Tunes in 6/8 – Page 2 – New Ealing Sessions

Enfield Wash

Enfield Wash from guest tutor Tom Newell, dots to follow (hopefully)!

enfield-wash Download

Upon a Summer’s Day

A Playford tune for the upcoming ECDC gig – the tune is played AABBB. Here’s the video:

upon-a-summers-day Download

Hunt the Squirrel

Hunt the Squirrel is a fantastic and widespread tune, with many different versions (I know three different versions of the B part!) and it dates back to at least the mid 1700s.

We will use this tune in our forthcoming appearance at Ealing Country Dance Club, pairing it with Dory Boat.

The alternative arrangement for Hunt the Squirrel was drone G/D for whole A part and drone G/E for 1st half of B then return to G/D, some melody players play an octave lower. The alternative arrangement for Dory Boat was using a simplified B part (removing notes) and some melody players playing the root notes of the chords. Please make your own notes/references for this!

hunt-the-squirrel Download

Y Crythor Llon

Here’s another Welsh tune to go with Cariad-Gan Y Sguthan, Y Crythor Llon or The Merry Fiddler. We’ll look into some alternative chords another week!

Here are the video, dots and PDF:

y-crythor-llon Download

Cariad-Gan Y Sguthan

A lovely Welsh jig which dates back to the late 1800s, Cariad-Gan Y Sguthan translates as The Love Song of the Wood Pigeon. I learned it from the fantastic Calan tune book. Here are the dots with chords and the accompanying pattern in the A section, the download and the video.

cariad Download

The RSB

Here is The RSB jig by melodeon player extraordinaire Andy Cutting. Here are videos of a slow/faster version by me and then a gorgeous recording by Blowzabella (note how the chord sequence doesn’t resolve at the end of the B section!).

Here are the chords and the PDF of the tune:

rsb-chords Download

the-rsb Download

Constant Billy

This week’s tune is English Morris dance tune Constant Billy. There are versions in most of the different Cotswold Morris tradition in various keys, though often transposed into G major to suit the commonly used melodeon. We made two different versions of the chords, the first being a conservative version that harmonises every half bar and the second a more contemporary version that harmonises every full bar. To refer back to our inspiration arrangement, Coronation Day, we have used/tried:

long notes that can also be used as in a shuffle rhythm
Playing the tune with a pedal G (tonic) underneath throughout, and also trying a pedal D (dominant) throughout
Using a chord sequence that doesn’t resolve to the tonic of G at the end of each phrase (from the long notes pattern)

We will look at long and short ostinati next week and use these to make an intro/outro for the whole piece, also extending the tune by developing certain phrases.

Here is the video, with the second version of the chords:

Here are the dots:

constant-billy Download

The Valiant

Here is the tune from March 6th, The Valiant by East Anglian musician Simon Ritchie. We experimented with adding linking notes between sections – an A between the last C section and the first A section, an F# or a D between the C sections, and a BC run between the Bs. I’ve included some of these on the music, but have an experiment and see what else you can find.

Here is the PDF:

the-valiant-corrected Download

Major Mackie

Here is the second tune in our new set, Major Mackie, or Major Mackie’s Jig. This is tune from the late 1800’s, it turns up in English, Scottish, Canadian and American traditions. It was first published in the ever popular series Kerr’s Merry Melodies.

Here are the dots, followed by videos of the tune and rhythm parts.

major-mackie Download

Captain Lanoe’s

Here is our first official tune of the term, Captain Lanoe’s, aka Captain Lanoe’s Quickstep, Marionets (sic) or Marionets Cotillion. This is an English country dance tune from the late 1700s.

Here are the dots: