How many of you write music.

jking · Post by **jking** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 5:49 pm

I was wondering how many people here have written jigs, reels etc. I have been playing around with airs but recently wrote a jig. Its called "Kings Jig." (Im sure its way too conceited to name a tune after my last name but what the heck, lol.) It just was posted to clips and snips. I think im going to work on a reel next when inspired. I found that it takes as much effort trying to make the tune your writing not sound like any other tune already in circulation, as it does creating it. I would be interested in other peoples thoughts on writing music.
p.s if any one can actually write music and poss transcribe it, i would be eternally gratefull. I can hear the tune in my head, i can read music but for some reason i cannot transpose it from ear to the sheet.

Darwin · Post by **Darwin** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:07 pm

I have a slow air that I seem to have "written". Actually, I was playing it on the guitar, then on the whistle.

I wrote it out in ABC and put it up at http://www.coastalfog.net/whistles/mysterytune.html, hoping someone could identify it as a "real" tune, but no one has, so I'm now claiming that I wrote it. I suppose I should give it a name.

I've thought about doing a B part to go with it, but nothing has appeared.

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:18 pm

It's a brave whistler who claims to have written any tune in trad style. Many tunes overheard in sessions over the years can lay dormant in ones mind for years only to bubble up to the surface at some time.
Some years ago I played a reel which I thought I wrote only to find two other people recognised it as an old seldom played tune. To this day I still have no idea where I first heard it .
Another time I showed a friend my latest chord progression on Guitar only to be told it was a recent popsong that his teenage daughter played all the time!
George Harrison and Keith Richards both had trouble with the same thing in recent years.Harrison with "My sweet lord" and Richards with a song that "borrowed"heavily from K.D.Langs "Constant Craving".

Slan,
D.

jking · Post by **jking** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:27 pm

i went to an ozzy osbourne concert many years ago. Maybe i repressed some of his tunes and they have finally found their way to the surface through trad music.

Seriously though i believe it can happen. Lately at the sessions we had a new player join and with him came tunes i thought i had never heard before only to find my fingers knew how to play some of them. Its scary but im finding myself in the position to have forgotten almost half as many tunes as i currently play.

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:34 pm

I have written four airs and a jig.

jking · Post by **jking** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:38 pm

Jessie, i found that when thinking about reels it seemed to me anyway thats its a whole different ball of wax. Almost that it takes a ton more thought. Any comment?

McHaffie · Post by **McHaffie** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 7:02 pm

Boy... congratulations! I have written a couple of slow airs. One of them might still be on clips n' snips. Somebody redid it as a piano piece I think and then it got reposted as such.

But to compose an entirely original jig or reel is fantastic. I know people do it and all, and again congrats on doing it, but I don't know if I could or not!!!!

Nice tune by the way. Just hopped over and listened to it.

Take care,
John

Caj · Post by **Caj** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 8:27 pm

I once wrote a slip-and-a-half jig, to fit in a set between Old Man Dillon and Mrs. O'Sullivan's.

Since it filled a hole between two people jigs, I named it after "Mr. Hole," who is actually a regular on one of my usual newsgroups. The tune is officially called "The Lugubrious but Unflappable Mr. Hole," or "Mr. Hole rambles to the Gap."

That's my only attempt at a tune. A friend of mine is a great composer of trad tunes, and he composed a hornpipe to commemmorate when I passed my defense. I brag that I'm so "pure drop" that I got a hornpipe as a graduation present.

Caj

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 10:09 pm

Blast -- wrote a long post, then somehow lost it without posting it. Anyway, I've been writing a bunch of reels and a few jigs, check out the link in my sig. I'll try to say something coherent about them in the morning.

FJohnSharp · Post by **FJohnSharp** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 10:23 pm

I wrote a children's song, called Hey, Moon. I entered it in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest once. (www.jlsc.com) It says that production quality would not be a consideration for judging, but I have to believe that my nearly-in-tune voice and patchy piano accompaniment had to cost me a couple of votes.

BillChin · Post by **BillChin** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:01 pm

I write songs--lots of them. Usually songs with lyrics. Only lately have they strayed anywhere near 19th century style, and none would be described as a reel, jig, or hornpipe.

For me, songwriting is a spiritual experience. Songs come to me, and it is up to me to record them before they drift away. Many other songwriters talk about songwriting in these terms. Joni Mitchell put it this way, some nights the blarney is flowing. Her partner at that time would describe Mitchell as being in a trance-like state, as if channeling. I see it in similar terms, that my ideas come from a greater consciousness, not my own.

In the past few years, I have gotten better at the craft side of songwriting. In many ways, I still feel like a newbie. Despite having played whistle for 14 years, I can't play a decent jig or reel. However, the songwriting side is where I shine. I have touched many lives with my music. My music has carried me through many a dark day and that light continues to shine in my life and those around me.

As for transcribing, I find ABC notation to be the easiest way to go about that. On a whistle the six fingered notes are BAGFED. I use the concertina site to generate MIDIs to help me with the phrasing. Concertina also does sheet music and this is a huge boon for me.

http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html

ABC basics
http://www.lesession.co.uk/abc/abc_notation.htm

The curious can hear some of my songs at:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/9/billchinmusic.htm
+ Bill

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 6:34 am

Right then, I'm semi-awake, and here's my attempt to duplicate my post that got lost last night.

So, if you click on the link in my sig, you'll find eleven reels, three jigs, and one waltz, which is the bulk of my tune output, all written since early 2002. I created the web page in as part of an effort to get the tunes Out There. Tunes are a lot more fun if other people play them, because then you get to hear how other people approach them. Learning variations on your tune from someone else is amazingly cool.

I've found I no longer spend much time worrying about thinking I wrote something I'm really just remembering. I mean, I've never had any luck doing that conciously! And there are so many tunes out there that most tunes are a bit like some other tune, anyway. You can't let the slim chance of not being original stop you from creating. (And don't listen to the opinions of people who don't know much about the genre -- I once had someone tell me one of my tunes was a lot like Drowsy Maggie. Since the tune in question was nothing whatsoever like Drowsy Maggie, other than also being a single reel, I'm pretty sure the person in question only knew the one Irish reel, and so any other reel sounded "like" it.)

Feadan · Post by **Feadan** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 6:50 am

I've written a number of tunes over the years. Mostly airs, but also a couple of jigs, a morris dance tune, etc. Some can be found at http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo7z4q/ if you want to take a peek.

Cheers,
David

Joseph E. Smith · Post by **Joseph E. Smith** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 6:54 am

I write frequently...mostly for fiddle. But recently I've been composing tunes on whistles and pipes. I find it a relaxing and engaging activety.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 7:30 am

I write songs, but no jigs or reels.