Key signature: Dmajor
Submitted on May 25th 2001 by Jeremy.
This tune has been added to 203 tunebooks.
Also known as Poor Scholar, The Poor Scholar, Scholar, The Scolair, The South Shore.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Scholar, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
|:dfaf gfeg|fdAG FGA=c|BGFG EFGg|fdec dcBA|
dfaf gfeg|fdAG FGA=c|BGFG EFGg|fdec d4:|
|:a2af dfaf|dfaf bagf|g2ge =cege|=cege afgf|
a2af dfaf|dfaf bagf|g2gf gbag|fdec d4:|
This is a tune of many faces. I've heard played as a hornpipe. I've heard it played lovely and slow. I've heard it played at breakneck speed.
Try playing with different tempos and phrasing to find the one that's right for you.
A nice little variation is to replace the opening two notes (d and f) with one long d note.
I really like the way that natural c note sticks out, especially in the second part.
Here's a great variation on the second part courtesy of Will Harmon:
a2 af dfaf| cfaf Bfaf|g2 ge cege|Bege Aege|
a2 af dfaf|cfaf Bfaf|g2 gf gbag|fdec defg|
# Posted on June 2nd 2001 by Jeremy
Goes well with the Teetotaler's Reel.
# Posted on December 3rd 2002 by lazyhound
True Story
Let the contest begin!
I've added some details, omitted from the original version to keep it short.
Some people say they would be annoyed if a person walked into their session expecting to play jigs and reels on their saxophone or Moravian nose flute. Well, those aren't the worst instruments ever uncased. To wit:
A "musician" once came to a session here in Montana (in Missoula, actually), intent on playing his rocks--or as Zina puts it, getting his rocks off. Yep, stones--not bones. That's not a typo. This guy had picked up two baking potato-sized cobblestones from the Clark Fork River and claimed they were "finely tuned" (which is more than we could say about him). They were nice, rounded river-polished lumps of granite, suitable for paperweights, or stops for your screen door.
But when the circle launced into the Scholar, he proceeded to bang his rocks against each other as loud as possible and in no discernible rhythm--kinda like "uber" bones played by a manic chimp.
He became very irate when the session leader asked--no, *told*--him to stop. Now that I think about it, the leader said something to the effect of putting the rocks back where they came from, down as deep as they'd sink--and then under his breath suggesting that the with any luck the rocks would be in the player's own pockets when they hit bottom.
To top it off, the rocker, er, stone-ist, swore his head off as he left, calling the leader (a friend of mine) a &$%#@ing elitist $%#&* with no musical taste.
I've always enjoyed the Scholar, but it's a shame we weren't playing the Rocks of Cashel, the Stoney Step, Rocky Road to Dublin, Gravel Walks, Eleanor "Plunkett" (sorry ;o), or perhaps--wistfully--the Rolling Waves....
# Posted on March 10th 2003 by Will CPT
The South Shore
I learnt this as a James Hill hornpipe called "The South Shore":
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/1752
# Posted on June 14th 2003 by Dow