Nice job Karon, keep 'em coming!
Here's a bluegrassy version of Fisher's Hornpipe! I'll admit it's a little too fast and has lost some of its hornpipsh feel, but still a lotta fun!
You're exceeding the speedlimit.... sometimes that's a lot of fun. In this case, I love it! Excellent playing!
Great seeing long past tunes coming back around! This was week #2, when we were in our infancy!
Very nice! Wow, thanks for posting
Great playing there, you two. I liked the bluegrassy variations and improvisations you added towards the end, and the fact that your daughter, even playing at speed, had time to be distracted around 48 seconds!
Thinking about having to sing on the next SAW, I thought I’d get this one out there first.
Good picking, Simon. There is no rule in the world to play this hornpipe at bluegrass speed. Nevertheless, I’m impressed by the abilities of some bluegrass players.
Oh yes, I’ve just seen Ghall and his daughter’s vid, wow! Good job, looks like fun.. I think I’ll give that a go, sometime...
You're getting a lot of recording done these days, Simon. And we're all benefiting from it. Well played! I especially like how calmly and accurately you move through these tunes. Playing relaxed and without errors is still an elusive goal for me! It's interesting with hornpipes how different players use different amounts of swing ... and it all sounds good!
Thanks Dennis, I tried to play this one as reel-like as possible with a bit of emphasis on the 3rd quarter note of each measure, well the eighth that’s in that position. It’s more of a metronome pounding practice tune. I still don’t lift my first finger off fast enough though, sometimes clip the notes ... and still can’t work out how to stop the guitar from sounding like it’s being played under water. -Oh and it’s parts of my body that have been told to do nothing, be calm, me on the other hand, I’m crazy anxious!
It may sound like that to you Simon, but it sounds fine at this end. Nice playing. It's um..rather pretty, don't you think?
After an involuntary 4 week hiatus without touchung any musical instrument, Fisher's Hornpipe seemed like the right tune to help me getting my fingers back into decent shape. ( BTW, I was once crisscross but I changed my username to my real first name Christian).
Good to see you posting again, Christian. Nice arrangement you have with the guitar and mandolin.
Oh, I wondered if the new Christian was the old Christian- I hope you are feeling better and I am SO glad you are back CC !! Nicely played and I even 'got' the photo montage.
Glad to have you back here, Christian. All the best for you!
Fine playing Christian, interesting symbols, images too. And nice to hear you again. But with this vid I guess you’re thinking that because you’ve posted it, and shown that you’ve been working, mandolining hard, then you wont have to sing ‘Three Little Birds’, right?
Don't torture CC on his return with Three Birds. I want him to be happy and not worry.
You guys are getting a jump on this tune, it will be the next one we revisit in our revisiting past poll winners, on March 20, 2020!
Thanks John, Ginny, Simon, Frithjoff and Barbara. I guess I will pass Three little Birds. I'm a terrible singer. I'll chose some nice Hornpipe instead. One question: How do I upload a profile picture/avatar? I can't seem to find a way. Thanks in advance, Christian
Hi CC You have to go to ‘settings’ button at the very top of any MC page next to the login/logout button. So it’s at : Settings/edit avatar/custom avatar/choose file then go to the photo in your photos folder on your computer. I found also that you can white out (or rather v. slightly off white) parts of your photo and it looks more like a shaped icon than a square photo. Good luck!
Thanks Simon! That worked.
OK gang! Here's our second week of revisiting our past poll winners! Looking forward to your submissions!
Of course beginners who play just the A or B part on their own are always very welcome! (I think !!!)
We haven't had any new postings in this thread since Barbara declared it officially open for "REVISITED" status (after Simon and Christian slightly jumped the gun with their very nice new versions). I didn't record it first time around, and it gives me the opportunity for another bit of face contact during quarantine and an outing for another one of my vintage instruments -- you'll notice the blank space on the wall behind me. This tune features my 1925 Julius Heinrich Zimmermann waldzither, a 9-string instrument which I tune (G)DAEB, in the octave mandolin/mandola range. This is a very loud and resonant instrument with lots of bright overtones. Fun to play but a touch wild. The tune is originally an English country dance tune, published in 1778 by James Fishar (hence the name, albeit mispelled!) in his collection "16 Cotillions 16 Minuets 12 Allemands and 12 Hornpipes" -- you have to love the truth-in-advertising aspect of this title. I've only just made the connection that I did in fact record four of Fishar's cotillions from that collection a while back: Link 1925 Jul. Heinr. Zimmermann waldzither Martin
Good playing, nice rhythm, and a fascinating insight about Fisher's Hornpipe! Are you a historian by any chance? I didn't know that hornpipes are contemporaries of minuets and allemandes. Something about this tune seems tricky to me, so I've never tried it properly. I think it may be those stretches in the B part. Where's Simon, by the way? I've started to get a bit worried over the last few days because he's such a regular contributor normally.
Thanks, Dennis. I like to look up the background of the tunes I'm playing to get a connection to them. In this instance, however, no research was required as the information was given on the transcription I used to learn the tune: http://www.showman.org/Tunes/FishersHornpipe.pdf Hornpipes go back quite a long way, at least to the time of minuets and allemandes. Purcell wrote some another century before Fishar: the hornpipe now generally known as "Hole In The Wall" is by Purcell as part of his Abdelazer Suite, best known from its opening Rondeau. Martin
Don’t worry Dennis, I’m here lurking, not a lot of energy at the moment, nice playing Martin. Running a lot, got attacked by a wolf-dog and a woman with a whip/dog lead today, prostitutes hiding in the woods, drug dealers on bicycles, boys casing out empty houses, stray dogs and cat fights/dead cats in the street. And it’s only been a week since I last posted! Will comment more and go through the other posts soon. Nice to see new members and lots of activity.
Well, revisiting the Fisher's Hornpipe is certainly fun. I missed it the first time around. From G Hall's excellent bluegrass picking to Martin's historical perspective (and fine playing) everyone had something to add. Simon, what instrument are you playing? It sounds fantastic. Well done Christian. That's the way to get back up on the horse (so to speak). I've always played this tune, and just this way! I learned it from an Oklahoma fiddler. Never understood what makes a tune a hornpipe though... Anyway, here's my 1913 F2 Gibson mandolin playing the Fisher's Hornpipe. I've recorded it straight into my Canon camera using the proper cords to link it to my Zoom H2 recorder. This is just the way the mandolin sounds... no post production on the audio. Next time, I'll work on the lights etc. and make a proper movie.
Michael, that mandolin sounds so good that it doesn't need anything done to it. Beautiful playing! Simon, thanks for confirming. These times cause paranoia.
Another quick iPhone clip - I really wanted to try for a decent video and recording, but we have had a few dry days here and the ground is firming up enough so I could get the tractor out and do some long needed chores around here. I wanted to post this one because I had played this tune a good bit a couple years ago, so all I had to do was remember it. I stole Michael's triplet at the start of the A part - I thought it sounded good.
It’s a long time since I have posted here but this hornpipe inspired me. Here is my take on my Fylde Cittern, the three lowest strings are tuned in octaves. Thanks for watching. Bernd
Fine playing Michael, I like that rhythm. Mine was with a capoed Ashbury octave mandolin with a Sigma guitar also capoed at the fifth I think. Both had about the same range but I wanted that for a sort of mixed river current feel. Unfortunately I had to record the guitar in the bathroom because there was too much noise in the street outside, and the microphone, a Boya 1MM... attached to an iPhone, was a bit too close. Another fine attempt BH. And nice steady performance Bernd, great tone from those lower strings too. Gelsenbury busy? it’s like the gold rush now!
Michael and BH - two fine versions from you. Bernd, I cannot get your video to open here!
Simon - at least you got out of the house. Are you running for health or away from all the street dangers you listed?
Here's Bernd's video: This is the part of the URL that needed to be embedded: c6lH0I0t238. Very nicely played and on a great sounding instrument too.
Brilliant playing, Bernd! That's a lot of notes to find on that long neck!
Ginny I’m running mainly thanks to this strange situation we are in, got motivated to be reasonably healthy again. I don’t see the things in the forest as dangers but rather strange incongruities. Yesterday I was running along a lonely cycle track hidden in the woods and bumped into two military cops on bicycles. They’d probably have given me a ticket if instead I’d been walking with a mandolin!
Having come late to the party yesterday with a version of The Lilies In The Field, I've decided to have a look through the various tunes which others have been contributing to down the years and to throw my hat into the ring where the tune in question is one where I feel I have something to contribute (which essentially will mean tunes that are in fairly common circulation in Irish trad circles since that's effectively the only music I have any idea about how to play...) Fisher's is an interesting tune in that in all my years of playing in sessions, I've never once heard it played. Mind you, hornpipes are very rarely played in the sessions which I've played in and it took me quite a while to succumb to their charms. I'm playing the tune on a recently-acquired Paris Swing "Macaferri" style mandolin. The neck width is a lot narrower than I'm used to and it's taking a little bit of getting used to; hence the occasional note in this recording which isn't clean. Apologies for that. However, as we all know, the only way to get used to an unfamiliar instrument is to play it half to death. The setting is an amalgam of various settings I've come across over the years and is a lot more straightforward than some...
