Help with 'folding' please

[DrPhill]

Can this lovely tune be folded nicely into the range of the whistle? Or does it lose too much to be worth it?

X: 1
T: Lament For The Death Of The Rev. Archie Beaton
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
Bc|d3 d {e}dc {Bc}BA|{F}G2 B2 D3 G|{EF}E2 {F}GE {DE}D3 B,|{B,}A,6 (Bc)|
d3 d {e}dc {Bc}BA|{F}G2 B2 D3 G|{EF}E2 {d}cA {G}F3 D|{D}G6 :|
{C}B,A,|G,3 B, D3 D|{Bc}B3 A {F}G3 E|{DE}D2 {F}GE {DE}D3 B,|{B,}A,6 {C}B,A,|
G,3 B, D3 D|{Bc}B3 A {F}G3 E|{DE}D2 {F}GB, {A,B,}A,3 B,|{A,}G,6 {C}B,A,|
G,B,DG Bdga|{ga}b3 a {ga}g3 e|{^c}d2 {ga}ge {^c}d3 B|{B}A6 (Bc)|
d3 d {de}dc {Bc}BA|{F}G2 B2 D3 G|E2 {d}cA {G}FDCA,|{A,}G,6 z2|

As usual, any help gratefully received.....

[Mr.Gumby]

Just played through your ABC and raising the low notes an octave works just fine.

[pancelticpiper]

I have a hard time following that sort of transcription.

It varies from tune to tune, how to fit tunes that go below bottom D onto the whistle.

Sometimes it's just a couple notes that can be raised the octave and all is fine. Sometimes we wind players even forget that such tunes HAVE notes below bottom D because we're so used to how they sound with those notes raised (The Banshee etc).

But sometimes the only way to have the melody make sense is to transpose the tune into a different key. So this tune is in G? Maybe transposed to D and played on a Low G whistle it fits better? I wouldn't know until I could see the tune in normal writing.

[Mr.Gumby]

I have a hard time following that sort of transcription.

This type of ABC notation was only ever designed as an easy way to exchange tunes over the net. Not for reading. A plethora of ABC software is freely available to help you follow 'that sort of transcription' by translating it to staff notation.

[DrPhill]

Just played through your ABC and raising the low notes an octave works just fine.

Ok, thanks MrGumby - I will edit the notes up an octave and listen. I guess that I should have known enough to try that for myself.....

You are a gent.

[NicoMoreno]

Listen? To a midi? Please don't! It's better to read from sheet music than to learn from midi!

[Tia]

Is there any good website in which to learn the ABC? I feel as though it might come in handy some day.

thanks!

[Steve Bliven]

Is there any good website in which to learn the ABC? I feel as though it might come in handy some day.

thanks!

You can start with http://abcnotation.com/abc2mtex/abc.txt for the basic rules.

www.thesession.org has lots of ITM tunes in both sheet music and abc

www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html will convert abc to sheet music, including pdf versions

www.8ung.at/abctransposer/index.html will transpose tunes up or down in an attempt to get them to a more whistle-friendly version.

Best wishes.

Steve

[jemtheflute]

OK, Phill, here ya go - this is what I'd do with it:

T: Lament For The Death Of The Rev. Archie Beaton
T:"octave folded" whistle/flute setting - where two notes on one stem, play either to taste, maybe vary between.
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
Bc|d3 d dc BA|G2 B2 D3 G|E2 GE [Dd]3 B|A6 Bc|
d3 d dc BA|G2 B2 D3 G|E2 cA F3 D|G6 :|]
BA|G3 B [Dd]3 [Dd]|B3 A G3 [Ee]|[Dd]2 [Gg][Ee] [Dd]3 B|A6 BA|
G3 B d3 d|B3 A G3 [Ee]|[Dd]2 [Gg]B A3 B|G6 BA|
GBdG Bdga|b3 a g3 e|d2 ge d3 B|A6 Bc|
d3 d dc BA|G2 B2 D3 G|E2 cA [Ff][Dd]cA|G6|]

As I've added in the subtitle, where there are two notes on one stem (the pairs in [] square brackets when you convert this into staff notation) you have a choice which you play - maybe all the top ones, maybe some low and some high - and of course you can use low or high as a variation on repeats. I'd probably mostly play all the high ones (where there is a choice) as a basic version.

I have also removed the rather unhelpful written-in ornamentation.

[DrPhill]

OK, Phill, here ya go - this is what I'd do with it

Wow, thanks Jem. I am looking forward to giving that a try. We have guests this weekend, so I probably wont get a real try for a bit. I am still insufficiently confident to try these rearrangements(?) myself, but I will be able to see what you have done, and maybe guess why.

Is there any good website in which to learn the ABC? I feel as though it might come in handy some day.

http://abcnotation.com/ is a good place to start.

Listen? To a midi? Please don't! It's better to read from sheet music than to learn from midi!

Yeah, MIDI renditions are soulless, but I find them helpful to get the rhythm. I can get pitch from the dots, but have not mastered reading the rhythm. Of course I prefer a human rendition... but rest assured that the MIDIs are ignored once I get the basic rhythm.

[ricmcm]

MIDI will give you the notes but it's biggest weakness is that it does not even hint at a proper rythm. Neither does staff notation. The only way to study rythm is to listen {lots) to competent players.
Dick

[pancelticpiper]

Thanks for that Jem the Flute. With normal notation I can "sing" the tune in my head as I look at the music (yes I had to do sight-singing in college, annoying then but useful ever after).

It's interesting to hear, for example, Paddy Carty play tunes that go below bottom D, and how he handles them. It's been a while since I listened to his album, but as I recall he only popped the necessary notes up the octave, playing all possible notes in their "correct" octave, no matter how jagged the resulting phrase was.

Most curious is when he played tunes that had a sequence like D C# D or D C D in them. When I was playing a keyed flute I would always use the footjoint keys to play the low C or C# in these cases. If I was playing a keyless flute, or whistle, or pipes, I would play a semi-cran/bottom D roll there. But Paddy would play Bottom D middle C Bottom D which always sounded a bit odd to me. (Photos of him appear to show the footjoint rotated so that the keys aren't within reach.)

For whatever reason playing Bottom D B Bottom D seems smoother and we all play tunes like that all the time, where a B below bottom D is raised the octave but it's surrounded by Bottom Ds that we leave alone.

I face these issues all the time on the Highland pipes, but the other way round: tunes that have High B in them, but the pipe's highest note is A. If the tune goes High A High B High A, I'll drop the whole sequence an octave to smooth out the phrase.

(BTW Jem you've probably seen the YouTube video of the guy attempting to do various regional accents where says "Jones the fish catches the fish. Jones the bread bakes the bread." His American accents are particularly awful.)

[jemtheflute]

(BTW Jem you've probably seen the YouTube video of the guy attempting to do various regional accents where says "Jones the fish catches the fish. Jones the bread bakes the bread." His American accents are particularly awful.)

Nah, haven't had that misfortune - not going hunting either!

BTW, if you want to see the original version in staff notation, you must by now know about the Tune-o-tron Converter - just paste Phill's original ABC into it......

[pancelticpiper]

Nah, haven't had that misfortune - not going hunting either!

No hunting needed... here he is attempting various British accents. I'm an American and even I can tell how bad they are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kn3_bYcAnWI

but his attempts at American accents are most glaringly wrong to my ear:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG0Ecf-zHSI

Flush this away with a listen at some actual American accents, starting with how my relatives back home talk:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03iwAY4K ... re=related

and how the people where I now live talk (no it's not exaggerated) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM_iG5N83do&feature=fvw

[dspmusik]

aww, the bad American accent videos were removed from youtube. i always hear people do "fake" Chinese language, and i would love to hear someone who doesn't speak english try to "fake" it. a lot of "dude" and "hamburger" i imagine. that's what were about if TV serves me correctly.