I’ve been invited to a Burn’s Supper, it’s always a brilliant night but you have to do a turn and they mark it!!
One of the mark categories is ‘Scottishness’ which I failed on last year, no one believed my cock and bull story about a piper playing ‘Fanny Power’ to his loved one across the water, (that and ‘drunkeness’ since I was driving) so can you suggest a few easy Scottish tunes I can get up to speed? I’m a middling whistle player.
associated with Burns:
My Love Is But A Lassie Yet
Green Grows The Rashes, O
Ye Banks And Braes
Corn Riggs
Ae Fond Kiss
some others:
Huntington Castle
The Fairy Dance
Petronella
Calum’s Road
The Hill Of Lochiel
Also
The Mason’s April
The Glasgow Reel
Jig of Slurs
Harvest Home
etc
David
I would go with Hans top list associated with Burns - ‘banks and braes’ is a nice easy slow tune and ‘corn riggs’ is one of my favourites (however, not the version they used on the film ‘The Wicker Man’ - Ossian do a nice rendition). Depending on how ‘adult’ an audience it is you may wish to dip into some of Rabbies less well known offerings from his ‘secret cabinet’. Google ‘The Merry Muses of Caledonia’ and you will get some of them. However, they are more fun recited, of course, rather than played on a whistle. Maybe you could do both? Rabbie did enjoy dabbling in the less couthy side of life 
(If you are wondering about pronunciation I could always record a version of whichever and send it to you - I was born around the corner from Burns and have spoken his poetry for 40 odd years).
Ah Ossian!
My all time favourite Scottish group!
Played with such great feeling.
And they did a lovely instrumentation mix.
~Hans
one seems suspiciously out of order and the other…
oh well, there’s no fathoming those Scotts and their queer ways.
I can see why you failed on the ‘Scottishness’ bit. (Scot - with one ‘t’ please). Rashes are not red and bumpy things that grow on your body but rushes that grow by a river side (at least that’s my interpretation). I imagine he was thinking of them as good cover when rolling with the lassies’ o. Try this site for further references - it’s probably one of the more trustworthy. http://burns.scran.ac.uk/database/record.php?scache=6s4l9jb8ct&searchdb=scran&usi=000-000-499-626-C
Oh and the first one - reads more to you like ‘My lover is still quite young’! Nowt as queer as folk who misinterpret the auld mither tongue!
cheers
Stephen
No … Apparently they are green and bumpy things! 
That sounds like a case of ‘toad in the hole’ if I’m not mistaken…
Sorry, I was willfully misinterpreting the post. Should have used a smilie.
I was hoping for the names of some common dance tunes that would get people’s feet tapping rather than more incomprehensible Burns, as there is plenty of that on the night.
Thanks for all the suggestions.
If you want Scottish people to help you it’s probably not a good idea to insult the national bard…
Burns was a brilliant poet, that’s not at issue. It’s just that sometimes it is hard to understand the dialect when you are not from the area.
In the past the party has always featured Burns but as we are mostly English guests we come up with all kinds of other entertainment with as much Scottish influence as possible in order to score highly. ‘Scottishness’ is another important category that is marked. My husband actually stopped his heart last year but didn’t score highly because it wasn’t Scottish enough!
I’m trying the Athol Highlanders at the moment as a possible.
Stirling Castle - snappy strathspey
Roslyn Castle - slower
A wee bit o’ inspiration:
My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer -
A-chasing the wild deer, and following the roe;
My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go.
Gain serious cognocenti points by playing the late Hamish Henderson’s masterpiece, The Freedom Come-all-Ye (wiki, Dick Gaughan’s site, or Living Trad. Article) is a lovely tune, is as scottish as it’s possible to be, and not nearly as done-to-death as every single Burns’ song is by now. If you’re in North America, it’s possible that you can turn the tables on whoever disdained Fanny Power last year–they might not have heard of it, and you can feign surprise at their ignorance. Fancy not knowing ‘the alternative scottish national anthem’!
It should be possible to find an ABC version you can easily transpose up a note into whistle range. Henderson set his words to a ww1 pipe tune (The Bloody Fields of Flanders), so you know it’ll sound good as an instrumental on flute or whistle. There are plenty of good spots for rolling, starting with the first downbeat (…Wind). The only tricky part(s) in the melody are the two bars in which the meter changes from 3 to 2. The dots might look daunting, but it’s a lot less difficult that it looks once you’ve heard the tune a few times.
Here’s a comment from the Beeb’s ‘Writing Scotland’ page.
…But if you’re dead set on playing Carolan, some of his tunes have a secret, scots identity: Planxty George Brabazon, f’rinstance, is the melody of the song “Twa [two] Bonnie Maids”, which is about Bonnie Prince Charlie escaping to Skye in a frock along with Flora MacDonald, whilst pretending to be her irish maid, Betty Burke..
Charles Edward Stewart is, by the way, the only national hero I can think of who’s famous for cross dressing. The Jacobites were way ahead of their time!
Check out this article:
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/It-may-be-bonnie-but.4205773.jp
Our image of bonnie prince Charlie may be wrong.
You could try “Hector the Hero”, J Scott Skinner’s superb lament for Maj. General Sir Hector MacDonald who joined the British Army as a private and rose to the rank of Major General. After a distinguished career he committed suicide as a result of false accusations of homosexuality.
The original manuscript is held at Aberdeen University
Here played beautifully by Jenna Reid and Aly Bain: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TCwut-wg7fE
On the flute, I often play it in G rather than the original A.
No arguments about the Scottishness of this one.
Geoff
Cock of the North is a good pipe tune on whistle- (I always pair it up with Foggy Dew)
Just for closure, our supper was last night and was the best ever. My friends had an actual real Scotsman called Billy playing the bagpipes. He was brilliant and quite a rareity in this area. Some of us had a go. I could play the pipe but couldn’t blow the bag! We all had an even greater respect for Billy afterwards.
I played Amazing Grace, followed by Jig of Slurs and Atholl Highlanders, very badly since by the time it was my go I was fairly well oiled.
Anyhoo I beat off stiff competition from McAbba and won. I got a box of shortbread. Huzzah.
Thanks for all your suggestions.