The August 2018 tune project is Temperance Reel, also known as Teetotalers' Reel. This tune came up in Henry's comments on July's "Paddy on the Turnpike", noting that Fiddler's Fakebook seems to misidentify one for the other. My internet speeds are crawling, so I'll leave any linking sources to any interested newbie.
One of my sources for arrangements or settings of tunes that I am not familiar with is abcnotation.com . One neat feature there is what they call the 'TuneGraph', which is the branched network kind of drawing in the screenshot (below). The dots represent tunes that share a lot of the same structure and notes of the tune in question. In this case, I had searched on 'Paddy Turnpike' and I selected one of about 10 versions it found. This version is very close to the version 1A of POTT in Fiddlers Fakebook. In the screenshot, I inserted numbers to indicate what tune each dot represents. Dots with the same number indicate tunes with the same name with similar but not identical structure. The center dot is the version notated just to the left of the graph. The purple dots are more closely related than the aqua dots. The key is: 1 = Paddy on the Turnpike 2 = The Rainy Day 3 = The Country Bumpkin 4 = Teetotaller's Reel 5 = Temperance Reel It's a neat site and fun to play around with. The determination of what is similar is performed by computer analysis of the abc files. Having done a fair amount of programming over the last 50 years, I have to say that I am impressed. I will brag that I found the POTT / Temperance / Teetotaller similarities on my own, but it was nice to have it validated and also to find two more tunes worth exploring. If you ever hear a tune that sounds familiar but has an unfamiliar title, maybe this can help resolve the issue. Inadvertently, I now have most of a version of Temperance ready just by having selected a version of POTT that is a close match.
I have been working on Temperance Reel for the Newbies' Tune of the Month for August 2018. My focus this month has primarily been on increasing my speed. To that end I began using a metronome so I could guage my progress. It had been many years since I last used a metronome and I was shocked at how variable my tempo was on a tune like this. So a second objective this month has been to learn the discipline required to play to a constant beat. On this video, I spliced together three videos in which I managed to get all the way through the tune at 75, 80, and 85 beats per minute. In a tune like this, each beat contains four 1/16th notes, so while 85bpm is a rather slow pace, 340 notes per minute is about as fast as I got with any chance to get through the tune before the wheels fell off. My main problem is that my mind wanders into what I call a 'monitoring mode'. And when that happens, I lose the beat. And then I try to get back on track. And that is when really bad stuff happens. In fact, I think my reflexes are such that I can't play above 75 bpm if I am thinking about how to play the tune. I have to have the tune pounded deep into my lizard brain so that it becomes a reflex action rather than a conscious action. I am just about there on Temperance Reel. But that's not enough. I have to have confidence that the tune will spring out of my amygdala correctly. That's where I screw up. I can play this thing at 85 if I am not trying to make a perfect video. I can sometimes even play it at 90. But as soon as I start monitoring what I am playing, I am dead. That is especially the case when I turn on the video camera. In these clips, you can hear where I let my mind wander into monitoring mode. You'll hear me lose the beat, then struggle to catch back up. Luckily I manage to get back on the rails (pretty much anyway). But usually the result is a major wreck. I plan to keep on using the metronome in hopes of making it pretty much reflex driven for me to keep the beat. By the way, my 'metronome' in these clips was not really a metronome. I used the guitar backing track from a TablEdit file I found at mandozine.com as my metronome. Playing to a backing track is a lot more fun than playing to that clicky clacky thingie. Added on Sept 9, 2018: An outfit called AdRev has claimed that the 80bpm clip in this video is copyrighted. That is absurd. This tune has been around for over 100 years. Besides, I am dying to know why the 75bpm and 85bpm clips are OK and the 80bpm clip is not. Anyway, they are telling me that they have the right to insert ads across the bottom 1/5 of the screen. I am going to ignore them. But if you see ads attached to this video, please comment below so I can try to get them to cease and desist.
Very nice Henry. That Weber is gorgeous and sounds terrific. It was great fun hearing you play, and reading about what you're doing with speed. As you know, I sometimes work with a metronome (the clickety click kind) as well as backing tracks. I also have spent a lifetime, on and off, playing guitar and singing. I'm leading up to something here, bear with me ... what I've just discovered recently is how wildly my own timing varies when playing vocal tunes. I had always considered myself to have pretty good timing, have played with others quite a bit on guitar, but lately I've turned on the metronome to practice some tunes (Little Sadie, Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out, I'm Just An Old Chunk of Coal, etc.) and I was shocked at how badly my timing changes when I'm singing. Now I'm having to practice songs I've played solo with guitar for the past decade like they were brand new tunes, against a metronome. Anyway, hats off to you. You are sounding great, and I believe you're on the right track to work with a metronome and to work on speed as well.
Thanks Mark. That Weber is just great. I made two modifications to it. Rather minor, but they made it 'mine'. Soon after arrival, I noticed that a couple of the tuners had a bit of slop. I had been waiting for an excuse to try out a set of Rubners and that was a good enough reason for me to make the leap. So I got a set of their cheapest with black buttons instead of the pearly whites. They are excellent tuners. And the black buttons, I think, look great on this mandolin. The other thing was the pickguard. I made it from walnut, stained heavily with ebony oil base stain. I made another one from yellowheart, but it is too light yellow and it does not seem to take stain at all. Maybe I need to try some kind of staining polyurethane. Any thoughts? And thanks for the encouragement. I really want to get up to a speed closer to what I hear on videos and whatnot. I do believe I made some progress this month.
Great, Hank. I thought it sounded good at 75, then better than that at 80. It doesn't sound slow at that tempo, just right. I enjoy your analysis and I like the version you're playing better than the ones I've been noodling with.
Thanks Sleet. I admit that it took a lot of takes to get the 80 and 85 bpm clips. But I'm gonna keep pushing. A month ago, 75 was totally out of reach.
Good job, Henry. The one at 75 was just as even as it could be, and the other two were nowhere near the advertised train wrecks. I agree with Mark that you and the Weber sound really nice. That's your newest one?
Well then, I will just have to fire my backup guitar guy. He rushed the pace painfully toward the end of both of those faster clips. Yes, that was the new Weber. It is a real pleasure to play, even with fumbly fingers.
Well, I've been trying and trying to get through it without mistakes but I threw the towel in. I really enjoyed it as also a warm up to practice, since it seems to never give you a break from cross picking. Hank you did a great job with all the different tempos, really nice work, I wish I could slow myself down a lot, I know I would make a lot less mistakes and improve a great deal I did. In fact it's one of my goals of the end of the year is to practice more with the Metrodome. Nice job all around. I need to work on my "studio" space that I've been wanting now for a bit and get better recording equipment. It's funny how we all evolve to that desire in some degree. Thanks as always with your all's input and help throughout the years. Ellsdemon https://vimeo.com/user46979634/revie...104/00e975cad0
Thanks, Otto. The link in your post seems to be broken; at least it is on my computer. Is this what you meant to post? https://vimeo.com/288922104 I don't know what you were thinking deserves throwing in the towel. Sounds good. Good steady rhythm. You have some good licks in there I may steal. Incidentally, the following is where I began with the metronome. The title says 70bpm, but that is if you think of four beats per measure. It is really 35 bpm if you want to compare with the video I posted above. https://youtu.be/4u8HFAyfP6w It is not easy to play it that slow! But I think it was a good way to start once the basic tune was learned.
Thanks for posting Otto's video Hank! Otto, I love your playing!
Good job both of you - solid versions. Otto, thanks for not letting your perfectionism keep you from posting - you played it well. And welcome to SAS, it's every bit as bad as MAS!! Hank, that's some serious metronome discipline. I also think it's often harder to play it at a slower tempo, but it really gets etched into your brain if you can manage it. Cool metronome app as well.
Hank, Thanks so much for helping me out with posting the video and of course your kind comments. I don't know what it is about posting videos, can never figure it out. Mark, thank you as well. You're a inspiration of this group and how well you've come. bbcee, I've been good about MAS, but SAS is hard to shake Thank you for your kind words as well Keep on playing!!!
Okay, I joined this group with the intention of learning new songs, and I do tend to follow along. I've just never shared a video. However, I am trying to work on right hand technique, keeping my hand closed but relaxed, and so I used this as an opportunity to see whether I could do this new song (after a month+ of practice) without sprawling my hand all over the face of my mandolin. It was hard! I had a lot of trouble with getting my notes out at times, I just wasn't hitting the strings hard enough. Anyway, here is mine, using a play along track. Thanks for the rest of you for sharing your takes, too!
Welcome, mreidsma. I like your version of the tune and I like the swing you put in it. I have also been working hard at trying to develop that easy relaxed picking stroke that so many good players have. I actually believe it is a necessity if you want to be able to play 'up to jam speed'. Recently Mark Gunter posted a couple of videos in reply #7 of this thread in the main forum. I found them to be very helpful in that regard. And I have discovered and repeatedly rediscovered the fact that when you tell your right hand to relax, it's just going to tighten up worse. I look forward to more videos.
mreidsma, I'm glad you decided to share a video! It was very enjoyable to hear, all of y'all have done a great job, and I'm beginning to really love this old tune.
I'm also glad you've posted, mreidsma - good swing and note choice. Looks like all your hard work has paid off. Nice job!
Good job, mreidsma.
