It seems like there are a few of us who are vocalists, so I was wondering if any of you who perform (either professionally or for fun) had any tips on singing the traditional Irish, Scottish, and Welsh songs. Are there some good webpages, books, or a great message board like this one for this particular subject? I love my whistle and continue to learn leaps and bounds, but I’d like to further my vocals too. Coming from a musical theatre background, I do a great rendition of “I’m Just a Girl Who Cain’t Say No”, but could use a little help with more traditional songs.
Hi Andrea,
I wouldnøt go as far as calling myself a vocalist, but i enjoy singing Trad. Songs and picking som chords on the guitar for accompaniment.
Actually, in november my girlfriend and I got invited over to play a few songs on a folk evening London! Live on Stage in the UK, so to say.
It was a nice experience, even with the colds we had (don’t know if the audience appreciated that part though )
One great recource for Folk songs and Singing is the MudCat Cafe http://www.mudcat.org/
Lots of lyrics and their own message board.
The way I go about songs is finding the lyrics to songs I like on CD’s, and then figure out the chords. Then play them a lot until it becomes a bit of my own version.
If I’m lucky, my girlfriend will come and enhance it with a second voice.
Some songs I like to sing: The Road and The Miles, Leezie Lindsey, Briar and the Rose, Willie Taylor and some self composed songs.
The other day we made a 30 minute recording of some songs to send as a B-day present to my mom in Holland.
She had been moved to tears - Music is just great!!
I attend a weekly Irish singing class, some traditional and some more modern (80’s on) folk stuff. All our songs are done with guitar or occasional Bouzouki accompaniment, and as a mixed group we work in harmonies on many songs. We often analyse the song, line by line, to try to get inside the head of the original composer. If you feel the same emotions, you can use that emotion to sing.
I take the songs I like and work on them alone, (i.e. learn all the verses). I often sing them while cycling to work & back, so nobody gets disturbed!
Hopefully through the class, and then on my own, I develop my own style. e.g. I wouldn’t want to sing a Christie Moore song in his style, he does it so much better than I ever could.
My hope is to have maybe a dozen songs learnt, so if requested I can sing, and hopefully something not heard every week. So far I have learnt Grace, Kilkelly, Peggy Gordon and The Parting Glass. There’s a lovely song called Beeswing that I like, but I don’t have the skill to work out the chords required.
I found a good source of songs to be the Soodlum’s Book 100 Irish Ballads & Songs, volumes 1 & 2. These came with casette tapes of 1 verse and the chorus of each song, to give the flavour of the song. Book Two has a picture of a fiddle on the front. If I like it, I’m more likely to learn it, and having heard it helps enormously. Once I’ve learnt all the words, I can sing it with feeling.
Andrea,
I was listening the other day and had a moment of understanding.
I had been working on rolls, cuts, slides, etc on the whistle earlier and afterwards was listening to Lothlorien (available through MP3.COM for free). As their vocalist sang several of the songs they do, I heard it clearly as she added the same ornamentation to the song as you would hear on whistle. I had always heard that playing slow airs on whistle or flute was like the Sean Nos singing in Ireland, with it acapela (SP?) solo presentation. But now I could hear an irish singer use the same ornamentation techniques in a song that I had just learned on the whistle.
So the tip might be apply the same ornamentation techniques to sing the song as you would if you were playing it as a slow air, long rolls, short rolls, cut, crans, slides, what ever seems to fit the rhythms and flow of the tune.
You might also want to do a quick search on this bulletin board for Sean Nos singing resources. I remember a while back someone recommending a number of recording to get the Irish feel into slow airs.
Of course, the above ‘moment’ may have more to do with the fact that I’m learning whistle to replace a failing voice. I used to sing all the time, now it’s so discouraging to have lost the top 20-30 percent of my range that I just don’t take the time to rework my old song list into keys to fit my current voice. I guess I really should sing a little more and stretch out what I have left but the opportunities in sessions or groups has been limited around here so far. I’m envious of Martin’s weekly class.
You might want to check around the sessions in your area. Some sessions have more of a mix of tunes and songs. I ran into these in Houston on a 2 month visit there, but haven’t found the same up here in the DC-Baltimore area.
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Enjoy Your Music,
Lee Marsh
[ This Message was edited by: LeeMarsh on 2002-03-05 11:08 ]
Thanks for the suggestions everyone… Martin, I’m envious of your weekly singing lessons! ::
I’ve been able to find a few articles on Sean Nos singing (already had some printed out from a previous search on it), and will see what I can do to study it a bit on my own. A little daunting-- I have a hard enough time doing the ornamentation on my whistle, much less with my voice! I can already see I need some improvement with my range… it’s a bit out of practice. I appreciate the advice from all!
I came to folk singing from a background of choir singing, so I may be able to offer a few tips. The most important thing is to get inside a song, not to worry about precise timing or intonation issues, or even ornamentation. If your background is musical theatre, you may have to take your volume down a few notches - think of the expressiveness as being interior rather than extroverted. The best thing you can do is to join a folk club where you can hear lots of different singers at all levels. Often the quality of the voice is far less important than the singer’s understanding of the song.
Enjoy your singing!
[ This Message was edited by: Blackbird on 2002-03-06 15:38 ]
I checked http://www.madfortrad.com and they have a tutorial CD-ROM on Traditional Singing taught by Karen Casey due for early 2002. Might be worth checking out when it’s available.
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I appreciate the advice from all!