Week #512 ~ The Liffey Banks

  1. Barbara Shultz
    Barbara Shultz
    This week's winner is The Liffey Banks,which was submitted as an IT reel.

    Here is a link to 4 settings of this tune on thesession.org, which says it's also known as The Banks Of The Liffey, Colleen Ban, Colleen Bawn, Dinny O’Brien’s.

    some videos:



  2. Robert Balch
    Robert Balch
    Here is another nice version from YouTube

  3. Jess L.
    Jess L.
    Robert Balch wrote: "Here is another nice version from YouTube"

    Yep, that video is very nice!

    I wanted to see if I could transcribe Eden Pool's wonderful fiddling in the video above. YouTube now has a 1/4-speed option with audio, so I utilized that, which helps considerably in figuring out fiddle tunes, and the YouTube 1/4 speed sound quality seems somewhat better than my usual Audacity slowdown technique. So then I used MuseScore on the computer, to write down the notes that I heard, or thought I heard anyway - no guarantees of accuracy! Has both standard notation and tab:

    Printable PDF of transcription. That link has both a preview you can view in your browser, as well as a Download link (arrow on phone, button on computer) to download the PDF file for printing and offline use. No log-in required.

    But then I got to wondering about what the chords might be. Rather than try to guess and second-guess what chords they're using in the video (I'm not very good at figuring out that sort of thing), I started from scratch with just the melody notes and tinkered around with a backing app for awhile, trying out different chords. Here's what I settled on, at least for now. Some of my chords are probably wrong but I can't always tell the difference. This is just the MIDI playback of the transcription notes in MuseScore (melody) and Chordpulse (chords in backing track app) played simultaneously, saved here as an mp3 audio file so it should play right here in this webpage if you click the little arrow:


    (Note: Above audio works fine on my PC but on my Android phone in Chrome "dark mode", the mp3 player controls are barely visible, so if you can't see the mp3 player controls then here is a download link for it.)

    On the off chance that any of those chords sound right, here is the list of chords I used - the dots indicate additional beats of the preceding chord, and the vertical lines indicate barlines:

    Part A:
    | G . . . | C . Gsus/D . | Em7 . Am7 . | Dsus . C . |
    | G . . . | Csus2 . Gsus/D . | Em . C6 . | D9 . G . |
    | G . . . | C . Gsus/D . | Em . C6 . | D . D6/A . |
    | G . . . | Csus2 . Gsus/D . | Em . C6 . | D9 . G . |

    Part B:
    | G . . . | . . C . | G . . . | . . D . |
    | Em7 . . . | Am . . . | C . . . | D . . . |
    | G . . . | . . C . | G . . . | . . D . |
    | Em7 . . . | D . . . | C . . . | D . . . |

    Part A again, melody variation 2:
    | G . . . | C . Gsus/D . | Em7 . Am7 . | Dsus . C . |
    | G . . . | Csus2 . Gsus/D . | Em . C6 . | D9 . G . |
    | G . . . | C . Gsus/D . | Em . C6 . | D . D6/A . |
    | G . . . | Csus2 . Gsus/D . | Em . C6 . | D9 . G . |

    Part B again, melody variation 2:
    | G . . . | . . C . | G . . . | . . D . |
    | Em7 . . . | Am . . . | C . . . | D . . . |
    | G . . . | . . C . | G . . . | . . D . |
    | Em7 . . . | D . . . | C . . . | D . . . |

    Part A, melody variation 3:
    | G . . . | C . G/D . | Em7 . Am7 . | Dsus . C . |
    | G . . . | Csus2 . G/D . | Em . C6 . | Dsus . . . |
    | G . . . | C . G/D . | Em . C6 . | Dsus . C . |
    | G . . . | Csus2 . G/D . | Em . C6 . | Dsus . . . |

    Part B, melody variation 3:
    | G . . . | . . C . | G . . . | . . D . |
    | Em7 . . . | Am . . . | C . . . | D . . . |
    | G . . . | . . C . | G . . . | . . D . |
    | Em7 . . . | D . . . | C . . . | D . . . |

    Outro:
    | G . . . | . . . . |

    That's all I have so far.
  4. Robert Balch
    Robert Balch
    Wow JL277z ! That was a lot of work. I really appreciate all the effort you put into this. I am looking forward to playing through this version.
  5. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Much, much appreciated JL,
    I’ve been away for a while over Christmas and this is a nice Christmas present.
    Yes I still can’t remember a tune even if I can pay it by ear so many thanks...
    and Happy New Year everyone!
  6. Jess L.
    Jess L.
    Thanks Robert and Simon!
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