The Session: Tunes - Empty Beercans (jig)

Empty Beercans

I wrote this simple tune in the trad folk style to test out how abc notation works. Now I've got the hang of abc I will work on submitting some more original and complicated tunes.

i'm not really sure if it's a waltz or a jig, but I wrote the score in 3/4 time. It is supposed to be played at about crotchet = 190. Being so simple, it is quite good for improvising around.

Enjoy!

Nick

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by Nick Molyneux

"..submitting more original tunes....."

.....balanced, of course, by 5 traditional tunes for each original, as per the rules of the website.

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by Kenny

Put them in your member profile, Nick. If they enter the tradition, someone will enter them here.

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by the wounded hussar

Looks like 'Larry the Beerdrinker' got here first?

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by mrkelahan

Kenny was referring to the FAQs, in case you were wondering Nick. http://www.thesession.org/members/index/faqs

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by SmashTheWindows

Original tunes

Yes, Larry the Beerdrinker has been and gone. Probably nursing a hangover by now.

Sorry, I just posted my tune without reading the rules, in my excitement at mastering abc notation and joining this site! Didn't realise it was 5 trad tunes for one original.

Can someone define a 'trad tune' for me?

I can see the general point... but surely most trad tunes have been posted by now? This one (Empty Beercans) hovers somewhere between original and trad - how original can you truly be with a simple melody and two chords?

Anyway, best go off and read the rules!!

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by Nick Molyneux

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by SmashTheWindows

And a trad tune is something people play in sessions and so on, and not something you wrote yourself.

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by SmashTheWindows

And a little word of advice, don't use a site like this and ask "how original can you truly be with a simple melody and two chords". People here won't take kindly to that.

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by SmashTheWindows

"And a trad tune is something people play in sessions and so on, and not something you wrote yourself."

To clarify, you are still allowed to write tunes, but let people play them in sessions, learn them, pass them around in the spirit of the tradition, record them, submit them on here,

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by SmashTheWindows

Jig it is

Thanks - I will replace this version with yours as it reads better. As I said in the comments, I wasn't really sure if it was a jig or a waltz... it looked okay handwritten in score, but when put in ABC then converted back you're right it comes out with some weird stretched bars.

I didn't mean to cause offence by asking "how original can you be with a simple melody and two chords". In my opinion it's what you play and how you play it that count, not how complicated it is.

But what I meant was if you're writing a tune that follows a tried and tested chord progression and doesn't really push the boundaries of convention it would be cheeky to claim it as a wholly original composition. This sort of thing has been argued back and forth in the courts during certain cases involving copyright/intellectual property.

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by Nick Molyneux

One would find it hard to claim, for example, that an 8 bar phrase starting and ending on the tonic was yours and people would need to pay royalties if they wrote something similar.

Explore traditional music further, you'll get the idea.

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by SmashTheWindows

Oh, you need to take the

"X:1
T: Empty Beercans
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K:Emin"

out of the ABC you've just replaced it with, and go to the details page to change it from waltz to jig. Sorry, should have explained that better.

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by SmashTheWindows

Thanks. It won't let me remove that extra bit... it only lets me edit, and it doesn't show that bit in the part I edit. Have changed it to jig though.

I refer you to Half Man Half Biscuit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kaOGsC1S1s

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by Nick Molyneux

As in, you don't need it in the edit box at all. All you need in the box when you edit the ABC is the bit following on from the headers.

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by SmashTheWindows

sorted - thanks!

# Posted on January 10th 2012 by Nick Molyneux

"One would find it hard to claim, for example, that an 8 bar phrase starting and ending on the tonic was yours and people would need to pay royalties if they wrote something similar." - Nick Molyneux

I happens all the time. There are infinite possibilities...

Check here as one good example of many on site here where folks have added their compositions and the stories behind them ~

http://www.thesession.org/members/display/11048

And NO, we hardly have ALL the traditional tunes in the world on site here. I've been holding out and have several hundred, at the least, that aren't on site here yet... The real reason for Jeremy's gentle request is to try to keep things mostly to the tried and tested and universally known and loved, which the self composed, my own included, don't fit necessarily. However, quite a few new melodies that are in circulation, on recordings and regularly played in sessions, are also finding space here, even some, in my sense of it, that a cack, that pong...

# Posted on January 11th 2012 by ceolachan

Not my comment!

Ceolachan, You have quoted me as making that comment about an eight bar phrase, but it wasn't me, it was 'Smash the windows'. He was maybe being sarcastic- hard to tell in text.

Anyway, i get the point, this is not somewhere to promote new material, it is more a reference for old or current favourites.

# Posted on January 11th 2012 by Nick Molyneux

That's the best way of looking at it Nick, but there's a good few people on this site who come up with new tunes and put them in their member profile - the bit that says who you are etc. People will see them in due course and if they're on the same wavelength, may well have a go at playing them..

# Posted on January 11th 2012 by the wounded hussar

Will do. I will add some tunes to my profile once I've converted them into abc (that should keep me busy on the train journey to work).

# Posted on January 11th 2012 by Nick Molyneux

welcome to the site Nick

# Posted on January 12th 2012 by I ♥ Dow

Sorry Nick, it was late at night and I was working on auto-pilot, which I should be more careful of doing... But this is you:

"Anyway, i get the point, this is not somewhere to promote new material, it is more a reference for old or current favourites."

Yes, new too, and there are many folks who after trying something fresh and liking it have added it, picked up from a friend or a recording or on auto pilot. So don't hesitate to put things in your details. I've picked up a few there from others and after playing them for a spell and enjoying that - I've added them here, if with some of my influences sneaking into the mix. At least you respond in a way I respect, with understanding.

Best of health to you and yours and your music too ~ 'c' ;-)

# Posted on January 13th 2012 by ceolachan

If you need any help with ABCs, just ask, most of us are willing to lend a hand and give it our best...

# Posted on January 13th 2012 by ceolachan

ABCs

Thanks D.J.F.

And thanks ceolachan. I have added an ABC to my profile now if you want to check it out.

I think I have got the hang of ABCs now - but happy to hear of any improvements that could be made to this one. It has a tricky bit of timing in it (the staccato notes) which should perhaps be notated as tuplets or something, but I think the idea gets across with what I've done, and people can put their own interpretation on it.

# Posted on January 14th 2012 by Nick Molyneux