Valse Des Jouets (Waltz of the Toys)

  1. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    I heard this one over on the Celtic,UK, Nordic etc section of the forum played by Munnix and decided to have a go at it as it appealed to me with its phrasing and waltz rhythm. I have found no link to it under either the French or English titles.

    My version has two mandolin tracks and one guitar track. I recorded the melody first on my regular self-built mandolin then added the guitar track on my Lowden O32 and added a second mando track with chordal fill-ins. The backing tracks are panned 45% Left for guitar and 45% right for the mandolin. Recorded as usual using REAPER on my old Windows XP-powered laptop and I used Movavi editing software to make the video, the pictures being of soft toys my grandchildren have in my home here.



    https://youtu.be/NgNv-D3mgu8
  2. Frankdolin
    Frankdolin
    Pretty tune John, love your technique on this. Very happy, almost music box like. NIce!
  3. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    I 'liked' and commented on your post on YT John !! ( haha) I like Frank's comment about music box-like - very true.
  4. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Very nice, John -- I'll have to try this one!

    There are various transcriptions onlines. This is a nice PDF in D major: Link

    Martin
  5. Don Grieser
    Don Grieser
    Really nice playing and video, John. Enjoyed it!
  6. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Beautiful John! I love the expressive nostalgic feeling.
  7. Frithjof
    Frithjof
    Nice – your grandchildren should love it!
  8. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Many thanks for the kind comments, all of you. Martin, the pdf you linked to above has the tune written in straight eighths whereas I played it as dotted eighths and sixteenths. It would be interesting to hear it played straight. I got a music box feel from the tune too, Ginny, and wished I had had some of those old wooden dolls and toy soldier figures rather than the cuddly toys!
  9. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    John: I think it's one of those transcriptions that write the tune in straight eighths but intend it to be played with a dotted rhythm -- the MP3 recording at the same site has the tune with a pronounced swing:

    https://natunelist.net/valse-des-jou...z-of-the-toys/

    The Session has it either way:

    https://thesession.org/tunes/10148

    Martin
  10. Christian DP
    Christian DP
    That sounds very toy-like John, fine picking, I especially like the rhythm mandolin.
  11. Michael Pastucha
    Michael Pastucha
    Good job! Well arranged and a treat to listen too!
  12. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    John, did you get new editing software. You were using Reaper - or are they two different thing?
  13. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Thanks again for latest comments, folks. You are so right, Martin - the written score and the played interpretation can be so different whle retaining the core of the tune. It is always interesting to see how many versions of the same tune the Session can have, all equally valid. Your mandolin arrangements from your group repertoire and from Evelyn's arrangements always have that MJ feel to them, and this is true of all of the regular posters here. We somehow try to make a tune have something of ourselves in it, and it is always very satisfying to get the feedback.

    Ginny, the software I got recently is video-editing software. I moved over from my older Sony Vegas to another called Movavi. It seemes to offer me all I need for what I want to do and has been reasonably easy to get to grips with, though I know I am just scratching the surface of its capabilities. I still use my trusty REAPER for all my sound recording; it is quite an old version that I still have, as I use it on a laptop running on Windows XP and this has long been dropped by Microsoft, so I do not have the laptop connected to the internet or anything else that might cause me problems. I found XP was a very stable platform to work with. When I use my wee Tascam DR-05 recorder I load the files into REAPER to do any editing. The Tascam is so handy when I want to get something down in a hurry if an idea comes to me, and as you know it can record in wav format so has plenty of recording quality. I use the Tascam's own built-in mics or sometimes the Boya that Simon recommended quite a while back. He used it in a lot of his outdoor videos connected to his phone. My most-used mics are a Rode NT-1A and a T-Bone SC-400 which connect to my laptop via my Behringer audio/digital interface. This interface has the phantom power those condenser mics need. Wow, this sounds really geeky when I read it over!
  14. Jess L.
    Jess L.
    Nicely played, John!

    Also thanks to Martin for the three links to the different forms of the sheet music.

    John wrote: "We somehow try to make a tune have something of ourselves in it,"

    Well I used to often try *not* to sound the same as I always do, but I seem to have limited success with not sounding like me, as my stuff always ends up gravitating back towards where I started out in music.

    John Kelly wrote: "I found XP was a very stable platform to work with."

    I liked XP - it was preinstalled on the very first PC I bought after years of using Macs. Then later I got a different PC which had Windows 7 - I held onto that for a long time.

    John wrote: "The Tascam is so handy when I want to get something down in a hurry if an idea comes to me,"

    Yes, portable recorders can be very useful. I use my Zoom H2n that way. That tune I made up the other day was a result of that strategy.

    John wrote: "Wow, this sounds really geeky when I read it over!"

    Not at all! (Not that there'd be anything wrong with that, if it was.) Just good practical info. All of us have to deal with these considerations at one point or another, it's just a part of being a modern musician.
  15. Gelsenbury
    Gelsenbury
    Lovely playing and video, John! I'd choose the cuddly toys over toy soldiers every time. The small beige teddy bear is my favourite here. I don't think I'm being too political for this forum when I say that people should be more like teddy bears than soldiers!

    Like Martin, I've come across straight notation that was definitely meant to be played with a lot of swing. It's just easier to read that way. In some old collections, I've seen things like the Harvest Home hornpipe fully notated with sixteenths and dotted eighths, and it was just too difficult to read.

    You make an excellent point about each player's individual style. We all have people that we want to sound like, and ultimately we always end up sounding like ourselves. It doesn't mean that there's no innovation or development - we're at different stages of finding our styles, for a start - but after a while you begin to hear the person in the music. It's one of my favourite things about this group. There's a lot of new and fresh ingredients in your video, but it also clearly sounds like you.
  16. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Thanks, Dennis. Interesting points you make re notation and sounding like ourselves. I was just commenting on this aspect of having an identifiable sound on one of Martin's postings a few minutes ago. It seems to be a mix of instrument choices, arrangement and especially how we actually play our instruments.
  17. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Just checked myself by playing a jig on a virtual erhu on GarageBand (the iPhone exotic instrument and gadget app).
    I still have the same style!

    Then double checked myself on the octave by playing Living in Sin by John Kirkpatrick, but playing it in harmonic minor.
    Yep it’s still me.
  18. Munnix
    Munnix
    [VIDEO]https://www.facebook.com/1464006324/videos/299374698870493/[VIDEO]

    (Hopefully) attaching my attempt at Valse Des Jouets.
  19. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Here is my version of this waltz written by Michel Faubert from Montreal. Played on mandolin and tenor guitar based on this transcription:

    https://natunelist.net/wp-content/up...tz-of-Toys.pdf

    Mid-Missouri M-0W mandolin
    Vintage Viaten tenor guitar

    It turned out somewhat faster than John's version although still a bit slower than the tempo indicated on the transcription (which corresponds to 165 bpm).


    https://youtu.be/dmBagQiorkM

    Martin

    PS: Welcome to SAW, Munnix, and thanks for introducing this lovely tune via you original forum post. Your video tags don't look quite right (the closing tag should have the "/" inside the square bracket, not before it), but I have watched your video from the URL you have given. Very nice relaxed picking with a good groove. What's the mandolin?
  20. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    Hi Munnix, and welcome! Unfortunately for diverse reasons some people don’t have accounts with Facebook and so cannot hear your version (but I’m sure they’d like to), could you post it to YouTube or Vimeo or another site where everyone can see it?
  21. Munnix
    Munnix

    Let's try this again!
  22. Munnix
    Munnix
    Martin. It's a 1985 Stiver Model A.
    Thanks all for the encouragement for me to figure out how to post this. A meager endeavour but I learned a lot.
  23. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    You have it now, Munnix. All your subsequent postings should appear when you post them. Thanks for posting the original over on the Celtic part of the forum. I was playing the tune again this afternoon with a couple of fiddlers. It sounded really good.
  24. Christian DP
    Christian DP
    Two great new Toy Waltz recordings:Martin plays it with straight eighth notes, and Munrix makes his Stiver sing.
    My version is a bit slower because I tried to play the eighth notes with downstrokes only:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOiYqqmiHPc
  25. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    Well played version, Christian. It is a very pleasant wee tune.
  26. Ginny Aitchison
    Ginny Aitchison
    Munnix, this sounds very nice and you have a nice natural way of playing. I'm glad you figured out how to post here, I'm still befuddled by it. My secrect code worked for so many years - and now..arrhhh.. I will go to your YT page and find you.
  27. Martin Jonas
    Martin Jonas
    Thanks, Christian. I don't think my quavers are entirely straight -- I did try to play with swing, but it's less distinct than in the versions by Munnix and John. I think that's mainly because mine is faster and it's normal for quavers to become straighter at higher tempos (it's what happened to many Scottish tunes when they moved to Ireland). Your slower version is also very nice, and very different. I like the tremolo intro.

    Martin
  28. John W.
    John W.
    Great versions, All…Christian, whose are the model cars in the video?
  29. Munnix
    Munnix
    Thank you all for the warm welcome to SAW. I'm in awe of both the musical talent as well as the technological expertise on the site. I certainly have a lot to learn, so I hope that you don't get too tired of my questions as well as the hiccups in my videos.
    Ginny, at your encouragement, my YT channel is now "open". Other than the waltz, there are only two videos in it
  30. John Kelly
    John Kelly
    You are a welcome addition to the SAW community, Munnix. Remember that we all started out with a first posting and the learning curve never stops. It is that first posting that gets the journey started - mine began away back in October 2009 and I only began to post on YouTube so that I could put my videos on the SAW Group here.
  31. Simon DS
    Simon DS
    I missed this, I’ve been out of sorts for a fair while now.

    Nice feeling Munnix, and welcome!
    And CC those triplets, I always hear them and think, one day I’ll have the learn to play them!
  32. Bertram Henze
    Bertram Henze
    Missed out on this, and wonderful versions all. Thanks to Christian for showing the very same sea-green '56 Thunderbird I used to have on my desk
  33. Christian DP
    Christian DP
    The first car is an older Renault Alpine, don't know whether they continued it.
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