Common Morris Or Folk Tunes

[Conrad D]

I attend a folk group and there is a mixture of individual performances then someone starts a tune and all the experienced players join in - sounds great.

 

Are there any basic, or well-known tunes which I could learn with a chance of joining in.

[JimLucas]

I attend a folk group and there is a mixture of individual performances then someone starts a tune and all the experienced players join in - sounds great.

 

Are there any basic, or well-known tunes which I could learn with a chance of joining in.

Loads, but I think your best bet is to ask your local musicians. Have them recommend some relatively simple tunes where "everyone" normally joins in. Then over time you can progress to more difficult or "interesting" tunes.

 

One reason for asking the locals is that "standards" can vary from place to place, even to the extent that a tune common in sessions an ocean apart may be "unknown" at a session just 20 miles down the road. There can also be local variants of "well known" tunes, and you'll want to be sure that you're not playing something that's only "almost" the same.

[chas]

Excellent advice. While you're asking about tunes, you could ask if anyone minds your recording them on your phone or a small digital recorder like a Zoom during the session. That way, you can learn them at home from the recordings and get used to playing along. (Just don't sit near the bodhran player while recording!) Software that slows down the recordings makes it even easier. Chances are they're playing tunes in sets that stay broadly the same every time.

 

I believe there's a phone app that tells you what tune is being played so you can look it up online when you get home, though Jim's advice regarding tune variants applies here.

[Steve Mansfield]

Good advice above; but as another viewpoint, when the old Usenet uk.music.folk newsgroup turned their collective brain to this very subject we came up with the following list, and as a basic (English-repertoire-centric) list it still holds up today ...

 

Enrico, Speed The Plough, Michael Turner's Waltz, Soldiers Joy, Walter Bulwer's polkas, New Rigged Ship, Harpers Frolic / Bonny Kate, Bacup Coconut Dance, Sweets of May, Captain Leno's, Steamboat hornpipe, Nutting Girl, Maggie in the Wood, Three Around Three, Jimmy Allen, The Keel Row, Captain Pugwash (aka Trumpet Hornpipe), Morpeth Rant, Oyster Girl, Hunt the Squirrel, Queen's Jig, Haste to the Wedding, Smash the Windows, The Man in the Moon, Orange in Bloom (aka Sherbourne Waltz).

 

And an abc file of that list is available from http://lesession.co.uk/music/UmfFaqSessionTunes.abc

[inventor]

Best advice I can give especially if you are a new player is to get Dave Mallinson's "Easy Peasy Tunes" and work your way through it.

Almost every English folk session (Festivals, Concertina Weekends, and Pub sessions) I have ever been to; at least half of the tunes played were in this book. If you play only by ear or like to hear a tune before you start to learn it, there is a CD which can be purchaced separately.

 

Inventor.

[Peter Laban]

There are plenty of folkclubs who publish their own selection of common tunes for example this collection

 

That should probably do you but I'll add;

 

The ABC Library of Morris Tunes

 

Links to ABC tune collections

Edited September 4, 2014 by Peter Laban

[Lester Bailey]

You could do worse than this:

 

http://lesters-tune-a-day.blogspot.co.uk/

 

index here http://lesters-tune-a-day.blogspot.co.uk/p/tune-index.html

Edited September 4, 2014 by Lester Bailey

[Conrad D]

Thanks for all the info. I'll be there tonight and ask but I wouldn't expect a list on the spot. I may get some ideas next week.

 

A few weeks ago I played "Portsmouth" as a solo piece on the concertina and everyone joined in which I really enjoyed. I did "Irish Rover" on whistle on another evening with the same result. A few well-known pieces like these and I would feel quite at home.

 

Thanks again

[bazza]

I find Lester Baileys site the best to learn from, always at a nice pace and not much ornamentation.

[Mike Franch]

The early-on advice (check with what the local group plays) is spot on. And there's been some wonderful suggestions from previous posters for tune resources. Thanks!

 

I'd like to add one that I've found tremendously helpful, and it's by a cnet member, Paul Hardy. His session tunebook (I see newly revised) is wonderful. It's available as print-on-demand for a modest price (and well worth it) or from no-charge downloadable .PDFs. His site is http://www.pghardy.net/concertina/tunebooks/. I printed out the Basic then bought the Session. It's packed with tunes and has helped prepare me for some of the tunes as, for example, mentioned by Steve Mansfield.

[John Wild]

another question to ask your local group is what keys do they play the tunes in. Sometimes you will have learned a tune in G (for example), then find the session you go to are playing the same tune in D.

[Jack Campin]

The setlists for sessions vary quite a lot around Britain. I have ABCs for "40 Scottish session tunes everybody knows" on my website, intended to be as lowest-common-denominator as possible, but most of them will never be played in most of England.

 

You don't want huge compendious sites or big fat books, you want a short list of stuff you can learn well and quickly, and which will be in common to the players you're with. So ask them what tunes they most often play (and in which combinations) and where they got them.

[shelly0312]

>Peter Laban Links to ABC tune collections

 

Oh man, Peter--this link is a treasure trove--I lost sleep last night delving the depths. Thank-you so much for this link! Michelle

[Conrad D]

Great advice. I had a chat last night. Two of the players have button-type accordians which have the G and C rows on the right, similar to the concertina and a limited number of chord buttons on the left. So I feel safe in C and G. I also have my whistles for D or G, or even E minor. I expect to get some feedback next week.

[hjcjones]

Great advice. I had a chat last night. Two of the players have button-type accordians which have the G and C rows on the right,

Are you sure? If that is correct, it is unusual for England, where the usual setup for melodeons in England is D and G *. Most sessions are usually in these keys. Where melodeon players have G/C instruments they are usually second instruments in addition to a D/G. You may find they are willing to use these instruments to accompany you on your C/G concertina, but that the majority of tunes are played in other keys. Once you start going to other sessions this will almost certainly be the case.

 

* One-row melodeons are often in C, and as you are on the fringes of East Anglia it is possible that where you are more tunes are played in C. And players of Irish music often play boxes with the rows tunes a semi-tone apart eg B/C or C/C#, effectively making them chromatic.

[Conrad D]

I assume the instrument was a melodeon as you suggest. I was told by the player that she had C and G. There was a short discussion between the players about playing across the rows, or not.

 

Just out of interest are these similar to my anglo, ie different notes on pull-push. Not that it makes any difference to me as I don't play one but I have an insatiable appetite for information.

[hjcjones]

Yes, the melodeon has a similar push-pull keyboard.

 

G/C melodeons aren't usual in England and session keys are usually G,D and sometimes A. So if you play a lot of tunes in C and G you can expect to find them played in other keys when you visit other sessions, as you surely will.

[Conrad D]

I'll ask next week what keys they are in