Tell us something.: Well dang, I just want to change my password. looking for that correct page! Thank you! Ohh good grief, I get it, you have to be careful who you let in because of spammers, but sigh.... I'm in a hurry, can we move this along please. :)
I am going to my daughter's school in VA this month to play whistle and Hammered Dulcimer for her music students during their class time. March is Music In The Schools Month. The students are K-6 graders.
I will be playing Shepards Hay for the K-2nd grades and they are suppose to dance to it. I have been practicing it but I have been tonguing the whole thing. I have a CD that came with "The Whistlers Pocket Companion Book" On the CD, they tongue it the whole way through too. I like how it sounds this way because it just makes you want to dance. The only thing I don't like about it is that it is almost all in the second octave and is really hard on the ears. I have been trying it out on the first octave and just playing the low notes in that octave too. There is one place where there is a C# that I can play as a first octave E and it sounds ok. The place where it is suppose to jump from a 2nd octave "a" down to a 1st octave A I just play the 1st octave A twice.
What do you think about this? There is so much controversy about tonguing or not tonguing. Am I being a bad girl doing it this way? Am I also being incorrect by dropping down an octave?
Also, I will be playing Spotted Pony on my H dulcimer and I have been looking for the words to it and can't find any. My daughter told the 3rd graders that they have to write the words. They are all really excited that they will be writing words to a song. Do any of you know of any words written to it?
Thanks for any help or advice you can give.
Cheers,
Kathy
~*~Creativity is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God~*~
Well, I play Shepherd's Hey for a Morris troupe and Morris music is traditionally more staccato than Irish trad. It helps keep the dancers on the beat. Since Shepherd's Hey is a Morris tune, I'd say tongue away! There's just a world of difference between how I play Morris music and how I play Irish music!
If you want to hear how I play it, go to http://www.geocities.com/shmorrissc and click on "practice tunes." You'll need to turn up your speakers a bit, since it's a pretty quiet recording.
Redwolf
...agus déanfaidh mé do mholadh ar an gcruit a Dhia, a Dhia liom!
P.S. Play it in the second octave (key of G). You really can't play it properly if you're trying to play it all in the lower register. It's not as loud as you think it is...the more you get used to playing up above middle D, the easier it will be for you. And especially if you're playing for dancers...no one will hear you if you're playing down in the lower register!
Redwolf
Last edited by Redwolf on Sun Mar 14, 2004 11:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
...agus déanfaidh mé do mholadh ar an gcruit a Dhia, a Dhia liom!
Kathy,
I agree with Redwolf. This is a Morris Tune (English) so tonguing all the notes is appropriate if that is what you want to do.
The whole "to tongue or not to tongue" thing in Irish Trad. music is very overbown (excuse the pun!). Some players tongue lots, some not at all and most are somewhere in the middle - there are no hard or fast rules.
If you listen to Sean Ryan, he tongues just about everything, and is a mighty fine traditional whistler. Sounds like a fun gig - have fun.
Tell us something.: Well dang, I just want to change my password. looking for that correct page! Thank you! Ohh good grief, I get it, you have to be careful who you let in because of spammers, but sigh.... I'm in a hurry, can we move this along please. :)
I knew you played it and was hoping you would see this. I listened to your recording and you play it slightly different than the way it is written in my book but not much different. The main difference is that on the CD that goes with the book, every note is tongued so it sounds really skippy. I'll try playing it without tonguing every note.
Also, the version I've learned has an A part, B part, and a C part. It starts out fgafg fgafe and the F's are sharp and C's are sharp so I guess that is the key of D? I don't think I will be able to relearn it so quickly so I think I will play it like I learned it and keep it up in the second octave like you said and lose some of the tongue.
Thanks for your advice. I will be playing it on my Alba Q1. It's a quiet whistle but it has a clear voice especially in the upper octave. The classes will be limited to 25 or so students so I hope it will be heard. There will be no other instruments, just me.
Cheers,
Kathy
~*~Creativity is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God~*~
Tell us something.: Well dang, I just want to change my password. looking for that correct page! Thank you! Ohh good grief, I get it, you have to be careful who you let in because of spammers, but sigh.... I'm in a hurry, can we move this along please. :)
I have to wait until tomorrow, I don't want to wake the house, but I am going to try it without some of the tonguing. Maybe it will give it a little more of a smoothness to some of it. It might be easier to hit the second octave B in my version if I don't tongue, I'll let you all know how it goes.
I think I will have fun, I am excited about doing this. I am a little nervous about the 6th graders, I will be doing more of a concert thing for them. I thought I would play 3 whistle tunes for them. "Wild Mountain Thyme", Shepherds Hey, and either Wayfaring Stranger or "Scarbourough Faire" I want them to see that you can play all different kinds of music on the whistle. I will be playing some Old Timey music like Leather Britches and June Apple on the Hammered Dulcimer and also some Waltz's and "The Butterfly" too. If I get to feeling confident, I might play "Irish Washer Woman" I know, That's a little like playing Danny Boy but the kids won't know that. I will only play it if the Shaking goes away though.
Cheers,
Kathy
~*~Creativity is God's gift to you. What you do with it is your gift to God~*~
I too originally learned it with an A, B and C part, but in the key of G (first note is second register F#). I first had it from Robin Williamson's "The Penny Whistle Book. Adderbury Morris Dancers only use the A and a greatly simplified B part...I don't know why. In fact, when they sing it, they simplify the A part as well...sung it goes F# A G, F# A E, F# A G, etc.
Redwolf
...agus déanfaidh mé do mholadh ar an gcruit a Dhia, a Dhia liom!
Redwolf wrote:I too originally learned it with an A, B and C part, but in the key of G (first note is second register F#). I first had it from Robin Williamson's "The Penny Whistle Book. Adderbury Morris Dancers only use the A and a greatly simplified B part...I don't know why. In fact, when they sing it, they simplify the A part as well...sung it goes F# A G, F# A E, F# A G, etc.
Redwolf
P.S. That's the key of G...you just don't play any Cs (sharp or otherwise) so you don't notice so much.
...agus déanfaidh mé do mholadh ar an gcruit a Dhia, a Dhia liom!
'I can whistle Ican play I can dance the Shepard's Hey'
Will have That line singing in my head all day, thank you
below the tune as given in The Morris Book, which I have in a 1910 edition, interesting to note these guys dance their jigs in 2/2 time. But what can you expect from grown men with bells who wave hankies or shake sticks at eachother. Bet they loved figure B2 though.
Peter Laban wrote:'below the tune as given in The Morris Book, which I have in a 1910 edition, interesting to note these guys dance their jigs in 2/2 time. But what can you expect from grown men with bells who wave hankies or shake sticks at eachother. Bet they loved figure B2 though.
hehehe.
It does seem a fitting irony that in California Morris dances are apparently now performed by pre-pubescent girls.
Apart from that, I am a bit puzzled why playing staccato would help the dancers with the beat. I think may be more of a windy-outdoors thing, but I wouldn't know.
Peter Laban wrote:'below the tune as given in The Morris Book, which I have in a 1910 edition, interesting to note these guys dance their jigs in 2/2 time. But what can you expect from grown men with bells who wave hankies or shake sticks at eachother. Bet they loved figure B2 though.
hehehe.
It does seem a fitting irony that in California Morris dances are apparently now performed by pre-pubescent girls.
Apart from that, I am a bit puzzled why playing staccato would help the dancers with the beat. I think may be more of a windy-outdoors thing, but I wouldn't know.
Hey, we have boys in the troupe too! Several, in fact. There's only one in the picture because he was the only one there when the picture was taken.
Most U.S. Morris troupes are co-ed, and there are co-ed English teams as well (check out some of the links on our site). The core of our team is made up of kids whose parents are members of Santa Cruz's long-established "Seabright Morris and Sword."
Adult Morris dancers probably need something to keep them on the beat somewhat less than children do...and are also often lucky enough to have at least one musician who plays a percussion instrument (usually a tabor). For the kids, the judicious use of tonguing takes the place of of drumming as an aid to "hearing" the rhythm. I used to play these tunes with almost no tonguing, even though the Morris style is more staccato, but the kids had a much harder time "hearing" the beat when I did that.
I never have figured out why Morris dancers call tunes in 2/2 "jigs." Most of the tunes so-called we would call hornpipes. They also play reels much more slowly than Irish musicians would be inclined to play them...sometimes they sound almost stately!
Redwolf
...agus déanfaidh mé do mholadh ar an gcruit a Dhia, a Dhia liom!
Hey RW. where's your website? Lemmesee, lemmesee. My current team are probably in the running for worst site on the web. http://www.alfordmorrismen.org.uk/
Maybe we can do a deal. You lend us a website designer and we'll loan you a musician.
May the joy of music be ever thine.
(BTW, my name is John)
jbarter wrote:Hey RW. where's your website? Lemmesee, lemmesee. My current team are probably in the running for worst site on the web. http://www.alfordmorrismen.org.uk/
Maybe we can do a deal. You lend us a website designer and we'll loan you a musician.
Well, our website is pretty basic (mainly because I designed it, and my web design skills are stuck back in the mid-90s!), but here it is:
Does anyone remember by the way the classic 1972 lp 'Morris On' and it's inevitable sequel 'Son of Morris On'. i have the Shepard's hey from that one bouncing through my head since reading this thread early this morning even though I probably haven't listened to it in 25 years.
I will only play it if the Shaking goes away though. 
