Arrangements – New Ealing Sessions

ECDC list, stage one

Still awaiting a response on the final list of dances but in the meantime, here are some tunes that are fairly likely to be played, to get started on!

Le Poules Huppes https://newealingsessions.com/2021/04/04/the-crested-hens-les-poules-huppees/ No arrangement, maybe some dynamics tbc

Jenny Pluck Pears https://newealingsessions.com/2026/02/08/jenny-pluck-pears/ No arrangement, maybe some dynamics tbc

Mairi’s Wedding/Peat Fire Flame https://newealingsessions.com/2022/11/02/mairis-wedding/ and https://newealingsessions.com/2022/10/30/peat-fire-flame/ with arrangement as follows:

mairis-and-peat-fire-arrangement Download

Reel de Gaspe

Arrangement tbc

Reel de Gaspe link

Red House Reel

Arrangement tbc

Red House Reel link

Hunt the Squirrel

Arrangement tbc

Hunt the Squirrel link

Dashing White Sergeant

Arrangement tbc, maybe with The White Cockade?

Link to DWS and White Cockade

Grimstock arrangement and rhythm ideas

Here is the arrangement for last week, with both sets of chord progressions on the same page. The staccato chord rhythm for version of the tune is as follows:

Grimstock arrangement Download

Ideas on Tom’s tunes & the plan for the last week

14th July Folk Class informal performance Download

Accompaniment patterns for tunes in 3 time

In order to create an accompanying pattern for our recent tunes in 3, we took inspiration from the melodic pattern in bar one of La Tete Ailleurs. This is essentially an E minor triad (three note chord) so we played it and then transposed the pattern for each chord in the piece, starting on an A for the A minor chord, a D for the D major chord etc.

We then took things up a notch, changing the inversions of the triads to keep the patterns a similar register. What’s an inversion? It’s the order in which you play the notes, for instance an A minor triad is ACE in root position, CEA in first inversion and EAC in second inversion. Below is a version that uses root and second inversion chords to create a part that flows.

We switched to long notes in the B section to vary the texture, choosing the root note of each chord.

La Tete Ailleurs with acc pattern Download

Accompaniments for Waltzes

Here are some examples of the rhythms we have been using for waltzes over the last few weeks. These work for Vidar Valsen as well as for other old favourites such as Sir John Fenwick.

Acommpanying patterns for waltzes Download

More Fete de Village

Here is the arrangement of Fete de Village that we put together on 30th September.

Fete de Village arr Download

Here are the videos I took during the sessions (edited into one video), with all three parts:

Here are some of the other videos that people have found:

Tunes for next week’s informal concert

Lark In The Clear Air

Hardiman’s Fancy (in D major)

Peace and Plenty/Old Meddon

Will’s Way

Sir John Fenwick’s the Flower Amang Them

Les Poulee Huppes

Spootiskerry/Willafjord

Polca Cefn Coed

Mari’s Wedding

Tobin’s Jig and Hardiman’s Fancy

NB. Hardiman’s now has updated chords.

When playing Tobin’s Jig last week, we initially struggled to give the tune a sense of lift, lilt or dance – our solutions were:

Have the long line of each four-bar phrase our heads before we started, with it’s peaks and troughs. This got us away from focussing too much on the individual notes and patterns, and from the mechanics of playing this tune on our respective instruments.
Add some subtle dynamics – we followed the rise of the melody with a small crescendo (gradual increase in volume) and the fall of the melody with a diminuendo (gradual decrease in volume). Subtle is the operative word here! It isn’t always the case that we need to rise and fall with the melody, this can become a little obvious and predictable, but the idea is that we’re giving an additional dimension, or melodic shaping, to the tune.
Add some slurs over the bar lines (this is updated on the original post) – this can give the sense of moving forward across the bar line, with some very subtle syncopation in the phrasing.

The Mallard revisited

The Mallard is a tune from a long time ago! I wanted to revisit it and to potentially pair it with Enfield Wash, though I found it a bit notey and so wanted to simplify it a little.

Stage one: we took out as many notes as we could until we had the bare skeleton of the tune – but it still had to be recognisable as the tune.

Stage two: we add notes back in, either from the original tune or using similar figures.

Stage three: as we tried things out, I wrote down some of the ideas that came out. The two versions below represent some of the ideas that came out during that experimentation. They are not supposed to be definitive versions but rather examples of what can happen if you play around with a tune in this way.

the-mallard3 Download

Constant Billy arrangement ideas

Here is an update of the Constant Billy sheet, with the two new riffs at the bottom. The second PDF below contains the chord sequences and the arrangement that we started on the 12th. The video is of the unrehearsed arrangement that we tried out – it’s not exactly what’s written on the arrangement sheet now, but should give you a feel for the whole piece.