Dance tune: Newcastle (John Playford, English Dancing Master)

[Jess L.]

My somewhat unorthodox arrangement of a 1651 John Playford tune. It's a lot of fun to play but I'm still just learning this tune, so the recording is far from perfect. Three-part multi-track, my usual instruments.


(or direct link)

[Jess L.]

Below: practice MIDI backing track + scrolling mandolin tab + standard-notation sheet music. Sound is MuseScore 2 MIDI-only playback of the written notes. This is the arrangement I wrote out and played along with for a few weeks whenever I had time/energy to practice, it helped me to learn to play the tune... although in above video I diverged quite a bit from my written score, as I always do... the score is just a starting point for me... I still like the bass line though, I didn't change that part hardly at all. Anyway, maybe someone else will find it useful too... if nothing else, one could use it instead of a metronome, to help keep the rhythm while practicing.


(or direct link)

Next week when I have time, I will make a slow-speed version of the above sheetmusic video, it will have far better sound quality than using YouTube's built-in slowdowner function which always seems to degrade the audio quality (at least on non-HD videos which mine usually are).

Printable pdf file of the above sheet music and tab, this will need two sheets of paper if you print it out:


(previews shows black but it's a normal pdf)

Note that the tab is applicable to just about anything tuned in fifths (GDAE, standard mandolin tuning and it also happens to be fiddle tuning of course), so you can use the tab on mandolin as well as GDAE tenor guitar, octave mandolin, etc. It probably makes sense to assign the melody line to a higher pitched instrument such as mandolin, and the bass line to something lower pitched like say a tenor guitar etc., but hey there aren't any rules, adapt to suit.

For a more authoritative version of the tune, looks like the internet has quite a few links to other people's written versions of this tune, for instance:

• TheSession.org
  
• TraditionalMusic.co.uk
  
• AbcNotation.com version 1
  
• AbcNotation.com version 2

Misc:
Video production trivia:

• Sheetmusic and tab written with free open-source software MuseScore 2, Windows desktop version.
  
  
• MIDI sound generated by MuseScore 2 playing back the score.
  
  
• Audio captured with free open-source software Audacity. I made one pass through MuseScore and then aligned that recording to an Audacity click-track for all the subsequent repeats (I muted the click-track before exporting the completed sound file, so you do *not* have to listen to annoying clicks), because otherwise MuseScore inserts a tiny delay at the end of the score before resuming playing again even when 'repeats' are turned on. By aligning everything to the click-track, the timing should be accurate throughout the tune.
  
  
• Video captured with Bandicam. Same one-pass procedure as for audio, but aligned in next step (below).
  
  
• Audio capture and video capture combined using Adobe After Effects, which in this case isn't used for any fancy video "effects" but rather just for aligning the audio with the video, and adding text and background colors as necessary. Adobe After Effects is easier to deal with (more precise) than Windows Movie Maker, and AE lets you put things in layers which again is easier.

Edited to add:
Test of audio sync seems good here on PC, and also on a tablet using wifi, however Galaxy S5 phone audio sync has about 1/15 second lag (about 2 frames at 30fps, if I did my math right) - it's not much but it *is* noticeable. Maybe that is normal for some phones, not sure.

[scifi]

I love such style experiments :-)

Very good.

[Jess L.]

I love such style experiments :-)

Very good.

Thanks!

[Ginny Aitchison]

watch?v=gQYG5z5OvaI[/YOUTUBE]

Av avian take (off) of Newcastle by Celtic mandolins. John Kelly and Ginny Aitchison.

[Jess L.]

watch?v=gQYG5z5OvaI[/YOUTUBE]

Av avian take (off) of Newcastle by Celtic mandolins. John Kelly and Ginny Aitchison.

Sounds really nice! Let me see if I can fix your link:
Ginny's and John's Newcastle video