going with it, though.
# Posted on August 9th 2005 by Freehorn
Re: Composing tunes....
Thank goodness the cow didn't eat a piper - no-one would ever get away with a tune named after that . . .
# Posted on August 9th 2005 by showaddydadito
Re: Composing tunes....
Depends who the piper is. "The Cow that ate Isaac Alderson" would be a bit of a mouthful but what about "The Cow that ate Joe Doyle" - the latter definitely sounds tuneful to me!
# Posted on August 9th 2005 by Bannerman
Re: Composing tunes....
Names are just bagdes.
we doe neeed no steeenking badges
# Posted on August 9th 2005 by P.browne
Re: Composing tunes....
Or you could call it
"If you are after complaining about the cows eating your house then maybe you should have thought about making it out of something other than straw"
By Gum, it's music already...
# Posted on August 9th 2005 by Innocent Bystander
Re: Composing tunes....
I have the Finale software that Freehorn mentioned, and I would strongly recommend it. You can download a free version here.
http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/
~Kit
# Posted on August 9th 2005 by Fiddlekit
Re: Composing tunes....
. . . that reminds me, i still have to write a tune for_ 'dead Blackcap in the glove compartment' _which actually occured during a tour in Norway with 'The Tide'
# Posted on August 10th 2005 by lisaniska
Re: Composing tunes....
It's like the joke about the Indian chief who was asked how he named the newborn babies in the tribe and replied that it was whatever he saw first after seeing the baby - you know the rest, 2 dogs f.......
If you come up with a tune then just look around you and the name will come. For example I wrote a tune whilst preforming a lengthy backup in the days when computers were really sloooow. The title: "Backin' Up". How's that for earth-shattering imagination.
# Posted on August 10th 2005 by Donough
Re: Composing tunes....
MANY years ago when I was learning to juggle, I composed a reel.
( I didn't actually compose it whilst I was juggling you understand )
Anyway, I'm afraid to say I called it The Jugglers Balls.
# Posted on August 10th 2005 by curlew
Re: Composing tunes....
You have to send that tune to Will, Curlew....
# Posted on August 10th 2005 by Zina Lee
Re: Composing tunes....
I like to make up the weirdest names...(like the Crusty Weenis)
# Posted on August 14th 2005 by paratroopers
Re: Composing tunes....
I play tunes called:
The sugar's in the spotty one
Dead dog on the lampshade
Wasp up the skirt
Bonny black beetle
Yer pig's on fire!
The people who compose them tend to take whatever phrase people are saying at the time. Nobody forgets the tunes or the titles!
# Posted on August 14th 2005 by flying tigerpig
Re: Composing tunes....
i like to give heads titles to write their own tunes to
so still waiting for brendan ring's 'jig from hell', gary connerly's 'coke can in the door' and (more recently) mark conyard's 'the rakes of brackens', to name but a few . . .
but can't think of jim murphy's one at the minute
# Posted on August 16th 2005 by lisaniska
Re: Composing tunes....
I love this sort of thing. I'd think up a name first and then play the tune because I would get inspiration from the name.
"The lonesome boatman" is an example of a tune that really suits its name.
But you also have oddballs like "The Marino Waltz" which is simply so called because John Sheehan (The composer) wrote this tune while in his grandmothers house which was in Marino, Co.Dublin.
Bannerman, I know a Joe Doyle and to picture this Joe being eaten by a cow is really funny :p
# Posted on August 20th 2005 by PaddyCmusic