Frittenden Festival

English traditional music classes – Gun & Spitroast, Horsmonden, Kent

The tunes for these classes are posted below!

Learn to play traditional tunes for music sessions and dancing in the company of other beginners. Play slowly and practice whatever’s causing difficulty for you. Join fiddler, concertina and melodeon player Gavin Atkin at the Gun & Spitroast pub at Horsmonden, Kent (TN12 8HT) on the SECOND and FOURTH Wednesdays of each month at 8pm until the summer.

Please feel free to join us at any point through the year – we do play our tunes very slowly to begin with, and play only a two or three over and over again on any given evening!

Admission is free. Typical instruments might be melodeon, fiddle, concertina, mandolin, harmonica, whistle or banjo, but we’ll be just as happy if you pitch up with percussion (say, a triangle, tambourine, cajon, or snare and hi-hat) or  a saxophone or an electronic piano. Reading music isn’t necessary, though it definitely helps!

Please tell your friends and especially anyone who’s starting to play and really should know about these classes!

 

‘Gavin is a sympathic, fun and engaging tutor who will help build your confidence with patience and good humour!’ Laurel Swift (Gloworms musician, dancer and tutor)

‘I took part in a short concertina workshop Gavin was running at the Towersey Village Festival in 2009 and found it inspiring, not only for the music, but to see what people are capable of when they experience a supportive environment in the hands of an excellent tutor. Chris Drinkwater (concertina enthusiast)

For information, call Gavin Atkin on 07985 522734. For a poster to put on a noticeboard in a school, pub, shop or elsewhere, click here for poster.

Music for these classes

Click on the links to download either pdf files of the tunes, or ABC notation (which can be played using the various ABC softwares and websites), or to access YouTube clips (many of which are here, but I’ll have to catch up with the rest when I have time!):

Gun and Spitroast classes 8th February2012 Tip Top Polka, AM Shinnie, Hare’s Waltz, ABC files: The Tip Top Polka, AM Shinnie, Hare’s Waltz

25th January – Drops of Brandy, Whinham’s Reel, The Waters of Tyne, ABC files: Drops of Brandy, Whinham’s Reel, The Waters of Tyne

11th January – The New Rigged Ship, Marthy, ABC files: The New Rigged Ship, Marthy YouTubes: Marthy

14th December 2011 – The Queer Fella’s Shot-Ese, The Orotaba Waltz, ABC files: The Queer Fella’s Shot-Ese, The Orotaba Waltz YouTubes: The Queer Fella’s Shot-Ese and The Orotaba Waltz

12 October 2011 – Astley’s Ride, Over the Hills and Far Away, The Moon and Seven Stars, ABC files: Astley’s Ride, Over the Hills and Far Away, The Moon and Seven Stars Youtube videos: Astley’s Ride, Over the Hills and Far Away

28th September 2011 – Rig a Jig Jig, The Gypsy Waltz, Rosalie, the Prarie Flower (A jaunty tune, Rosalie nevertheless comes complete with desperately sad lyrics for your ironic consideration.) ABC files: Rig a jig jig, The Gypsy Waltz, and Rosalie the Prarie Flower YouTube videos: Rig a Jig Jig, The Gypsy Waltz, and Rosalie the Prarie Flower (all melodeon)

25th May 2011 A Hundred Pipers and Dribbles of Brandy ABC files: A Hundred Pipers, Dribbles of Brandy YouTube videos: Dribbles of Brandy (melodeon); A Hundred Pipers (melodeon)

11th May 2011 Oh Joe, the Boat is Going Over, and Walter Bulwer’s Polkas 2 and 1 ABC files: Oh Joe, the Boat is Going Over, Walter Bulwer’s Number 2, Walter Bulwer’s Number 1 YouTube clips: Oh Joe, the Boat is Going Over (melodeon); Walter Bulwer’s Number 1; Walter Bulwer’s Number 2

27th April 2011 Harry Cox’s Schottische ; 27th April 2011, Dulcie Bell ABC files: Harry Cox’s Schottische, Dulcie Bell (These ABC files are written to be pasted into http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html in order to hear them – if you use other softwares you will almost certainly have to reduce the number in the Q:XXX field.)YouTubes: Dulcie Bell (melodeon)

13th April 2011 – Mittel’s Hornpipe, Charming Fellow, The Ball ABC files: Mittel’s Hornpipe, Charming Fellow, The Ball

10th and 24th March 2011 – Scotland the Brave, Soldier’s Joy, Haste to the Wedding, The Girl I Left Behind Me ABC files: Scotland the Brave, Soldier’s Joy, Haste to the Wedding, The Girl I Left Behind Me

23rd February 2011 The Rose Tree and The South Wind ABC files: The Rose Tree, The South Wind YouTube clips: The South Wind (melodeon)

9th February 2011 Off to California and Shave the Donkey YouTubes: Shave the Donkey (melodeon)

26th January 2011 The Sloe and the Heel and Toe Polka ABC files: The Sloe, Heel and Toe Polka YouTube clips: The Heel & Toe Polka

8th December 2010 Donkey Riding and Strike the Bell 13th January 2011 Albert Farmer’s Bonfire Tune and Little Brown Jug ABC files: Albert Farmer’s Bonfire Tune, Little Brown Jug YouTubes: Albert Farmer’s Bonfire Tune, Little Brown Jug

24th November 2010 Cock of the North, My Bonnie, and Winster Gallop (As this is the first class, these tunes have been chosen on the basis that most people can hum them.) Slowish examples to listen to: Winster Gallop in G, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean in D.

An aide-memoire for tunes playing

There are various tips and tricks that bring interest and life to tunes. Good country dance tune players find all sorts of ways of embellishing them and emphasising their rythm, shape and form, and they all do it in different ways A good analogy is a child’s colouring book picture. The written music is like the printed outline waiting for the crayon to fill in the colours, and the pencil strokes and colours used and any added details are what makes the image individual.

I’ve listed out some ideas you might like to try using to add ‘colour’ to your playing below.

Long notes Where you have a long note, consider:

• inserting a lower note and going up to the higher
• changing the chord during the note (if you have a chording instrument)
• playing a second open or double-stopped note if you’re a fiddler or mandolin player
• breaking it up into two notes and playing the first short and sharp (this is also good wherever you have two notes that are the same, ditto three notes, which you might play short, short, long)
• using turns (one note up, one the same, one down, one the same ) or trills (quickly and repeatedly play the note and the note above)
• playing the long note loud and short and leaving a space
• if you’re a fiddler or a brass or wind player, add a little vibrato at the end of some of the long notes
• where possible, play with a little pulse – that is, get louder and softer in time with the rythm

Repeated notes Where you have repeated notes, consider changing the chord or shifting the rythm a little so that they’re not all the same

Using a note or chord to add tension and  ‘announce’ the next phrase The last note of a tune is likely to be the key note – for example, if you’re playing in G, it’s likely the written music will end with a G note. (Ditto a C note when playing in C, or a D note if you’re playing in D. A good way to give shape to a tune and to ‘announce’ that the next phrase (say, the A music, B music or C music) is about to begin is instead of the key note to slip in the chord (even better the 7th chord) of the note that’s a fifth above. This is called the dominant. So, for example, in a 4/4 tune in G, you might let the tune finish on a G notes with a G chord for two or three beats – but the last one or two would be a D or F# or A (all notes from a D chord) accompanied by a D or D7 chord. Ditto, an A or A7 chord when playing in D, of an F or F7 chord if you’re playing in C. It’s much easier and much more instinctive than it sounds! But be warned – it doesn’t usually work with waltzes! If you have any questions about any of this, please email me at gmatkin@gmail.com and I will be pleased to try to help.