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Thread: Marga's Moment

  1. #1
    Registered User Paul Brett's Avatar
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    Default Marga's Moment

    Anyone ever try Marga's Moment? I'm trying to get my head around it but the 7/8 timing is beating me. I'm listening to it on Brian Finnegan's album The Ravishing Genius of Bones or Dave Kosky and Damian O'Kane's version.

    Counting to seven is very hard!

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    Registered User Rodney Riley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Marga's Moment


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  4. #3
    Confused... or?
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    Default Re: Marga's Moment

    Quote Originally Posted by Paul Brett View Post
    ... the 7/8 timing is beating me.
    While a struggle at first, my mandolin orchestra did eventually get Lulebore (The Snowflower) last season, a middle European folk song in 7/8. I suspect that few really count to 7; try it as 1-2-3-1-2-1-2, much easier to internalize.

    But hey, I still can't count along with Dave Brubeck's "Count 5".
    - Ed

    "Then one day we weren't as young as before
    Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
    But by all those roads, my friend, we've travelled down
    I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you."
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    Registered User foldedpath's Avatar
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    Default Re: Marga's Moment

    That's a nice tune, not the hardest 7/8 I've ever heard, like some of the Eastern European/Macedonian stuff where the beat shifts around. You should be able to get it with practice.

    Like Ed said above, if you have trouble internalizing the full 7 beats, just break it down. For this particular tune, it feels like the phrasing fits in a 4+3, 4+3, 4+3 pattern. Just remember to keep the overall tempo steady if you think of it this way, so it doesn't get choppy and the tune flows along smoothly.

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    Registered User Paul Brett's Avatar
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    Default Re: Marga's Moment

    Thanks for the replies, the alternative counting helps. I'm counting 12, 12, 123 and it seems to work for me. Not sure what my guitar player is going to do, but that's his problem.

  8. #6
    Registered User zoukboy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Marga's Moment

    Try picking "down-up" "down-up" "down-up-down" in each measure (and make sure the first downbeat in each measure is another downstroke):

    down-up down-up down-up-down
    1 2 1 2 1 2 3

    Also, some folks I know prefer to count the pulses rather than the micropulse, like this: "one two three-and" with "one""two" and "three" being quarter notes while the "and" is an eighth note.

  9. #7
    String-Bending Heretic mandocrucian's Avatar
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    Default Re: Marga's Moment

    I've been listening to Finnegan's The Ravishing Genius of Bones lately, along with studio and live tracks from KAN. (Flook are one of my favorite groups. ) I really like Finnegan's (and Flook's, and Kan's) tunes; he isn't intimidated by odd and or mixed meter and any rigid adherence to 8 or 12 bar etc. structures. When it's done 'right' you shouldn't really be conscious that they are mixed/odd/crooked/etc at all because they flow, (until maybe you start to learn or notate the piece.)

    Similarly, I also like Michael McGoldrick's albums such as Fused and Wired a lot.

    Frankly, I don't make much of an effort to listen to "mandolin music" any more, as I prefer the articulation/phrasing inherent with other instruments, and a much bigger component of the playing styles of those instruments. But now and then, some album will have some mandolin playing on it that evokes the mental response...."That was really nice playing. Excellent job!" And "Marga's Moment" did that for me. (I think the mandolin player was someone named Rex Preston.) In fact, I was going to post the YouTube of the tune in a new thread, only to notice that it was already being discussed. The second tune is "Crooked Still Reel"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74H2p30PIx0


    I would count this as: ||1 2 3-&-ah | 1 2 3-&-ah | (or... ||1-& 2-& 3-&-ah |1-& 2-& 3-&-ah | )

    Hint: Sing the melody with the count as the words. Or you can alternate the count with pick directions (D D Dud or Du Du Dud) You don't have to have the instrument in hand to "practice"; getting it into your head first before into the hands is almost always (imo) "better".

    Niles H

    PS: If you haven't checked out Finnish mandolin player Jarmo Romppanen on YouTube yet, do so. I really like how he plays.

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    Default Re: Marga's Moment

    Quote Originally Posted by mandocrucian View Post
    I've been listening to Finnegan's The Ravishing Genius of Bones lately, along with studio and live tracks from KAN. (Flook are one of my favorite groups. ) I really like Finnegan's (and Flook's, and Kan's) tunes; he isn't intimidated by odd and or mixed meter and any rigid adherence to 8 or 12 bar etc. structures. When it's done 'right' you shouldn't really be conscious that they are mixed/odd/crooked/etc at all because they flow, (until maybe you start to learn or notate the piece.)

    Similarly, I also like Michael McGoldrick's albums such as Fused and Wired a lot.

    Frankly, I don't make much of an effort to listen to "mandolin music" any more, as I prefer the articulation/phrasing inherent with other instruments, and a much bigger component of the playing styles of those instruments. But now and then, some album will have some mandolin playing on it that evokes the mental response...."That was really nice playing. Excellent job!" And "Marga's Moment" did that for me. (I think the mandolin player was someone named Rex Preston.) In fact, I was going to post the YouTube of the tune in a new thread, only to notice that it was already being discussed. The second tune is "Crooked Still Reel"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74H2p30PIx0


    I would count this as: ||1 2 3-&-ah | 1 2 3-&-ah | (or... ||1-& 2-& 3-&-ah |1-& 2-& 3-&-ah | )

    Hint: Sing the melody with the count as the words. Or you can alternate the count with pick directions (D D Dud or Du Du Dud) You don't have to have the instrument in hand to "practice"; getting it into your head first before into the hands is almost always (imo) "better".

    Niles H

    PS: If you haven't checked out Finnish mandolin player Jarmo Romppanen on YouTube yet, do so. I really like how he plays.
    Hey Lord of the Badgers on this forum knows Rex, if it was him playing, and even bought Rex’s old Phil Davidson mandolin. Wonder if this was recorded on that instrument Badger?

    Robbie

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    Default Re: Marga's Moment

    Agreed. The Ravishing Genius Of Bones is a really great album. Rex Preston does indeed play mandolin on it, although there isn't mandolin on every track (from memory only two, I think).
    There are a lot of other cool musicians though, including Ed Boyd and John Joe Kelly from Flook and the English five string banjo player Leon Hunt.

    Recommended.
    David A. Gordon

  13. #10
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    Default Re: Marga's Moment

    Here is some of Rex Preston's music, featuring Phil Davidson's instruments.

    David A. Gordon

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