Jamie Allen

[Mikefule]

One of the first session tunes I learned, on harmonica, 35 or more years ago. Played here on G/D Dipper Anglo.

 

 

[Craftydab]

That version is just so much better than I play that I don’t know if it encourages me or discourages me!

[Mikefule]

Thank you.

 

I hope you'll find it encouraging.  I'm at a stage now where I'm getting as much or more pleasure from finding alternative arrangements for simple tunes as I am from learning more complex tunes.  It's such a versatile instrument.

 

It's on a DG Anglo, in G.  Tell me what you play and I can give you my chords and some details of the fingering if you're interested, adjusted for a different key if required.

[Craftydab]

I’m playing the bog standard 30 key GC Anglo. Not that I have ever used all the keys yet! And play the tune in G.

Any help greatly appreciated.

[OLDNICKILBY]

Well Done M'Duck. Have you not come a long way. Lovely to hear , Nic

[Mikefule]

10 hours ago, Craftydab said:

I’m playing the bog standard 30 key GC Anglo. Not that I have ever used all the keys yet! And play the tune in G.

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

Interesting.  You play it in G on a CG; I play it in G on a GD.  Some tunes translate to the "higher key" better than others when you play harmonically.  Let me think about that and I'll get back to you.

[Mikefule]

3 hours ago, OLDNICKILBY said:

Well Done M'Duck. Have you not come a long way. Lovely to hear , Nic

 

Thank you.  I have more time on my hands at the moment as I'm nominally retired.

[John Wild]

33 minutes ago, Mikefule said:

 

Thank you.  I have more time on my hands at the moment as I'm nominally retired.

 

I am failing to notice retirement seriously improving my playing ☺️

 

[Craftydab]

55 minutes ago, Mikefule said:

 

Interesting.  You play it in G on a CG; I play it in G on a GD.  Some tunes translate to the "higher key" better than others when you play harmonically.  Let me think about that and I'll get back to you.

Well, when I say I play it in G, it starts on G, ends on G and the key signature is one #.  So it’s in G to the best of my knowledge, but if it’s in some more obscure a.m. Dorian mode or other then I wouldn’t know!

[Mikefule]

2 hours ago, Craftydab said:

Well, when I say I play it in G, it starts on G, ends on G and the key signature is one #.  So it’s in G to the best of my knowledge, but if it’s in some more obscure a.m. Dorian mode or other then I wouldn’t know!

You're playing it in G, definitely.  That is the usual key it's played it and it starts and ends on G with only one sharp, which is F#.

 

My point was that I play it in G on a G/D box and you play it in G on a C/G box.

 

That means I can easily play it mainly on the middle row of 3 (the "outside row") and borrow from the other two rows only for the benefit of easier and more varied harmonies.

 

If I were to play it in G on a C/G box, as you do, the melody would sound the same, but the fingering would be completely different and some of the harmonic opportunities would be different too.  It's part of the quirky charm of this instrument that, apart from a few simple tunes played along the row within one octave, you need to rework the fingering if you transpose to a different key on the same box, or the same key on a different box.

 

I've had a quick go at Jamie Allen in D on my GD box this afternoon.  That will be the equivalent fingering to you playing it in G on a C/G box.

 

I can't simply move the tune 1 row across onto the G row of a C/G because part of the B music needs a note that isn;t there.

 

Therefore, the whole needs to be played in the lower register.  I would do that starting on the low G that you find on the 4th button pull left hand of the accidental row.  The melody then fits easily enough, but it's just a case of working through the options to find the best fit and best accompaniment.  It's interesting (to me!) and if I get a convincing harmonic version out of it, I'll share it.

 

 

[Craftydab]

Well if you can work it out do please share and very many thanks.

[David Barnert]

Nice playing.

 

A couple of chord suggestions, take ’em or leave ’em. I don’t play anglo, so I don’t know if they make things too awkward.

 

In the 2nd half of the A section, at the moment where there’s two high Gs in the tune, try a C chord under the second high G (and following E).

 

In 1st half of the the B section, for the octave leap on A in the tune, try an A major chord, moving to the D chord as a 2ndary dominant. I sometimes even put an E major chord right before it.

[Lofty]

You refer to this as a “New England fiddle tune”. It’s obviously hard to tell a traditional tune’s origins, but it it strongly associated with a Northumbrian piper called, of course, Jamie Allen.

 

See https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Jamie_Allen for more on this colourful character.

 

Steve

[Mikefule]

7 hours ago, Lofty said:

You refer to this as a “New England fiddle tune”. It’s obviously hard to tell a traditional tune’s origins, but it it strongly associated with a Northumbrian piper called, of course, Jamie Allen.

 

See https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Jamie_Allen for more on this colourful character.

 

Steve

You're probably right.  I only called it a New England tune because that appeared to be the accepted wisdom (probably of people from New England).  I certainly learned it in an English traditional music environment.

[John Wild]

It does appear in the first Northumbrian Pipers' Tune Book. There the spelling Jimmy Allen is used in preference to Jamie.

[Mikefule]

I have changed the description of the video to say that it is a Northumbrian pipe tune.  I had only assumed it was New England because that is what I had seen on one or more other videos of people playing the tune.