Author: debfiddle

Deborah is a violinist and violist specialising in English folk music. She trained in viola and Baroque viola at Birmingham Conservatoire, before returning to her first love of traditional music, song and dance. Deborah has developed a passion for playing for dancing since joining her first ceilidh band at age 13. She is a member of Stepling, a band performing English music, step-dance, song and percussion, and also plays with Folk Dance Remixed, a dance company combining traditional dance with hip hop and street dance styles, with whom she has performed as such events as Car Fest, the Southbank's Festival of Love and Glasgow's Commonwealth Games Festival. Deborah records on a regular basis for a number of people, including The Mystery Fax Machine Orchestra, and for Laurel Swift's 'Travelling with Thomas' musical. She teaches music, song and dance regularly for The English Folk Dance and Song Society, as well as on a freelance basis for various workshop series, festivals and music services. Deborah recently completed The Teaching Musician MA degree course at Trinity Laban, graduating with Distinction.

Remaica

Here are the videos and dots from Monday’s class – a remake/recycling of a Playford tune called Jamaica, that has been christened Remaica (thanks to Bob for that little bit of punning gold!). The idea of re-imagining a tune is something we’re going to look into over the next few weeks. This version is in D Dorian mode – the original can be found at the bottom of the post for comparison!

Here are the dots:

Here is a PDF of Remaica, and another of the original tune Jamaica:

remaicaDownload
jamaicaDownload

And finally, a video of the original tune, Jamaica, in its original tuning of F major.

Hymn for St Magnus

Something a little different this week – an extremely old hymn from Orkney in the Lydian mode. This mode is similar to a major scale but has a raised 4th, it’s quite an unusual mode but very beautiful! We tried harmonising with minim F-G patterns in the first half and minim C-D in the second half, as demonstrated in the second video (you could actually play C-D all the way through). We added single cuts in between repeated notes and turns in places where the melody descended by one or two steps.

Here are the dots, with a PDF beneath:

hymn-st-magnusDownload

Here is a video for a plain version and one with ornamentation, and a video of the tune and harmony together:

The Wind that Shakes the Barley

Here is the tune from the last week of term (with one week owed and to be made up by me this coming term), The Wind that Shakes the Barley. This is a fantastic Irish reel and follows on well from The Witch in the Glen. Here is a video with a slow and faster version:

Here are the dots, with some suggested bowing/phrasing patterns.

Here is a PDF:

twtstbDownload

The Witch of the Glen (continued)

Here is the rest of our March tune, The Witch of the Glen. We’ll cover the last section on March 14th. Here are the dots with a PDF and a video. The bowing/phrasing are just a suggestion but they indicate the groove that we’ll be using on Monday. We’ll also talk about ornamentation, applying the ornament variation that we looked at last week and trying out a few other options too.

Here is a PDF:

wotgDownload

And a video with a slower and faster version:

The Witch of the Glen

Here is the first section of our new tune The Witch of the Glen, aka The Green Fields of Rossbeigh. This video goes through the first two phrases with ornamentation ideas:

Here are the dots so far! No PDF yet, I’ll put that up when we’re further through the tune, along with a chord chart. Again, I strongly recommend as always that you work from recordings rather than dots.

Hector the Hero

Monday 28th’s tune is Hector the Hero by James Scott Skinner. Written in 1903, the tune was composed as a tribute to Major General Sir Hector MacDonald (1857-1903), a celebrated and decorated military officer who died of suicide following public accusations of homosexuality. Scott Skinner’s tune has remained popular since it’s composition.

Here is a video of the tune, with a slow and plain version followed by a faster and more decorated version of the tune.

Here is the download of this tune, and a second version with suggestions of bowing, variation and ornamentation.

hector-plainDownload
hector-ornamentsDownload

Gille-Callum (continued)

Here is the B section of last week’s tune Gille-Callum, with further ideas on how to practise these rhythms:

Here’s a video of the B section and some practise methods:

Here a video of the whole tune played slowly:

Finally a PDF of the whole tune and chords:

gille-callum-1Download

and as a little extra, here’s the E5 chord for the ukulele players!

Finally, I’ve done a simplified version of the tune here, essentially removing a few (but not all of) of the trickier rhythms, for anyone who would like it:

gille-callum-2Download