similiar songs to Skye Boat Song

[Whistling Archer]

Any suggestions on a few tunes to learn , that are similiar in speed and difficulty to Skye Boat Song??
I think I would be best to start these slower tunes & get some polish before I try doing a Jig
I guess waltzes is what Im asking for. Is Skye a waltz?
Thanks
Steve

[Dain]

I myself had learned "Down by yon Sally Gardens" (waltz, not the reel), and later, "Southwind".
You could try "Mingulay boat song", which is close in sentiment to a "Skye boat song".

[Whistling Archer]

Thanks, I kinda know Southwind. and sally gardens, I just looked at youtube & the guy made it sound beautiful, , he threw in a few more notes than are on my beginner low whistle book
Im gonna try it out.
Waltzes & airs , what is the the difference . waltz 3/4 what about airs???

[benhall.1]

Ah ... I saw the thread title and thought it was going to be about ersatz folk tunes coined by the upper classes and put to newly written words by English people pretending to be 'Celtic' ...

Anny-hoo ... Down by the Sally Gardens, the waltz ... huh? I don't know that one. I know the rather slow song tune ... but that's in cut time, at least in any version I've heard. Do you have the dots, Dain? I'd be interested ...

[Jason Paul]

I think you'd consider Down by the Sally Gardens an air rather than a waltz. That's a great tune and was actually the first one I learned.

Generally an air will be more free-flowing in time. Careful talking about them here though, as they can become hotly debated.

If you're looking for some nice, fairly slow tunes, look at a few planxtys (planxties?).

Si Bheag Si Mohr (this sounds like a planxty to me, not sure if it is, technically)
Planxty Hewlett
Planxty Irwin
Planxty Fanny Power

Jason

[Tommy]

Click here http://www.tinwhistler.com/index.aspx then click on the tunes, and click on tunes by type or alphabetically. You can see them and hear them. Great site.

[Dain]

Thanks, I kinda know Southwind. and sally gardens, I just looked at youtube & the guy made it sound beautiful, , he threw in a few more notes than are on my beginner low whistle book

When you are more comfortable with your upper octave (if you have those problems, as i did) you might try to play Sally Gardens starting from G instead of D. It might help you get a few lower notes that you cannot play when beginning in D.

And i dont know if you saw that little Chinese kid on Youtube; he rocked both Sally Gardens and Women of Ireland (one of the most haunting melodies i've ever heard)

[Jason Paul]

I didn't even think about that. I've always played it in G myself.

Jason

[s1m0n]

Waltzes & airs , what is the the difference . waltz 3/4 what about airs??? :-?

An air, being the melody of a song, doesn't signify a particular dance step the way a term like 'waltz' does, so it doesn't automatically correlate with any particular time signature.

[John Ficken]

Well, you could also pick up any piping tune and play it as written. That's how I'm learning the whistle, as I know scads of piping tunes. On a "D" whistle you'll never play a piping tune lower than "G" or higher than "a". Opens up a lot of possibilities. Some of my favorite slow airs are "Suo Gan", "The Dark Isle", and "Highland Cathedral". Piping music is readily available on the 'net, as quite a bit of it is out of copyright. I mention this because it it opens up a ton possibilities for tune choices.

2 pence from the new guy....

[Ceili_whistle_man]

Hi Steve,

Try this waltz 'Cooley's waltz #2', http://ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tu ... LEYSWALTZ2
Sorry about the looong URL, I have no idea how to shorten it, I just copied and pasted it to here.
I was in a session a few years back when I heard this tune played with Cooley's waltz #1 and for the life of me couldn't pick the tune, but I knew I had heard it before and was able to play along. It wasn't until after the tune was finished that I realised that I knew the #2 waltz as a jig, 'Tom Bhett'ys'.
So if you learn the tune in it's waltz form it shouldn't be that hard to shift gear and rip it out as a jig in the future.
The tune is fairly simple to learn as it is full of arpeggio's, and it is a great sounding tune when played as a jig.
Good luck.

[Bill Reeder]

Well, you could also pick up any piping tune and play it as written. That's how I'm learning the whistle, as I know scads of piping tunes. On a "D" whistle you'll never play a piping tune lower than "G" or higher than "a". Opens up a lot of possibilities. Some of my favorite slow airs are "Suo Gan", "The Dark Isle", and "Highland Cathedral". Piping music is readily available on the 'net, as quite a bit of it is out of copyright. I mention this because it it opens up a ton possibilities for tune choices.

2 pence from the new guy....

Let's see here, do you mean Great Highland pipes when you say "piping tunes"?
"Piping tunes" doesn't conjure up the same image for some of us.

2 cents from the old guy......

[hoopy mike]

How about Am Rhaibh... (can't remember how to spell, but it's number 5 in the chiff and fipple tunebook, which I also can't find a link to, my excuse being that I'm away on holiday and this internet connection is pretty crumby, but the hotel is very nice, and the crumby internet connection is probably just as well for a romantic get away....)

[pancelticpiper]

It's odd, maybe, how in the Highland Piping repertoire there are a huge number of lovely tunes which could be thought of as waltzes (because it's possible to waltz to them) but they usually write them out in 6/8 time and call them "slow marches".

I've played Highland pipes for weddings for three decades now and when they want me to play for the "first dance" I always play a medley of these tunes:
Skye Boat Song
Highland Cradle Song
Chi Mi na Morbheanna (The Mist-Covered Mountains)
Fagail Lios Mor (Leaving Lismore)

There's a great scene in the movie Local Heroes where they're at a local dance and the dance band is playing Chi Mi na Morbheanna.

There's loads of these in the Highland piping tradition and any large Highland pipes tunebook will have a section devoted to them (but some books have all marches, quick and slow, thrown into the same section).
Many are tunes to Gaelic songs, some are tunes to Robby Burns songs (of course he seems to have appropriated pre-existing traditional tunes for his songs but that's another story), some are newly composed.

[fearfaoin]

http://ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tu ... LEYSWALTZ2
Sorry about the looong URL, I have no idea how to shorten it, I just copied and pasted it to here.

If you just paste it without hitting the URL button,
the site automatically recognizes it as a URL and
shortens it for you. Like this:
http://ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tu ... LEYSWALTZ2

If you hit the URL button (or type in before it by hand) it is forced to sho ... ERE, dude![/code]
becomes:
CLICK HERE, dude!