First, does anyone know where I can get the music to the particular Rigaudon from Mary Bergin’s Feadoga Stain 2? Or is that a copyright thing?
Second, and more interesting.
I’m trying to put together some medley’s and I want to get some opinions on what works well. I’ve noticed that some reels tend to end on an odd note, almost as if they are begging to be added to a medley.
However, is it better to keep all songs in a medley in the same type? That is, Jig, jig, jig or reel, reel, reel etc? Or in the same key? Complimentary keys like Em to D?
Or, what are some tunes that traditionally worked well together?
On the second point you mean a set - 3 reels, jigs etc. rather than a medley. I won’t offer up any sets myself, but here’s a tunebook where the tunes are arranged in sets, check page 5 for a quick guide.
Lunasa do put different types of tunes into sets, eg, jig-slipjig-slide, so it’s perfectly acceptable at times. Many times Ive heard a set started with a slow air and then run into a jig or reel.
Rigaudon looks like the general song is in the public domain, but if she made her own arrangement for it, then that arrangement is under her copyright.
In the workshop I recently attended, Jimmy Noonan gave us three jigs and each was in a different key–Em, D, and G. I forget which order they were in but he mentioned that the progression gave the set a nice feel.
As a thought, you can do the same piece at several different tempi.
The best example I can think of is “Lots of drops of Brandy”, the first song from the Chieftains “Water from the Well” CD. It’s a slip jig (I think), but they play it at a reel, single/double jig and slip tempi, all right after each other. Makes a really nice tune that way.
True! It would be rare to play 3 tunes straight in the same key I think. Putting tunes into sets is quite an art, which I am quite a way from mastering.
As Geek4music pointed out, a tune often ends on a note that almost begs for another tune to follow. Knowing enough tunes to pick a good one to follow is part of the skill.
I was at a session in London where a fiddler went into a kind of overdrive frenzy, and played about a dozen reels without a break. Some players knew one tune, some another, but only the fiddler was able to play throughout. Coming to the end of one tune, maybe he’d give a nod to the flute player or another fiddler, and they’d leap into another tune together - other times he’s just start a new tune alone, and they’d pick it up after two or three bars.
Needless to say he had quite a thirst on him when he finally put down the smoking bow!
A tune doesn’t have to end on an odd note for that note to be a good starting point for the next tune. To give a really obvious example, suppose you have a tune in D that ends on D. (Quite a few of those.) Now, although the Kesh Jig is in G, I’d use D to B as pick up notes before launching off from G—pretty common practice. So there you have a nice way of seguing from D to G that won’t sound in the slightest bit forced.
The last note is played as a link e.g. play the tune again, or link to another tune. It also ‘gathers’ attention for the audience or other players.
If the tune e.g. Kesh Jig, Donnybrook Fair, Lord Mayo etc is first in the line up, I quite often play the last note first, then start at the beginning of the tune.
Dunno why, but I know it helps me.
Guess I’m foolish that way
Ive noticed that a lot of Irishtrad songs end on “odd” notes rather than what one would expect from a more classically composed piece of music. Often times the end note does not give the feeling of release that one expects to get from the last note. In classically composed (including pop and rock) music there is a rise and fall to the tune (and I cannot think of the term that is used) where the final note is the resolution. In many airs and some jigs and reels, I find the final note doesn’t provide the same resolution. Not that it’s bad or good, but that it’s unexpected. In airs it almost invites you to think about it more after the tune is finished.
Well, depending on what kind of tunes you want to switch, you can use different transitions. If you have two jigs, one in D (that ends on a D) and one in G (that starts on a G) you can use the last D and then an E and an F# to “lead up” to the first D in the second tune, still keeping the time. Maybe someone else who gets this can explain this better.
If you have two tunes that aren’t really related, you can do what I call a “clean break.” You can do this by stopping short on the last beat of the first tune (the whole band, rhythm included) and start up with the second tune.
Also, Em is not necessarily a complimentary key to D. Only if it’s E dorian, being the second degree of the D major scale. E aeolian is also minor, but it is the same key signature as G, being the sixth degree of the G major scale. I doubt that I’m explaining this in depth, because I’m not giving a theory lesson now, but anyone else, feel free.
It would appear I suffer from Deviant Terminology Disorder. I’ll get it straight eventually.
Yes. E dorian. I generallly refer to dorian as “minor” but I know it’s not strictly correct.
I was thinking about how so many songs in dorian mode are made up of the second (dorian) and first chords of a major scale. I.e. the triad E-G-B to D-F#-A. The D chord goes naturally with the Em chord (which really is minor because of the flat third). I was thinking that tunes in ‘sets’ (forgive my misuse of the term ) that changed keys could follow these kinds of naturally sounding patterns.
Isn’t the aeolian the natural minor? For example B is the natural minor of D? A natural minor to C etc?
Obviously at a session or whatever, no one’s going to reply to “What key is this in?” with “E aeolian” or “E dorian,” I just think that people should know what they’re really playing.
Sorry, no such thing as the ‘true’ minor scale. Every minor scale deviates from the major at least in having a flattened 3rd. You can leave it at that or flatten the 7th as well, or you can flatten the 6th and 7th as well. These are the pure minor scales. There are also mixed scales in which the choice between major and flattened 7th depends on whether it occurs ascending or descending.
) that changed keys could follow these kinds of naturally sounding patterns.