Following Barb's suggestion to start parallel tune threads, I have a choice here of two reels, "The Mountain Road" followed by "The Cup of Tea". Feel free to add your version of either one and to make it real by a token in Bill's "Challenge tradition", as I did with the tea (I am looking forward to what ideas you might come up with for the mountain road ). One hint, in case you want to learn these: Mountain Road is the far easier one. Excuse my attire, summer rears its head, and this is the south side attic room... Bertram
Bertram! Thanks for submitting your video! Great tunes, I'm going to have to try to learn them. Do you have them in notation or TAB you can link to? Here in central Iowa, it's just 40 degrees, with a 30 mph north wind howling across the prairie! Tell us about your instrument!
Here is standard notation for Mountain Road that I found on thesession.org. Is this close to what you are playing? And here are the results for Cup Of Tea on thesession.org. Bertram, which most closely resembles the one you are playing? Barb
The Mountain road you found it the correct one, Barb. This is the correct one for Cup of Tea. Are they close to what I am playing? Well, I should smile. Most of my practice work goes into finding out how to grossly simplify difficult passages to make them playable on the OM scale and enhance them with double stops while maintaining the character of the tune and keep it recognizable (which seems to work, at least the folks in sessions join in when I start). This was one of the biggest changes when coming from the tenor banjo - instead of playing twice as many notes I had to learn to play half as many, compared to notation. But from what I have seen in Kyle Baker's videos, I am not the only one who does that. It is just practicable and employs what the instrument is good at. The instrument is my dear Fylde Touchstone Octave Mandola (that's how the Fylde people call it), 21", elevated bridge (two short shims under the bridge, using Red Henry's experimental results on bridges with two single feet, makes the instrument loud and barking), heavy gauge strings 65-39-26-15. Bertram
Ok, I'm still having to read the music, and I'm sure they are pretty slow for reels, but, ya gotta start somewhere! Played on my Collings MT 2 O.
Barb, looks like you're good at sight reading - that was quick! And, as usual, a much more lovable and cute playing style than mine. I could tell you'd not have a mountain road to show - after all you're playing with the "Flatland Ramblers" You made up for it with an extra large tea bucket Oh, and those glasses are gorgeous, adding to the overall comfy, homely feeling conveyed. Bertram
As far as sight reading, I can't sit down with a piece of music that I don't know, and play at speed while sightreading it for the first time, like really GOOD sightreaders can! In pieces like this, where there are several measures the same, and then something a little different thrown in, I will play it repeatedly with the music in front of me, so I can train my ear / fingers where the changes are. I just have played it through decently, a few times, without the notation in front of me, so I've just about got it. Oh yeah, on the size of my 'cup of tea'.... I'm from Texas, and EVERYTHING is bigger in Texas, haha! Barb
Ok, here's my slow version, not reading the music, making some mistakes, of course, on my Petersen Octave Mandolin. I had to do this SO many times, and still didn't get it error-free! My mind would wander, and I'd get lost!
I've pulled the notation and started the slow painful process... expect me to run out of patience and post a half-assed attempt by the week-end...
Eddie, we'll be looking forward to it! Now, my videos, are full-steam-ahead attempts, with half-ast results!
That Petersen makes it an enchanting experience, even "Cup of Tea" has a dreamy touch of never-ending afternoon (exactly what a cup of tea is supposed to provide). Great one, Barb! I found your mistake in the C part, where I did mine - I didn't mean to be a role model for that... But your mistakes come with much sweeter smiles than mine. Bertram
Two clumps of pavement from Mountain Roads were in a restaurant having a Cup of Tea when a third clump came in. The other two immediately told the waitress " Don't serve him, he's a cycle-path"...
I've got my Mountain Road and Cup of Tea done... but Youtube is doing maintenance... Both are played on my Bluett F4.
Here's the Mountain Road played on my Bluett F4
Here's The Cup of Tea... needless to say it wasn't tea in the cup...
Excellent! And you have a lovely accent, as well! Thanks!
Good one, Eddie! Leaves me wondering, though: if it wasn't tea, what did you stir with that spoon? Bertram
One by one ... here's The Cup of Tea.
As promised, here's The Mountain Road.
Elaborate but still laid back, Ptarmi! I liked the accelerando near the end of Mountain Road. Wondering about the double structure: it seems you are repeating each part including the repetition they already contain? Repetition patterns are an eternal source of surprise to me, varying locally.
Very nice Dick. Maith a' fear. I'd forgotten about this thread, I don't think I've played either tune since. I'll have to learn them all over again...
Well, this isn’t exactly the right thread, maybe give The Mountain Road it’s very own thread later, but I thought you guys would enjoy seeing bare chested Bertram playing what sounds like a grand version. Here’s my humble offering. Enjoy! https://youtu.be/gLgFPUIRIhE
Simon, I like your version as well as Bertram’s – by listening the tune of course.
Coincidentally, I'm learning The Mountain Road at the moment. The notes aren't difficult, but I find it tricky to get up to speed. The clarity and rhythm of your recording will help me as a playalong track once I get there. Thank you for another good recording.
I have not fully understood the tuning of your instrument, Simon. You use the same fingering as I, with a capo on the 5th fret, which means the instrument must be tuned either a 4th below or a 5th above mine, i.e. DAEB - correct? That old video of mine is looking strange to me now - the cheapest and slowest camera on the market by then, with the grainy resolution of gaslight movies (which is probably a good thing or else you'd have seen more of me to haunt your nightmares), and I played both tunes considerably faster and with different melody variations than I do now.
It’s not an easy tune Dennis -well that’s what I thought. It has slight variations and wants to be played fast. The tricky part for me was right-hand-only picking exercises on inside pairs of strings, and trying to improve up-picking strength and consistency in the right hand. It’s in effect tuned to CGDA because the capo’s at the fifth, Bertram. I try, with all my vids to either use no capo or when I do have a capo I use fingering that someone would use on the mandolin to play the tune in the standard key. The capo is mainly for ease of playing at speed with some tone improvement along the way.
Simon, now I get it - your instrument is tuned in GDAE, but with the capo on fret 5, the tune is played a fourth higher. OTOH - your hands (pun intended) don't look smaller than mine, and I can do this without problems on a capoless OM; this tune is basically free of wide stretches.
