Amazing Grace, long version?

[meuritt]

I was booking a 15 minute gig for a funeral, the client asked me if I knew the longer version of Amazing Grace. I've found one expanded version by a piano player on youtube, but it certainly isn't pipe friendly. Anyone have any ideas whai he might have been talking about?

While attempting to locate that, this interesting site turned up, I thought I'd pass it along
www.funeralhelper.org
definitely not piper specific, but full of good ideas

Mike

[CHasR]

http://funeralhelper.org/funeral-music/ ... music.html

"Three times a lady" is popular funeral music??? hot damn!!! & here i am doin Stairway to heaven! oh, my!


The 'song' (lmao) "maysngras" (lol) can be anywhere from 55sec to 20 min long, depending on how much the piper is being paid. I suspect there is signifigant extemporization going on: which, although not a 'taught' feature of piping (any piping), is certainly an essential one.

In funeral music, the tune can often be of secondary importance. It is the mood that trumps, frequently. So dont be afraid to wing it.

[ausdag]

There's a new modern verison of the song that's popular these days which has an added variation on the tune and lyrics. That could be what the person means. Here's the youtube reference. Variation starts around 1:14

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbe7OruLk8I

[Ben Steen]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeDhrlPKI3s ~ from the movie Garden State

Not really a song which one can easily transfer onto pipes & bring w/it the essential giddy, kitschiness; I'd think. Oh, well.

On the other hand a good piper who can put their best effort into this song**, here by Patty Loveless, that's a piper who'll have your mobile ringing off the hook.

**https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dRiZ1CD-xo

[PJ]

On the uilleann pipes, play it through once on just the chanter, then once with drones added, then finally with chanter, drones and regulators. That can be stretched out to about 5 minutes without boring the audience to death .

[tommykleen]

Amazing Grace, long the province of Great Highland bagpipers, is quite well suited to the uilleann pipes in my opinion. Actually, I would contend that it is better suited to the uilleann pipes .
You can accompany the melody on the chanter with a harmony melody on the regs...all by your self.

[oleorezinator]

You can start it in g switch to d and then back to g for stretching purposes.

[oleorezinator]

There's a new modern verison of the song that's popular these days which has an added variation on the tune and lyrics. That could be what the person means. Here's the youtube reference. Variation starts around 1:14

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbe7OruLk8I

What a fabulous idea, steal a traditional piece and
collect the royalties by adding your own part to it.

[CHasR]

What a fabulous idea, steal a traditional piece and
collect the royalties by adding your own part to it.

SSSSHHHH!!
(....It only works if its a non-religious funeral that's open to the public, with admission.)

[ausdag]

What a fabulous idea, steal a traditional piece and
collect the royalties by adding your own part to it.

SSSSHHHH!!
(....It only works if its a non-religious funeral that's open to the public, with admission.)

Regardless of what you think of the ethics of reworking an out-of-copyright traditional song, so far it's the only suggestion that actaully addresses the OP's question, viz what did the customer mean by 'the longer version of Amazing grace'.

[pancelticpiper]

I've played Amazing Grace on the uilleann pipes hundreds of times. You can actually play the whole tune on the regs while droning with the chanter (in the key of G). It sounds cool and people love it.

Yes you can play the tune in D also for a brighter sound. You can also play the tune in C, by the way, because the tune is pentatonic and has no 4th degree (no pesky F naturals needed).

So for a full performance version I've either stayed in G and done

chanter solo > add regs > play the tune on the regs one octave down to finish

or modulated, like

chanter solo in G > add regs in G > modulate up to D with regs to finish.

Yes I've played that modern Christian-praise-pop version with the added bridge, called Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone. (It's a bridge, not a variation, BTW.) The first time I heard it I threw up a little in my throat but now it's grown on me a bit.

The annoying thing is these modern Christian-praise-pop people having to shove every song into their preconceived formula, verse/chorus/bridge and don't forget that the final bit has to modulate up a step! Christians have been perfectly fine praising the Almighty for centuries with Hymns that have a simple one-part structure, no verse/chorus, no bridge.

Anyhow it's dead-easy to play, this added bridge. It's what, eight bars? You should be able to figure it out like I did, just play along with the recording that's been linked to above.

[Mr.Gumby]

The only time I remember playing the tune ever. Geoff Wooff and myself playing in the bar of 'The Malbay', at the start of some mid eighties Willie week. A man in a wheelchair was brought in and sat listening until after a while he asked if we played Amazing Grace. Not too keen, we obliged. While we were playing one of Geoff's children, quite young at that stage, seemed to take a dislike to the one legged audience and started moving stools around the bar to fence in the wheelchair. We finished the tune after one go. 'There's more verses to that one' the man said. 'We only know the one verse' Geoff replied. And that's more than enough, I thought.

[meuritt]

Thanks for the input, fellow pipers. I did as PJ suggested, and continued turning things on and off, for almost 20 minutes. My first paid gig in my new hometown.

Since memorials are mostly what I've been asked about thus far, and only this one didn't want the warpipes, I will see about adding the extra bit as well as playing in C and D. It will make 20 minutes go a bit faster in the future.

Mike

[oleorezinator]

Regardless of what you think of the ethics of reworking an out-of-copyright traditional song, so far it's the only suggestion that actaully addresses the OP's question, viz what did the customer mean by 'the longer version of Amazing grace'.

Ethics? I'm sure that Brother Tomlin was only concerned
with praising the most high while raking in millions in the
name of the lord by his reworking of the song.
I wasn't impugning your helpful suggestion but merely
expressing my disregard for that versions triteness.
The drivel that was added only further degrades a tune
that I liked the 1st five hundred million times that I've heard
or played it.

[oleorezinator]

Yes I've played that modern Christian-praise-pop version with the added bridge, called Amazing Grace, My Chains Are Gone. (It's a bridge, not a variation, BTW.) The first time I heard it I threw up a little in my throat but now it's grown on me a bit.
.

I feel your pain.