I played a gig at a pub last night with a fiddler friend for the first time (although I play quite a few barn dances / ceilidhs with another group). The landlady has a licence for two musicians, so we’re restricted to permutations of two instruments from the following: low whistle, high whistle, fiddle, guitar, mandolin, djembe (with occasional vocals). We played a mix of folk and Christmas carols and pretty much any requests, which went down well. So well in fact, that we’ve been asked back in the New Year, so we need some new material.
The restriction on playing only two instruments at once makes picking numbers a bit of an art form. The fiddler can play guitar, but not that well, so the optimum combinations are guitar and fiddle, or whistle and fiddle. So, my question is, what tunes do you think work well with fiddle and whistle? And would you suggest doubling up on the tune, or playing harmonies?
Oh, and I’m working on building a stomp box, so we might at least have that to add in to the mix.
I always think fiddle + high whistle is a nice combination with nearly any tune. You have the different texture and articulation of the two instruments, and the whistle can float and dance over the fiddle’s melody an octave below. Harmonies can be fun, too; but there I think low whistle sometimes works better with the fiddle, in more or less the same tessitura.
BTW, what would happen if you were to, say, pre-record a guitarist accompanying your planned tunes and sets, then play back the recording while you play along with it in the pub, in “music minus two” fashion. Would that be allowed under the license arrangement? If so, it just shows how silly the restriction is.
Perhaps the ‘listen to lots of artists’ applies to this situation as much as when learning an instrument. Though I ignorant in the field, I would guess that there are styles, tunes, and approaches that play to the strengths of a duet while minimizing weaknesses. Successful duos have found their solution to the problem, so why not copy?
Please excuse me if you already thought of this.
Tell not your maternal grandparent to extract
The embryo juices of the hen by suction
The venerable lady can that feat enact
Quite irregardless of thy kind instruction.
I think the waltz “Up Down and Around”
(sometimes called “Far Away”) is very,
very nice when a fiddle plays it through
once solo, then high whistle comes in
the second time through. It’s strangely
compelling.
What’s going on with the bit in the ABC that goes “B3/4c/e3/4” or “f3/4g/a3/4”? How do I parse that ABC, and what’s the dotted-sixteenth-triplet-y thing that comes out in the sheet music – how’s supposed to sound like (in non-midi)? Never seen/heard/recognized that before.
I like the tune though. Is there a recording I should look for? I think I need to hear that odd bit played by an actual musician…
[edited in hopes of making sense to readers, and to add:]
It’s fractions of the default note Length,
(the default length is found in the L: tag)
which in this case is an eighth note. If you
see just a slash after a note without numbers,
it means “half the default length”. If the slash
is surrounded by numbers, you take it as a
fraction. c/ in this ABC is half of an eighth note,
which is a 16th note. B3/4 is three quarters of
an eighth note, which is a dotted 32nd note.
I can’t really describe that figure in words. I
play it kind of like a triplet, but the middle note
goes by quicker than the first and last note.
That’s the best I can do in text, I’m afraid.
Yeah, that’s a weird figure. It’s easiest to think of it as 4 sixteenth notes (semiquavers), with the first 2 dotted, and the second 2 reverse dotted like a Scotch snap. So
B3/4c/e3/4 → B/c/- c/d/ → B/>c- c/<d/
Probably what the transcriber was going for is really a dotted triplet, which is a lot easier to write and parse: (3B>cd
I like the backing track idea. I also need to get used to ITM being all about the melody rather than the accompanyment, so it’s ok to double up on the tune, whereas my past experience in playing other types of music says that variety/harmonies/chords is/are better.
There’s still a big campaign going on (for years now) to make small venues exempt from the ‘two in a bar’ limitation under the 2003 Licencing Act. The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee did agree in its recommendations that they might like to see that happen and there was a debate in Parliament in October. Gerry Sutcliffe (the ‘Sports’ Minister?) announced in Parliament that they expect to exempt venues with less than 100 capacity…but there might be an election before they get that done.
As a piece of legislation it’s currently madness. There was a new guidance note on the current situation last month, which makes everything clear…as mud! I love this document, which included the following examples… http://www.lacors.gov.uk/lacors/upload/23037.pdf
Exempt: a pub promoting a stand-up comedian accompanied by a pianist.
Licensable: a pub promoting a performance by a pianist/singer supported by a stand-up comedian.
Exempt: pub with pianist or other single instrument playing background music.
Licensable: pub promotes a sing-along event with pianist.
Exempt: carol singers outside a shop.
Licensable: shopping centre organises performances of carols in a shopping mall
…just to add to this, in case it helps anyone talking to local landlords, there is a strong case in law that pubs do not need to be licenced for sessions that are ‘incidental’…
The music is incidental if it is NOT the primary purpose for attending the premises i.e. the
performer is there whilst the public are engaged in another (non-regulated entertainment)
activity and that other activity would still take place even if there was no music playing.
The public must be allowed to talk during the performance of incidental music i.e. there
should be no expectation to listen or to watch (even if the public spontaneously sing along
with the music). However the music doesn’t have to be continuous for the whole time the
public are at the premises.
It’s a very small pub, so we wouldn’t want a huge crowd playing. I think we probably fitted into the incidental category, however, most of the people in the pub were friends and friends of friends who came especially for the music.
