Ornamentation Question

Whistle
1

I don’t speak ABC so answering this question will involve either knowing the tune or going to the session: http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/5202

The tune is the Hills of Larraga, and I am looking for suggestions about how to play the three A notes in the second measure (other than simply tonguing all of them). Any suggestions would be welcome. Thanks.

2

Sure, lots of possibilities. But first, realize that it’s not really 3 A notes …

The basic call-and-echo structure there is 2x2:

FDD cAA|dcA A3|
FDD cAA|dcA G3|

The 2nd and 3rd A’s are really a single mid-cut A. And the following G is really just a passing tone down to the restart of the phrase.

So just some possibilities are:

FDD cAA|dcA {c}A2G| : single cut
FDD cAA|dcA {c}AzG| : single cut + breath
FDD cAA|dcA ~A3| : long roll on A = A{c}A{G}A
FDD cAA|dcA ~A2G| : short roll on A = {c}A{G}A
FDD cAA|dcA A/{c}A/{B}AG| : double-cut A
FDD cAA|dc ~A3 G| : long roll on A (syncopated)
FDD cAA|dcA ABG| : melody variant
FDD cAA|dcA BAG| : melody variant

Just paste these examples into an ABC editor for standard notation.

3

Cool. That’s exactly what I was looking for. Thanks!

4

(Edit)
Dooooooh!!!
In between reading the post and typing an answer, MT beat me to the punch!
It took me a minute or two to find the ‘3’ A’s in the tune :boggle:
So, carry on…just do as yer man above suggests. :laughing:
I am sure you will be able to find lots more little variations to the theme, I won’t add any more, it’s fun to find your own way of playing these phrases.

5

I don’t speak ABC either and MTGuru’s post makes my head hurt. I have not the slightest idea what the question is, and what MT’s suggested options are.

I wish there was a way on this forum to post musical examples in a more universally useful way.

6

. . . and I wish this forum was much more than a forum. In that way, posting musical examples would be easy.
I do have a few ideas though . . .

7

I’d attack the first A and also the 2nd but making a short roll to complete third… I think’s a bit difficult to explain.

I recorded the first few measures to clarify… hope it helps!

http://rapidshare.com/files/213413838/3_A_s.mp3.html

8

Attention: PanCelticPiper and other non-ABCers

  1. Click on the session website link shown in the Original Post by crickett.
  2. This gets you to the Hills of Larraga page on “the session”
  3. Click on the " sheetmusic " tab near the top.
  4. There, you’ve got the familiar standard notation with which you and I, old-timers both, are more familiar.
  5. Compare the ABC’s of MTGuru’s with the notes of this simple jig. Each capital letter is an 1/8th note in the lower octave. Each small-case letter is an 1/8th note in the second register. See how they’re grouped mostly in little groups of three? Six letters to the measure (bar) ?? A dotted quarter note is an A3 to show it has the same time value as a triplet. And so on. That’s about all I can demonstrate for you as I am no expert either.

Hope this is mostly helpful. Lloyd

P.S. Loved the sound of your (miniature ?) pipes last summer at The Ould Dubliner, Long Beach. But, I liked your whistle playing the most. That vintage green-top Feadog is truly a remarkable instrument.

9

Thanks for the kudos! Yes that old Feadog is remarkable.

If only there was a way to include ordinary sheet music in a post here, I’d be good to go!

10

Pan, you can - you must have seen some of the bits I’ve put in from time to time, and others have done it. Maybe the high computerati among us know better/quicker ways, but I do it by getting an image of the sheet music as a jpeg, editing it to be no wider than 700 pixels, uploading it to an image hosting service like any other picture you want to display here and posting the link in [img] brackets in a post here in the usual way… sounds more complex to fix than it actually is (at least, once you’ve done it a few times). You can get your notation image via a scanner or a digital camera (for existing sheet music) or generate computer based images from one of the ABC writing programs (OK, not your bag - but it actually doesn’t take very long to crack using it, honest - and I know several previously resisitant fluent standard notation readers who have become converts to its usefulness in lieu of better software than anyone has yet invented for standard notation…) or from music notation software like Finale or Sibelius, which should (I think) let you export an image of your score at least to a pdf which you can then snapshot and convert in a picture editor…

11

MT, can you recommend a good ABC editor?
Mike

12

Mike, Personally, I’m hard core. :slight_smile: I just use a standard text editor - VIM (a vi clone) - with the ABC color syntax template.

ABC Explorer seems to be the Windows favorite among Chiffers: http://abc.stalikez.info/abcex.php/

Guido mentions a few others (ABCEdit, JedABC) on his ABCPlus page: http://abcplus.sourceforge.net/

And Chris Walshaw’s ABC Software page is pretty comprehensive: http://abcnotation.org.uk/software.html

The Concertina.net converter also works fine. To view a “snippet” of ABC, just put a minimal header in front of the snippet:

X:1
T:(Tune Title)
M:(Meter, usually 4/4 or 6/8 or C|)
K:(Key, e.g. D or Am or EDorian, etc.)
Your ABC snippet goes here

13

Just came across this - trying to do what Jem explained I got the page of the book up- I think you can see this - I hope! - its from Second Wind, Mike Rafferty’s new tune-book. This might not be the same as session dot org but is the way I learned the tune from Mike.

You can cut the 2nd A, it is shown with a little note between. On the other places with 2 A’s in a row I sometimes tap either the top hand ring finger or bottom hand pointer finger to separate them. Also you can just puff the note by sort of saying “uh-oh” while blowing it.

Hope that’s helpful,
Lesl