Pete Dunk

Here's a little ditty to get the fingers moving. Looks deceptively simple but I find it to be bit of a workout, especially if I take the tempo up to 1/4=110 X:1 T:Recruiting Officer, The M:6/8 L:1/8 Q:3/8=105 K:D A|"D"def "A"edc|"D"d3 A2F|"G"GAB "D"AGF|"A"E3A,3|"D"def "A"edc| "G"BgB "D"A2G|FdF "A"Edc|"D"d3-d2::g|"D"fga "A"ecA|"G"g3 "D"f3| "G"Bcd "Em"efd|"A"c3 Aag|"D"fed "A"cac|\ "G"BgB "D"A2G|FdF "A"Edc|"D"d3-d2:|

It may well be Ernie of Faversham! Pete of Tenterden, well Wittersham actually, we need to meet and play tunes! Is the Rock Chidley yours?

New spoof labels that are obvioulsly not Wheatstone originals.

No, but today I made this reproduction label which is pretty close but not good enough by far to be a forgery!

Some time ago I attempted to retouch an image of a Rock Chidley label in the same way I'd done a Lachenal label and a Wheatstone label. Sadly the image I had to work with was so poor and of such low resolution that it was impossible to work with. So here's a reproduction label I knocked up earlier today. The fonts aren't quite right and no attempt has been made at fidelity but it does look similar and critically the proportions are correct so provided you shrink it evenly it should fit the aperture of at least one concertina! So here 'tis, the rocky Rock Chidley label.

Nice t-shirt Sean. I've sent a PM about labels.

PDFs of all three volumes of Playford are here. Playford V1, V2, V3

Hmm, one of our mutual friends who spends much of his time proof reading our work had the same thought, for the same reason and was equally dismissive until I pointed out that that he was incorrect and why, then he had to concede that he was. Use this editor with standard abc headers and code and it will work as you would expect. Inputting text at the top of the screen and viewing the results at the bottom is exactly what you get with ABC Explorer so that comment doesn't make any sense whatsoever. As it happens the 'windows' in MCM are all separate and may be resized an arranged in any manner you see fit. Try as I might I can see no post or reaction from Wolf either here or on Melodeon.net so that comment baffles me as well. The developer has written some none standard extensions but they sit on top as additions. If you don't learn them, you won't use them. If you don't use them, they are not there. They are in fact minor, like a small sub-routine. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going out of my way to say that this software meet everyone's needs because it may not, nor that it does everything that other programs do because it doesn't. I'm just impressed enough with some of the features to keep investigating it and discussing my concerns and wish list with the author of the software who seems amenable to making changes. The latest release, out today, adds a pop up index to show the contents of large files. I would urge you to look at this again Steve, it has some merit.

I got to the Horniman myself in the end but the instruments we got to see close up were limited to eight and none were by Rock Chidley. I got quite a good shot of a George Jones label but there's every chance that nobody will be interested in it!

Ah, commando abc eh? Good man!

I'm sure Chris Partington of the VMP will be very interested in your transcription Ian! If you use ABC regularly and have a Windows PC you might be interested in a newish and very powerful bit of software called MC Musiceditor. Download a zip file and unpack it to your C: drive. Running the mcmusiceditor.exe file opens an editing window and a PDF viewer but the software runs on the web so you can only use it when you are online. The menus and the toolbar at the bottom allow you to input complex code and body text without any in depth knowledge of the abc standard at all! MC Musiceditor

All done now The Village Music Project has been busy for the last few weeks and here is the fruit of our labours! Volume 2 is massive with 360 tunes, volume 3 is smaller at just 202 tunes and quite a few of these were in volume 2. It's still worth a peruse though! Playford Volume 2 Playford Volume 3 (only put up on the net today!!) If anyone would like a PDF version of either or both of these books post here and I'll get on with it! Pete

A Preciosa? I'm insanely jealous but don't tell my Liliput!

Not a tune this time but a whole book full! Some of the pieces are exercises for violin but even they will have interest for someone. Wandembrile Manuscript (Belgium 1778) PDF Wandembrile Manuscript (Belgium 1778) ABC file

You're welcome I'm sure, the whole point of the Village Music Project is to bring these old books and manuscripts back to life and getting the tunes played again!

So for years now the three hundred and odd tunes in the 18 editions of Playford's Dancing Master Volume 1 have been available to all on the internet and in printed collections if you wanted to buy a copy. Did we all know that there were two more volumes of over three hundred tunes each yet to be explored? I didn't and I've been transcribing some of Vol 3 thinking I was only duplicating earlier work. The cat's out of the bag now though. Read this!

Here's another online converter with a few cool features like displaying notation as you type in the editing window and handling whole tunebooks as well as creating PDFs and midi files. It's simple, basic and straightforward. Draw the Dots.

Randy that's beautiful, and as far as possible from anything I would ever aspire to play. From my slightly oddball ( and very different) musical viewpoint I raise my hat to your delightful and inspiring performance. It's a joy to listen to! Pete.

Beautiful in its simplicity, the harmonies are strong and very distinctive. A wonderful setting of the tune.

Interesting, here's a combined two part version using Ellen Thomas's harmony for the second part. X:1 T:Da Slockit Light (Duet) R:Air C:Tom Anderson C:Harmony by Ellen Thomas M:4/4 L:1/8 Q:1/4=80 K:D V:1 |:FE|D3F A2d2|fedc d2A2|B2d2 A2d2|BAGF EGFE| D3F A2d2|fedc d2A2|B2G2 AGFE|D4- D2:| g2|f2a2 e3c|d3e dcBA|f2a2 e2^g2|a4- a2=g2| f2a2 e3c|d3e dcBA|B2G2 AGFE|D4- D3g| f2a2 e3c|d3e dcBA|B2d2 A2d2|BAGF EGFE| D3F A2d2|fedc d2A2|B2G2 AGFE|D4- D2|] V:2 |:FE|A,3D F2A2|dcAG F2D2|G2B2 F2A2|GFED A,4| A,3D F2A2|dcAG F2D2|G,4 A,3C|[A,6D6]:| g2|d2A2 c3E|G4 FEDC|D4 ^G3E|C2A,2 B,2C2| D4 A4|G6GF|G2B,2 A,B,A,C|DA,B,G, A,4| D4 C4|B,6GF|G2B2 F2A2|GFED A,4| A,3D F2A2|^A4 F2D2|G,4 A,3C|[A,6D6]|] PDF sheet music and an mp3 of the midi output are here. I set the harmony voice an octave lower so here we have a treble and a baritone together. Anyone care to add a bass line? Edited to add: I removed the chords as they clashed and don't sound right anyway with multi-voice music.

Here you go Wolf. The video was just a soundtrack with a picture so I converted it to mp3.

Yes but it was so grainy and of such poor quality that it was beyond redemption I'm afraid. Some friends of mine are going to the Horniman Museum in the near future. I'll ask them if they can get any good shots. Pete. aka 'tallship'

For the iPad I would recommend an app called Tunebook SD. You can load it up with abc files and carry your music with you everywhere!

Hi Shelly, If you just want to get at the individual tunes just open the file with any text editor to copy and paste the tunes. If you want to open the whole file and audition the tunes etc download and install Easy ABC which is available for OSX. Install the free software, choose 'Open' from the 'File', browse your files and point to Something For The Weekend.abc. Once open you can scroll through the tunes in the list on the left to play, print, transpose to other keys etc. Neat little programme!

Here's a good tune I've not heard before, the triplets zip along nicely! X:1 T:Wild Irishman, The M:2/4 L:1/8 Q:1/4=130 K:D | >ef>d|g>ef>c|d>ef>d|c2e2|d>ef>d|g>ef>d| f>a (3gec|d2 D2::(3afd (3Ace|(3Ace (3Ace|(3Ace (3Ace| (3Ace (3efg|(3afd (3Ace|(3Ace Te2|(3dfa (3gec|d2D2:|