This week's winner is The Minstrel Boy, which was submitted as Irish Traditional. I am not familiar with this tune, so if the person who suggested has more to add, please do! I found this on Traditional Irish Music. I found this on thesessions.org ABC from thesessions.org X: 1 T: Minstrel Boy (To The War Has Gone), The M: 4/4 L: 1/8 R: strathspey K: Gmaj D| G3 A cBAG| B2 d2 g2 fg| e2 d2 Bc dB| A4 G2 z D| G3 A cBAG| B2 d2 g2 fg| e2 d2 Bc dB| A4 G2 z G| g2 f2 e2 fg| f2 e2 d2 z e| e2 B2 B2 e2| e2 f2 g2 z g| G3 A cBAG|B2 d2 g2 fg| e2 d2 Bc dB| A4 G2 z2||
Can also be played as a slow air (Thomas Moore wrote the words to the Tune - see Moore's Melodies) and a March ( I used to play it in a Pipe-Band. The same tune (different words) was sung by Sean Connery in The Man Who Would Be King.
.tef file for SN and TABs http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/at...4&d=1284139521
Here's a version ( Pipe March) that I did last year on an Eastman DGM1 - it's the last tune in the set...
Here's the Thomas Moore version - Slow Air. Played on a Brian Dean 2pt. This is my last tune on this mandolin - it travels to Germany next week.
A good send off for the Dean mandolin, Eddie. I never knew there was more than that slow aire version. The triplets in the march set were impressive.
Nice version Eddie. This is a similar standard treatment from piano music available at www.makingmusicfun.net in the key of C. Here is the link to the mp3http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/at...8&d=1284209465
Here is a completely different arrangement by Nate Lee in the key of D. Both this and the standard were played on a Savannah. Here is the link to the mp3. http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/at...0&d=1284209587
Can someone clarify for me what "ABC" is and how to use it? Is there a program that you paste the below into that translates it to tab or music? Thanks! John X: 1 T: Minstrel Boy (To The War Has Gone), The M: 4/4 L: 1/8 R: strathspey K: Gmaj D| G3 A cBAG| B2 d2 g2 fg| e2 d2 Bc dB| A4 G2 z D| G3 A cBAG| B2 d2 g2 fg| e2 d2 Bc dB| A4 G2 z G| g2 f2 e2 fg| f2 e2 d2 z e| e2 B2 B2 e2| e2 f2 g2 z g| G3 A cBAG|B2 d2 g2 fg| e2 d2 Bc dB| A4 G2 z2||
I use Tabledit. You can import an abc file and it will generate notation and tab as well as midi. You can also read abc with "ABC Explorer" and "ABC Navigator" which are free downloads, but they will not generate tab.
Everything connects - I voted for this tune because I remember it being played in the Gettysburg movie and wanted to find out how it feels to stand in line with those prepared to die. The march version of Eddie (good one with those pipes Eddie!) and the first one of Maudlin (nice chords!) are about what I had in mind. Funny detail in the ABC code - and typical for thesession.org: whatever this tune is, it's certainly not a strathspey. So here it is - I even had the sun paint a corporal's stripes on the closet behind.
Jim: I pasted the text into Notepad, saved it with an .ABC extension and then imported it into TablEdit and it worked perfectly. Thanks for the info! John
Nice John. I've been struggling along with a demo version for several years and finallly broke down and bought the full version. Nice to be able to save complete tunes and export full midi. Tabledit will also import other tab formats.
Great playing everyone, I think it's a tune that lends itself to differing speeds and styles, I'l have a bash tomorrow. John, here is a good link to learn abc http://www.lesession.co.uk/abc/abc_notation.htm Jim thanks for the info on Tabledit, didn't know that you could import abc into it......
If you can read standard notation, I find the easiest (since it's on the internet, and you can use it no matter what computer you are on) is www.concertina.net's, tune-a-tron converter, found here. Once you paste your abc into it (making sure it remains single spaced when pasted; if not, remove the extra lines!), it generates standard notation, and from that page, you can generate a print-quality pdf, or listen to a midi-file.
Also used to great effect by the 1st U. S. Volunteer Cavalry in the movie Rough Riders THE MINSTREL BOY by Thomas Moore The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone In the ranks of death you will find him; His father's sword he hath girded on, And his wild harp slung behind him;" Land of Song!" said the warrior bard, "Tho' all the world betrays thee, One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard, One faithful harp shall praise thee!" The Minstrel fell! But the foeman's chain Could not bring that proud soul under; The harp he lov'd ne'er spoke again, For he tore its chords asunder; And said "No chains shall sully thee, Thou soul of love and brav'ry! Thy songs were made for the pure and free, They shall never sound in slavery!" An emotionally stirring and inspirational song, The Minstrel Boy was written by Thomas Moore (1779-1852) who set it to the melody of The Moreen, and old Irish aire. It is believed by many that Moore composed the song as a memorial to several of his friends he had met while a student at Trinity College and who had participated in the 1798 rebellion of the United Irishmen. One died in prison, another was wounded, and a third captured and hung. The song originally consisted of two verses. Due to its popularity, the song was a favorite of the many Irishmen who fought during the U.S. Civil War, primarily on the Union side.
Also, I've found out that the lyrics Danny and Peachey were singing in The Man Who Would Be King were those of the Lutheran hymn "The Son of God Goes Forth to War."
Here's my take on Minstrel Boy on the Shippey Cherry:-
Thanks David and Tosh. Such a peaceful and contemplative version David. Tosh, very nice clean/singing tone and with a brisk pace, all from a bombardier's view
Thanks Bertram, I think the march feel is great for this tune.....you can certainly vision a pipe band playing it....
Here is my submission. I'm playing this on my Petersen tenor guitar, both melody & rhythm (I'm still very much a newbie at rhythm playing!), and then melody & a harmony I came up, on my new Petersen mandolin.
Lovely, Barbara
Barb I guess that is how the minstrel boy and his fallen comrades are hearing it. Wonderful. I am sure that is the YELLOWST version so far
Very Pretty , I want in, does the week go sat to sat? when do we find out next weeks tune? sat? Steve
Barbara, Great stuff, lovely played and that's a great Tenor Guitar you have and it seems Mr Petersen makes fine instruments judging by you're collection...... Steve, join in, you'll find you can vote on the tunes in the Song & Tune Projects page in the forum.........
Steve, if you read the discussion "New to Our Social Group? ~ Read Me First!", you can get acquainted with how this group works. Check out our three table of contents discussions, which are usually found on the first page of posts. You will see that we have just one 'official' tune of the week, which is usually announced on Friday, and is voted on in the regular cafe forum, Song & Tune Projects. However, for every official tune we have, we have about five 'other tunes' which are tunes that our members post. You are encouraged to participate in both the official and other tunes, and it doesn't matter when you do it!
Lovely tune and playing by all. Steve, welcome!
Howdy to everyone from sunny Southern California, Love what everyone has been doing to The Minstrel Boy. It's a real challenge to play a beautiful song like this on such a small instrument as a mandolin. Pulled out my old Gibson F2 and this is what I came up with. Hope you like it. In case you are wondering, I recorded the audio and video at the same time on different machines and matched them up in iMovie. And yes, the mandolin really sounds like that... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6frXOIqY-LA
Lovely doublestops, Stuche. I have had the idea that all that is missing to make this tune a good march is snare drums; apparently you picked it up and made it real with that chopping. Just grand!
Wow, Stuche, that rhythm really made the song come to life. I love it! Barbara, I think you should send your recording to Mr. Peterson for a sound sample on his site. It certainly made me want a tenor guitar. Your backup strumming is great.
This is such a beautiful tune! Nice recordings, all. I'll try to do something next week.
Stuche, Very nicely done and nice sounding mandolin! I see you have a 2-point Gibson F-2. Is this a pre-Loar era one (before 1922)? I want to guess it's 1915 or so.
Agundrum: This F2 is actually from 1911. You know your mandolins. No truss rod, just a ebony strip running up the back of the neck. It was all beat up when I got it. But after a new bridge, a crack repair and some tlc it's very playable. In fact, it frets the most accurately of any mandolin i've every played. Thanks
The Gibson sounds great Stuche, nicely played.......
I really enjoyed that, Stuche. You certainly capture the tone you get from that F2. Care to share your recording chain?
Yes, sounds very good Stuche, great arrangement too, and I echo Don's question.
Bertram, thanks for pointing out the snare drum thing! Actually, didn't realize that was going on till listening to the recording afterwards and discovered that my fingers were tapping along on the table just like a marching drum. Don and Old Sausage: The recording chain uses 2 Rode NT1 mics into a Yamaha MD8 multitrack MD recorder with light compression. Then transfer the raw tracks to Cubase LE4 recording software via an FP10 FireWire Recording Interface for a final mixdown. (Not really much mixing with one or two tracks, just tweek the eq if it needs it.) Next, place final stereo mix back into Cubase and master it using iZotope ozone4 mastering plug-in. A pinch of multi-band compression and a dash of reverb added here. Export audio wave file and use iTunes to make an MP3 version. Meanwhile, back to my camera to export the video into iPhoto. The YouTube video is assembled using iMovie (remove lo-fi camera sound after replacing it with the fancy MP3 audio file recorded as described above). Export straight to YouTube from iMovie. Oh, it's all on a Mac running OSX. Overkill? Probably, but it's good practice and keeps me out of trouble. Thanks!
lovely tune - sounds lively as well ... before its tragic connotation. sorry about the editing pause at the end - my wife's mouseless computer - i can't get used to it:
Hi Billl. sounds good, Im surprised you didnt use your Muddy /Mid Mo on this one . Do you still have it? Steve
This gets sung a lot around campfires in autumn late at night after a short round of Jameson. Erin go Bragh. Playing my Trinity College OM.
Bill!!! Great to have you posting again! That's a beauty of a mando, what is it? I liked the lively rendition! Interesting camera angle.... I'm glad you ended it like that, cause we got to see your face, AND, that cool ceiling!
Dog ,, that sounds good! Makes me want a octave. Those things are so dang high though to me anyway. But I see folk spending 4K on a mando , and wonder what the air is like up there Steve
Octave mandolins RULE! Of course, citterns are pretty cool, too!
gratz' - i've been away, trying to teach myself the fiddle - not much to show for it. the oval-hole mandolin is chinese, a "sherwood" model CFM-70 from "hudson guitar company" - http://www.cranesmusicstore.com/huds...in-p-1032.html - the names are meaningless - it didn't cost that much and it's got a lovely smokey, woody sound to it - i think i lucked out. i tried playing the song on my mid-missouri but preferred the mellower tone pf the F-4.
I want to learn to play the fiddle, and my fellow band-mate, who is learning fiddle, even has one she'll loan me! I just am so so so very busy with my life right now, I just don't see how I would fit it in.... it's a rather long involved process isn't it! Besides, I'm not even 60 yet... that seems to be the time that my friends decide to take it up, haha!
The TM-325 (mine) Octave Mando isn't too 'spensive, and is a heckuva lot of fun to play.
got that right - seems to be an awful lot of 60+ fiddle players out there ... but i recommend it - even to a bella fanciulla such as yourself - it's a fabulous instrument.
It's good you're back Bill - I like that final footage of you, apparently wondering which wire to cut while the red display goes 00:05...00:04...00:03... Most cool and relaxed scenery and playing Doghearty - I got to practise that long deadpan gaze at the camera.
... you saw that film too?
All of them!
