Here is a tune by Nathaniel Gow from Nigel Gatherer's new tunebook " The Great Scottish Composers" available to download free from his site
Thanks, maudlin, for the hint to this treasure. It is challenging to play this tune, for me as a Non-Scottish.
I had a go at this because of the name and its link to Dalhousie Castle near Edinburgh which is now a nice but very expensive hotel. Not that my recording is an improvement of the original post which I later found - I'll get the snap yet
Malcolm, another great choice of tune. You get a really rich tone out of that instrument and this one flows nicely. The snaps are a challenge, aren't they...?
You keep finding great tunes to work on, Malcolm. The snap is the key to a good Strathspey. A very good piper and piping tutor once gave me the tip for getting the Strathspey rhythm as pipers play them and her advice is always in my mind when I play. She taught her young pupils to think of the four beat pattern as being STRONG, weak, MEDIUM, weak. On mandolin aim to have that strong first beat in the bar on a downstroke.
My attempt at this. Just the mandolin this time. I thought I was following John's advice and then realized that I was playing the D in the first and third bars on the upstroke half the time. Oh well, I did try to give it some wellie on the first note of the bar.
Fine playing Richard, I like this version thanks. I’ve been trying to learn it today, this is the ‘metronome’ I’ve been using, I’m not sure how authentic it id with the triplets, I’ve been playing them as a measure of 6/8 which might not be quite right. May be the version played in Northumbrian https://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=t...l/england/3489
Thank you, Simon - that's very much appreciated. I'm in a strathspey mood apparently. I'm working on The Highlander's Farewell to Ireland for my migration project - a magnificent beast. That abc is a bit more complicated than the one I played, with all those triplets. I can't comment on the authenticity - John will know. But it can't be 6/8. The "triplet" in 6/8 is a dotted crotchet, whereas these are a single crotchet. You would lose the rhythm if you tried to stretch them out. I found it a bit of a challenge to get those descending triplets on the repeat of the B part in time - I hope I did. (I'd just add that coming from a mainly classical background where you play the notes in front of you, it's taken me a while to adjust to the idea that you can just change a tune to suit you. Again on the migration project, there was a tune with one pesky little triplet across two strings that I could never get right at full tempo. Finally I realized I could just leave out the middle note of the triplet and play it to time. Stick in some ornamentation elsewhere - no one will be any the wiser.) This is where I got my version from: https://thesession.org/tunes/2982. I don't know how to link to the specific abc - it's number 6.
Oops I didn’t mean triplets, I meant the groups of three eighths. Two groups in each measure for a jig, though there are many variations of jig rhythm. I find with the difficult parts I put the tune to one side and wait (sometimes months) until I have learned the specific required technique. Probably in the past people would have learned the tunes by ear and have an ‘average’ setting in mind, a bare bones version that they would embellish themselves. Lots of crooked tunes in those days, and song rhythms with line lengths that would vary with the number of words used or the dance moves involved.
Richard, you are certainly getting well into the Strathspey and its idiosyncratic rhythm patterns. This latest posting of yours is another fine example of your interpreting of the form. It is claimed that Scotland is the only nation that has the Strathspey in its musical library. You are right too in saying it is not in 6/8 time but in 4/4, the confusion coming in because of those groupings of three quavers notes, but never just six of them in any bar. If you tap your foot while playing (my version of a metronome) you can tap either 4 times per bar or reduce it to twice per bar, on beats 1 and 3. I know that I will often have one foot tapping 4 and the other tapping 2 beats - the frustrated drummer coming out in me. Simon also makes a very valid point about learning the tunes traditonally by ear and not relying slavishly on the written notation. For folk trained in a classical background where the score is the bible from which they play it can be quite a revelation to dispense with the notes and just play the tune. Recently while working on a set list for a wee gig I was doing back in December with a quartet of fiddlers (all of whom are accustomed to having the notation up in front of them) I suggested to them at the end of one of the rehearsals that we play a couple of tunes which they had memorised from their notation, and to play without putting the music up in front of them. We did this and the fluency of the playing seemed to increase quite noticeably once the "impediment" of having to keep an eye on the score was removed. And they enjoyed the experience of playing "free". When Scotland's world-renowned violinist Nicola Benedetti was preparing to record a CD of Scottish traditional tunes back around 2013 (Homecoming- A Scottish Fantasy) she turned to Aly Bain, Phil Cunningham and other traditional fiddlers and musicians to give her their advice on how to play her chosen tunes traditionally rather than as a classical violinist.
Thanks John - your thoughts and advice are always appreciated. Your previous comment about the strathspey rhythm (and where to put the emphasis) has really helped - especially in my work on Highlander's Farewell, which is more difficult than this one. It is a bit ridiculous to be shackled by the notes on the page, even playing classical music. And I am not Nicola Benedetti at the peak of her art, just some bloke playing for his own amusement in the basement. I should play whatever notes I choose. I have a couple of albums of classical guitarists tackling Scottish and Irish traditional music. One, by the Scottish guitarist David Russell, is absolutely immaculate and fairly terrible, I'm afraid, as an interpretation of the music. The other, by John Feeley from Ireland, is much better. Not quite sure why. It is equally immaculate, but he just has more, er, feel for the music. (He also has done concerts playing traditional tunes on James Joyce's restored guitar.)
Here is my attempt at this lovely Strathspey, played on mandolin with guitar backing. I find Strathspeys help me to relax as my shirt says! Nice gentle but elegant pace.
Woops! Sorry for double posting here. Can a moderator remove one of them?
This is great, John. It has that bit of extra tempo and punch that mine (I now see) lacks. Thank you.
Keep calm? That's difficult with this thread of headless mandolinists, like spectres singing serenades of silky-spooky strathspeys. It's a tricky rhythm, and for me it took John's recording to help it all snap into place.
Somehow, the ending made me wait for the final resting chord, like the one there was at the beginning, John. Or are they limited to one per tune?
Many thanks for comments and support, folks. Always appreciated from fellow players. Bertram, the opening chord is my trick for synchronising the camcorder audio and the REAPER audio when I load them into the video editor. Makes lining up the tracks visually a bit easier. It is also something I picked up from my years of playing for dancing, when the opening chords (or 4 or 8 bar intro) were the dancers' cue. The suspended, unresolved ending was in the notation I used and would lead on to the playing of a reel or other tune. It is also generally the case that we would end on a resolved chord too, especially in the dancing situation. I had thought of adding in Gow's Fairy Dance but this would have produced a rather long piece and taken ages to upload on my rather slow broadband here.
Bertram, I like it when these tunes don't resolve. The way they just hang there adds a sense of mystery. Steve Owen wrote rather a good reel called The Brexit. That doesn't resolve either.
Richard, I understand that that reel doesn't resolve - we'll have to wait and see what tune comes after that
There's a jig called The Recession, Bertram.
Oh, or The Repeal of the Union.
Someone has to blink first in this stand-off, gents. Reminds me of those iconic close-ups in the Spaghetti Westerns like A Fistful of Dollars!
I couldn't find blinking. This is winking (I hope - haven't used these before.)
does alternate closing and opening of eyes count?
Depends on the tempo and frequency of the ocular movements, Bertram.
Very nice solid strathspey playing there, John I enjoyed that thanks. There was a slide and two slip jigs I found while looking for a suitable ‘together’-titled and Brexit-related tune but nothing really much fun.
Thanks, Simon. I would imagine anything associated with Brexit could hardly be associated with much fun! I am a Scot who wanted to remain in the EU.
-and I’m almost a Frenchman! I made a delicious meal this morning that I’ve decided to name, a Mug-Pancake. Pizza flour, one egg, butter, teaspoon of bicarbonate raising mix, and honey mixed in a big mug. (Fills 1/3 to 1/2 of the mug) Then a dollop of apple-coconut jam in the centre and sugar/lemon juice on top. Then 3 minutes in the microwave oven. Voila! Then 2 minutes to eat the ‘delicious sweet pudding’ and back to playing mandolin in under 8 minutes! The best thing is that I don’t have to waste valuable practise time in doing washing up. I then make a hot chocolate in the same mug! BTW, I’m all cheerful because by the time I’ve finished my hot chocolate we’ll probably all be back in Europe again.
John, I was hovering this morning, wondering whether to post pretty much the same that you did. Brexit and fun don't really belong in the same sentence. (It may be the 12% reduction in my retirement income that did it, grumpy old man that I am.) But I thought maybe there were some ground rules against talking politics... Simon, your recipe leaves me speechless with... well, speechless, anyway. Have you thought about writing a mandolinist's cookbook? You could microwave the pancake in a Mandolin Cafe merchandise mug. And feature it in a video.
I note with interest but little surprise how ... 1.) The group has a very European flavour these days. 2.) Simon can eat delicious treats because all the hiking keeps him lean. 3.) Certain social attitudes seem to correlate with mandolin playing and general likeability. We can conclude from this that the Mandolin Café has done a fantastic job of promoting the mandolin and supporting mandolin players on both sides of the Atlantic, that the mandolin keeps body and soul healthy, and that mandolin players are nice people.
Now it's out, I can say that from what I read, Brexit is not fun but pun by two men one of whom can't afford a comb. Voters who took it seriously voted for it while the rest who realized it was pun just stayed at home, and a mock majority was formed. Later generations will wonder how this could happen. But I am with Dennis in that this group is a worthy replacement. Let's form the European Mandolin Union (EMU).
Great idea about producing MandolinCafe mug-pancake videos Richard then I could promote oxygen as a slimming aid. Thanks Dennis, though I think you’re wrong about exercise being good for you. My secret to staying lean is to consume huge quantities of oxygen.
My secret to losing weight is staying away from sugar, got rid of 10 kg in 6 months that way. Replacing ice cream with single malt was a step in the right direction.
Plus 1 for a European Mandolin Union (EMU), Bertram. With that acronym it could really fly - oh no, just remembered - EMU is not noted for flight!
Simon, selling oxygen seems very much in tune with the spirit of the age. Bertram, I have also had great results on the single malt diet. But isn't EMU already taken as an acronym. If we were to present Christine Lagarde with a Mandolin Cafe mug, preferably with one of Simon's pancakes inside, do you think she would give it up?
