Robert Fisher

My wife just called from the next room "Is that a bass pedally thing?". I love it!

Right Sqzbxr! I didn't name them up front because I wanted people to have the surprise of not knowing what was coming next... Both songs about getting older and settling down. Not that I'm anywhere near that stage of life .

An odd pairing, quickly learnt and recorded so that I can join in the fun: https://soundcloud.com/7wheels-1/odd-pairing

There are so many variations on this tune! I chose to use the music from: http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/Olson/BM3.ABC/0065 And recorded: https://soundcloud.com/7wheels-1/packingtons-pound I was initially a little intimidated by all those flats... but one of the reasons I got an EC was to be able to play in whatever key took my fancy. There's plenty of month left, so perhaps I'll see what else I can do with it.

I'm amazed by how well you got it out. It's not the same as the version with pizzicato fiddle, but it still works - at least in the context of TOTM. Thanks for angsting!

8 degrees C max today (46 F) and -5 C apparent temperature when the wind and humidity is taken into account. Still a good time to learn new tunes though.

The first tune is Little Brown Jug, a perennially popular American tune/song first published in 1869. It was a popular children's song when I was a kid, though with simpler lyrics (but different from those on the Wikipedia link), and back then I didn't understand that it was supposed to be about alcoholic beverages. Thanks. Its good to know that it has a name. I just listened to a big-band swing version of Little Brown Jug on youtube - compared to the guitar, fiddle and lagaphone version from my childhood its from a different planet!

Thanks for the encouragment. I find it supprising when a tune like this falls easily beneath my fingers (and frustrating when it doesn't). Hopefully that will happen more and more.

Well that was fun. I should have had a closer look at this piece earlier. https://soundcloud.com/7wheels-1/emmas-waltz

Talk about slow. I think my brakes are stuck on this month, but here is a tune for the thread: https://soundcloud.com/7wheels-1/polka I don't usually play by ear... in fact almost never. I have no idea what I'm playing so this time I had to play by ear. In school we regularly did dance classes and this polka was a perennial favourite. I've talked to friends from around Australia and they all know this tune from school so it is probably education department approved. I segue at the end into another tune that we always danced the polka to too.

I've struggled a little with this one. I really wanted to use the Mozart score and record multiple tracks for the different parts... but I really find it hard playing in time with myself. I was hoping to improve on this recording, but I've more or less run out of May. So: https://soundcloud.com/7wheels-1/michael-turners-waltz

That's very listenable (if that's a word). A calm and thoughtful 3 minutes.

I'll kick off with a fast version of J Scott Skinner's Cradle Song. https://soundcloud.com/7wheels-1/cradle-song-fast I much prefer it slow... and had to fiddle with the speeded up version a little to make it work-ish.

Very nice . The sort of arrangement that I might aspire to.

I'm sure that you've all been wondering "Where's Robert gone?"... We've just come back from an epic holiday to the USA, visiting New York and California, seeing the tourist sites and visiting relatives and generally having a good time. I've just been trying to catch up with all that's been posted over the last couple of months and have enjoyed listening to all of the recent posts. Before turning to the May threads I thought I'd try my hand at a tune with esoteric time signature just to get back into the swing of things. I've recorded an old English folk song called Death and the Lady which my wife sings sometimes. I don't think that it was originally written with a specific time signature in mind - in fact it probably wasn't written at all. The arrangement that Helen has switches from 3/2 - 3/4 - 5/4 - 4/2 - 3/4 - 4/2 - 3/2... all in just the first verse. The second and third verses are not straight repeats of the first, but vary in subtle ways... so I didn't go there. I've just recorded the first verse as a sampler and a warm up for the Speed Zone. https://soundcloud.com/7wheels-1/death-and-the-lady