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Tune Of The Month, May 2013: Parson's Farewell


Jim Besser

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I have been playing this tune at times for last 30 years, it still took about 30 takes but it was easier when I remembered to 1 A and 2 Bs.

 

 

 

Graham

 

 

Very nice, Graham. Do you play for dances? Your version sounded just like it should be played for dancing to.

 

Chris

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I have been playing this tune at times for last 30 years, it still took about 30 takes but it was easier when I remembered to 1 A and 2 Bs.

 

 

 

Graham

Very nice, Graham. Do you play for dances? Your version sounded just like it should be played for dancing to.

 

Chris

I agree, it is very danceable. You can hear it propelling the dancers forward, lifting the trailing foot off the ground with each back beat. I also like the G chord (implied G7, with the recent F in the tune still in memory) at the end of the 1st B section the last time through.

 

I tend to think of it as two As and two Bs (as written), but the As are half the length of the Bs.

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I have been playing this tune at times for last 30 years, it still took about 30 takes but it was easier when I remembered to 1 A and 2 Bs.

 

 

 

Graham

 

Lovely version Graham, bags of rhythm, got my feet tapping and gave me lots of ideas to improve my own playing.. Thanks for posting!

 

Joy

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So, here it is, my attempt on this tune.. Recorded after about 8h of learning and practicing done over past days. Still a lot of work to do, especially on timing. I plan to add some ornaments to it and maybe change accompaniment a bit here and there but it's basically how I hear it..

 

http://soundcloud.com/martynowi-cz/parsons-farewell

 

Łukasz

Edited by Łukasz Martynowicz
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Thank you for all the compliments.

 

Yes I do play for dance though not often now, but never this tune.

 

What caused me most problems was the 2nd time through, where I am swapping tune from right to left hand.

 

I have no idea about chords.

 

Graham

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Hear hopefully is my first attempt at Parson's Farewell.

 

Not intended as a serious rendition but as I was thinking about which key i would like to play this piece in, I tried every key...

 

I was thinking about those Isomorphic keyboards and whether it would be usefull to have one . Anglo players might change instruments to better play a piece in a different key and the Hayden player just shifts his fingering patern... so what can you do on an EC...

 

Well, judge for yourselves; this is one take ( because my Zoom recorder does not have a Pause-Record function) which makes a clean recording next to impossible. Those who have tried know how difficult it is to get one recording without mistakes... well this is seven recordings on one take so I have to make appologies for a few bum notes.

 

Starting with Dminor then Gminor,Cminor,Aminor, Eminor, F#minor and ending in Bminor.

 

So the keys are arranged in this order because they form three groups of similar fingering . Dm,Gm and Cm is the first group then the switch to Am and Em and finally the last group F#m and Bm.

 

I'm still working on the other five keys :blink:

 

 

https://soundcloud.com/geoff-wooff/

Edited by Geoff Wooff
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Geoff:

 

Very impressive.

 

Are the arrangements all basically the same in the different keys?

 

It really shows how different the feel of one key is against another. Some feel sad, others bright.

 

A bit of an ear opener for me as I never really got that different keys 'felt' different other than being higher/lower. Having seven identical short tunes one after another in a different key really brings this out.

 

More please.

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It really shows how different the feel of one key is against another. Some feel sad, others bright.

 

I find this quite interesting too, but I would doubt that the different versions clearly reveal different keys being of different characters. It's just as much about different keys played with one given instrument, i.e. different character of higher and lower pitched reeds, position of buttons, habits of two hands and eight fingers a.s.f..

 

For those reasons each key seems to "ask" for a version of its own. Unless I'm not mistaken there are versions having the dominant in minor and others having it in major, for instance.

 

Geoff, your personal style is clearly to be heard in all the seven keys (and will be in the yet missing five keys as well), but it's all the more amazing how you develop different chordings regarding the choice of key!

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Oh, just forgot one important aspect: You used the Homogeneous Meantone tuning for the recording, didn't you? Should really make a difference of "moods" of any key then...

 

(Do you associate certain "moods" with some keys in HM tuning?)

 

But in Equal Temperament they'd be supposed to sound quite the same IMO.

Edited by blue eyed sailor
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Geoff:

 

Very impressive.

 

Are the arrangements all basically the same in the different keys?

 

It really shows how different the feel of one key is against another. Some feel sad, others bright.

 

A bit of an ear opener for me as I never really got that different keys 'felt' different other than being higher/lower. Having seven identical short tunes one after another in a different key really brings this out.

 

More please.

Well, fundamentally they are similar arrangements but they do differ, as much because the mistakes do not occur is the same places in each key.

Also because the fingering has to change with the reversals of 'side to start' and there are some things that are easier in one key but not in another.

 

I have really taken the lazy approach to this... it is all done by ear ( or finger) and this is why some versions are more than an octave above or below the others. For instance I could have played the A minor an octave above and it would fit in with the same hand movement patern as the Dm,Gm,Cm group or I could add the C# minor version at the top end which would be in the same group as the Bm/F#m but I have run out of buttons on the B/Treble and my dog would howl if I played that one on my normal Treble.

So, if I were to play the C#minor version a semi tone flat of the Dm then I would need to use a fourth basic hand movement patern... I'm working on it.

 

I was not so much thinking about how each key gives a different feeling but, yes you are right... I think I like the Gminor best, though I probably played that one the worst. although it is my favorite key on this instrument, perhaps it is just that the B/T sounds best, to my ear, in that range.

 

Edited by Geoff Wooff
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Oh, just forgot one important aspect: You used the Homogeneous Meantone tuning for the recording, didn't you? Should really make a difference of "moods" of any key then...

 

(Do you associate certain "moods" with some keys in HM tuning?)

 

But in Equal Temperament they'd be supposed to sound quite the same IMO.

Yes homgeneneous Meantone.... but on the EC this tuning is sweeter but is constant throughout the range of keys I have choosen, so it should not effect the mood. I suppose I am used to the 'perfect interval' tuning that I use on my Uilleann pipes and there you would really hear a difference in mood.. that is if it were possible to play a piece like this in enough différèrent keys.

Edited by Geoff Wooff
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Unless I'm not mistaken there are versions having the dominant in minor and others having it in major, for instance.

Unless you mean something else by 'having the dominant in minor', Geoff did say that all of these versions were in minor keys.

 

If they had been in a mix of major and minor keys then I guess that I would not have been so startled by the difference in the feel between the different versions.

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Unless I'm not mistaken there are versions having the dominant in minor and others having it in major, for instance.

Unless you mean something else by 'having the dominant in minor', Geoff did say that all of these versions were in minor keys.

 

If they had been in a mix of major and minor keys then I guess that I would not have been so startled by the difference in the feel between the different versions.

 

I think what he means is that the dominant chord (A in D minor) can have a minor 3rd (C natural) or a major 3rd (C sharp) and the various examples in Geoff's recording exhibit some of each. Listen to the D major chords in the 4th and 5th measures of the B section of the G minor example. You don't hear anything like that in some of the other versions, where the harmony is either a minor dominant chord or a VII chord (where, of course, the root is the minor 3rd of the dominant).

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This tune of the month is proving to be the best music education I could ever imagine. Not only do you play the notes but you talk about them too. I can listen, attempt to imitate, read, play some more, and then sit quietly and think.

And no pop quizzes.

 

thanks again and again

 

Sarah

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Hear hopefully is my first attempt at Parson's Farewell.

 

Not intended as a serious rendition but as I was thinking about which key i would like to play this piece in, I tried every key...

 

I was thinking about those Isomorphic keyboards and whether it would be usefull to have one . Anglo players might change instruments to better play a piece in a different key and the Hayden player just shifts his fingering patern... so what can you do on an EC...

 

Well, judge for yourselves; this is one take ( because my Zoom recorder does not have a Pause-Record function) which makes a clean recording next to impossible. Those who have tried know how difficult it is to get one recording without mistakes... well this is seven recordings on one take so I have to make appologies for a few bum notes.

 

Starting with Dminor then Gminor,Cminor,Aminor, Eminor, F#minor and ending in Bminor.

 

So the keys are arranged in this order because they form three groups of similar fingering . Dm,Gm and Cm is the first group then the switch to Am and Em and finally the last group F#m and Bm.

 

I'm still working on the other five keys :blink:

 

 

https://soundcloud.com/geoff-wooff/

 

Nicely done.

 

As an Anglo player, I have come to realize that it's particularly easy to get stuck in key ruts on that instrument, and so strive to play tunes in multiple keys. It's interesting how a simple key change alters the texture of a tune like this.

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This tune of the month is proving to be the best music education I could ever imagine. Not only do you play the notes but you talk about them too. I can listen, attempt to imitate, read, play some more, and then sit quietly and think.

And no pop quizzes.

 

thanks again and again

 

Sarah

 

Glad to hear it; that's the whole idea!

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