Workshop Information

Recently, we have been trialling running a short tune-learning workshop at the beginning of each session. This involves spending 30-40 minutes learning a new tune by ear. The idea is to increase the confidence of the sessioners for playing tunes by ear and relying less on the music. After we have learned a tune, we will post notes about the tune we learned here.

The tunes here should all be shown as scores. If they're not then it could be your browser doesn't support the library used to draw the music. You can probably see the ABC notation used to generate the music. I'm trying to add PDFs to all the music so you can download that to see the score. Alternatively, use a new browser!

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2015.01.09 - The Hag At The Churn (jig)

This is a very common session tune that you'll find played all over. It's a piping tune - you can tell by the way it doesn't use much more than an octave and is in D-mixolydian (D major with a C natural). It's played as a 16-bar jig, so the A and B parts are not repeated.

The chords for mixolydian tunes tend to be a bit boring, to be honest. They're hard to back nicely. I've added some chords here (which are essentially D and C major), but feel free to try some subtitutions (Am for the C for example).

For tune players, try adding ornaments on the long notes in the B-part. The Cs in particular are calling out for something, as is the EDE phrase in the 4th bar of the B-part. Try a roll, a slide up to the note, a hammer on, a bowed treble or whatever might work.

Fiddle players might try to slur across the A and G in the phrase that starts the tune. I find this helps to get the phrasing correct. Also try to shorten the length of the two notes at the end of each bar to help get the phrasing right for this tune. Listen to the recording carefully to hear the rhythm.


X:1
T:The Hag At The Churn
R:jig
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:Dmix
"D"A2 G ADD |A2 G Adc |A2 G ADD |"C"EFG EFG :|
"D"AdB "C"c3 |"D"Add efg |AdB "C"c2 A |EDE GED |
"D"AdB "C"c3 |"Am"Add efg |"D"fge dcA |"C"GEF GED |

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