Key signature: Eminor
Submitted on September 24th 2009 by Fr-Ma.
This tune has been added to 6 tunebooks.
X: 1
T: Strange Dance, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Emin
EEE BBB | eee ggg | eee _e3 | ccc BBB |
FFF EEE | BBB eee | _e3 ccc | BBB FFF :|
EEE GGG | EGE AAA | EEE GGG | FFF E3 |
EEE GGG | EEE AAA | BAG AGF | GFD E3 :|
First tune
The first tune that I wrote, I don't know if it's correct. Please give me some suggestions.
# Posted on September 24th 2009 by Fr-Ma
FAQs ~ Can I submit my own compositions?
Well... The Session isn't really intended for that. If you do post one of your own compositions, then you must do your "penance", so to speak, by balancing each original composition with about five trad tunes...
~ Jeremy, our webmaster...
# Posted on September 25th 2009 by ceolachan
I take it this is an 'exercise' for a beginner wind player? It's not a 'slip jig' and there's hardly a melody in it, and with the broken bar ~ | FFF | ~ meaning the A-part goes from 27/8 to 21/8, it's pretty much useless as a dance tune, and doesn't even make a decent Balkan tune, let alone Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Manx, Cornish, Breton or English... But, if it makes you happy, c'est la vie...
# Posted on September 25th 2009 by ceolachan
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/22721
# Posted on September 25th 2009 by No Cause For Alarm
Well, if a beginner waits some suggestions on his work, ceolachan will break his dream to play traditionnal music ! I have some difficulties to learn traditionnal music by myself, I have no teacher, no friend who knows music. So I tried this method with this website and ITM players, but apparently this is not the good way. I will make it by myself.
"...it's pretty much useless as a dance tune, and doesn't even make a decent Balkan tune, let alone Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Manx, Cornish, Breton or English... " Ouch, it hurts!
Thank you anyway.
# Posted on September 25th 2009 by Fr-Ma
Learn the music as it exists, use your ears, ask useful questions and you will get some great direction from the lot here, and, not rare, some ribbing too, you might even get some stick. To think you can learn and understand this music by inventing your own ~ in ever way, is just plain daft. The chance that you live someplace where there's absolutly no musical knowledge amongst the immediate community is not likely, not impossible, but not likely. That you have access to this site means you have access to a huge store of music, including the likes of U-Tube, where you can hear and see musicians giving this a go.
So, you want to understand slip jigs, ABC notation ~ you don't do it by slapping together a juvenile melody and calling it a slip jig. You listen to and play slip jigs... You listen and you listen and you listen and you listen, you seek, you ask, and maybe after you've enjoyed playing, maybe even dancing to, slip jigs, something of a slip jig might slip out that is unique enough to be called a compositions, yours, and that might sit comfortably amongst that class of 'dance' music.
Have fun toodling about, trying notes in sequence, but please, if you must, do as some others have here, like the 'Reverend', add your burps and hiccups and ~ in your details. Then, years down the line when you actually understand the music better, you can delete any embarrassments...
If you come here to learn something about this music, to seek to understand, great. I'd be glad to teach you a handful of slip jigs, from the tradition. I have also helped people to come to grips with notation, ABCs and dots and dance too, always willing to help if I can, or to direct someone to a good source for finding an answer to any reasonable query. But, if you're just interested in your own inventions ~ I shouldn't think they'd be missed if you take them elsewhere...
Best of luck ~ 'c'
# Posted on September 25th 2009 by ceolachan
In the 'details' ~
Revererend
http://www.thesession.org/members/display/11048
# Posted on September 25th 2009 by ceolachan
Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann ~ one source of ear education ~
http://comhaltas.ie/
http://comhaltas.ie/music/
“Foinn Seisiún - Volumes 1, 2, 3”
http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_book_volume_1/
http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_cd_volume_1/
http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_book_volume_2/
http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_cd_volume_2/
http://comhaltas.ie/blog/post/more_tunes_from_book_3/
http://comhaltas.ie/blog/post/more_tunes_from_book_3/
http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_cd_3/
If you reveal what your instrument(s) of choice is, say in your details, instrument specific recommendations could also be made...
http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_cd_3/
# Posted on September 25th 2009 by ceolachan
You are right, listening, practicing, listening again and practicing again, that's the key. I am not just interested by my own composition, surely not, I am just admirative to this music. I posted my tune as an exercise for me, to know if the tune was correctly transcribed. But I realise too late that The Session is not a place for that. In fact I am not really a beginner, I play whistle since almost two years, but it's entirely by ear or with the ABC notation. I have some difficulties to find the key signature or the time signature of a tune (of course I can make the difference between a reel and a jig) and sometimes I get lost, so I consider myself a beginner. And I feel like I miss the essential, the bases of music. And it's just that I want to learn : the scales, the modes, the type... those things are quite hard to understand for me. Do you know a good book to understand those things?
I will follow your suggestions, listen again and again, play again and again, ask the right questions & find a good book.
And sorry for having placed my poor tune in the archive
Thank you again.
# Posted on September 27th 2009 by Fr-Ma
"Do you know a good book to understand those things?"
I don't know of a book specifically on the topic of modes in the context of Irish Tradional Music. But there are many threads on this on the discussion board. Of course, they contain arguments, tangential discussion, wisecracks and probably a small amount of misinformation. But there's more than enough good information for you there. Here are a few to start you off:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display.php/8117
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/12866
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/11564
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display/2754
For information on keys and key signatures, there are plenty of books available on the rudiments of music theory.
But ultimately, listening is the way forward. If you can hear the notes and then play them, no matter how much time and effort that might take you at this stage, then you're going the right way about it. The theory is optional.
# Posted on September 27th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Fair play Fr-Ma...
You mentioned 'whistle', there are some good lessons and examples on offer online, along with the awful and the dross. One consistently good source is Brother Ryan Dunn, though he may be a Father by now ~
http://www.youtube.com/user/RyanDunsSJ
The 'theory' is better following the development of good ears and practice. Once that is given reasonable attention then the understanding of modes and the like tends to come more easily. Being able to read notation, ABCs or dots, is not as important as a physical understanding of the music, gaining a feeling for it.
Here are just a few basic scales for a D whistle ~ one octave ~ 'relevant keys', meaning they share the same accidentals ~
F# & C# ~
D Major ~ D - E - F# - G - A - B - c# - d
b minor ~ B - c# - d - e - f# - g - a - b
E Dorian ~ E - F# - G - A - B - c# - d - e
F# ~
G Major ~ G - A - B - c - d - e - f# - g
e minor ~ E - F# - G - A - B - c - d - e
A Dorian ~ A - B - c - d - e - f# - g - a
All other keys are possible, especially if you half-hole or use cross-fingerings. The above is just a basic introduction to a few basic common keys in this music as they are found easily on a D whistle...
There are also a number of decent book/recording lessons for winds/whistle you can purchase to take you further ~ such as that by Geraldine Cotter, also recommended...
# Posted on September 27th 2009 by ceolachan
Thank you for all those precisions.
# Posted on September 28th 2009 by Fr-Ma