This week's winner is Hardiman the Fiddler, an Irish traditional slip jig. I see that back in June 2009 (the beginnings of our group) I posted a medley that I played, of Hardiman the Fiddler / Another Jig will do. Here's that discussion, but I see that it was so long ago, the accompanying video isn't there. Let me search my archives and see if I can find it (but I'm not in the same state as the computer I made it on, so if it's not out there on the internet, too bad, so sad!) Back when I was young, and even had learned how to multitrack! Almost 12 years ago to the date! Here is a link to seven settings of this tune on thesession.org
As there have been no takers yet for the current selected tune, I thought I would get the ball rolling with my offering, on mandolin with guitar backing. I noticed that only 7 people voted in week #546, with Hardiman The Fiddler getting 3 of the 7. I did not actually vote for any of the tunes, but felt that somebody had to have a go and I liked Barbara's version posted here!
That's a good start for us, Barbara and John. Watch that speed limit! If tempo continues to increase at this rate from one video to the next, only David aka Old Sausage will be able to play the tune before long! Slip jigs commonly seem to have sudden endings. It's a known phenomenon among Irish read players.
Nice! That’s a rip, roaring, bouncing clip you’ve got going there John. I thought of this as a really slow one though, in free time, like an Air. Looks like a lot of fun, I’m definitely going to have a go too.
Barbara’s recording was a nice introduction of the tune and made me want to play it. And now this amazing performance by John…
Lovely version John! Must get to work on this one - it was on my "to do" list when Barbara announced it but then I got distracted by planting tomatoes...
I like Barbara's and John's songs. I agree with Dennis though - John you thought once that you were slowing down...I see nothing here to indicate that !! It's been hard to comment as our internet and satellite have been on and off all day - big storm coming in.
Vid, Ginny! (and Barbara)
Many thanks, all of you. It is a tricky wee tune to play but good fun once the phrasing falls into place. I recorded the melody first, added the backing on guitar and then I played the mix back through my monitors and filmed myself playing along with it. This is usually the tricky bit and involves a few takes to get one that looks synchronised! Simon, your thought about it being a slow tune is one I often have as well, and there are lots of good tunes out there which can sound really good when slowed down.
Fun tune though! I did get into a good repetitive groove, stopped to hit the record button and then... this was the result...
This is a very fluent piece of playing, Simon. And wow - a mandolin has appeared in your armoury. Great combination of the two, and the farewell smile works too.
Thanks John, the smile is because I’ve had some complaints about, ‘being miserable-looking in the forest’. The suggestion was that I do a walk and say, hello!’ or ‘these beetles are very numerous in the spring’, or some such nonsense before picking up the octave and playing a tune. I tried to explain that this is not a nature program nor is it street theatre. Sorry I had to remove the last version with your ‘like’ by the way, (thanks and sorry), changed the vid for one with the drone volume a bit lower. The mandolin is my daughter’s Stagg, rarely used and tuned down to FCGD to give a bit of ooomf. And thanks again, I’m going to write smiles in the notation of my next tune to remind me.
Nice fluid picking on both instruments, Simon. According to the sound your octave remains the ruler!
Thanks Frithjof, yes I love my octave (!) though the mandolin is a lot more manoeuvrable and cuts through quite well. -and actually this time it was the uncompromising, straight slip jig, bodhran that ruled the tune.
Nice one Simon, love the drone when it comes in!
Thanks Jill, me too, I love the sort of random bounce of the drone, like a hurdy gurdy wheel or like a spinning bicycle wheel. They’re recommended by Aidan Crossey: https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...=1#post1820907 -I’ve many times wanted to get a hurdy gurdy or even build a sort of one or two stringed one with a mando fretboard, if that’s possible. I read your comment about remembering positions, https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...=1#post1825242 so I’ve decided it’s about time in my learning process to record tunes only from memory. No peeping at the tab! Very difficult task... I guess one exercise would be to put the tunes I already know into sets of three and record those using memory.
Back chaining helps too, starting with the last two bars of the tune over and over, then moving on to the last 4 bars etc. etc. - that way you're really familiar with the end of the tune (or end of each part), so as you move through the tune you're moving further into familiarity so when playing a tune by memory you'll be really confident as you move through the tune rather than getting fuzzy on what note or part comes next. I always do this when learning a more complex tune, such as "The Stormy Night", a great 4 part jig by Sean Ryan.
I’ll try that exercise, and that is a brilliant jig, lots of interesting turns, thanks Jill.
Two fine renditions of the current tune of the week!
Still hoping to see one or two more, Christian - hint, hint!
Fun tune!
Nice rhythm, fine picking and yay! four of us now.
Fine solo playing there, fsusubdad. Four versions now posted, as Simon says, and all with something individual in them.
Great and clean picking, Dan. John and Simon, please allow you some patience. The group has 1,564 members today – consequently 1,560 mandolin players are working hard to follow you. It will eat some time to listen to all of them and give a nice comment.
Lovely playing fsusubdad!
1560 members X 1.5 minutes viewing/tune X 3 minutes/good comment / 60 minutes / 24 hours / 8/24 hours writing comments/day = ? Wait a minute, it will take each person 14.625 days to listen to and then write good comments for every tune that Barbara posts every 14 days. We’ll be more than half a day behind after the first tune and noone will have enough time to practice the second tune. There wouldn’t be a second tune! Frithjof you’re right. So to save time we can write bad comments ten times faster. -but there still wouldn’t be a second tune!
Frithjof, I have had a look at the voting figures for the last six SAWs, and given that we have 1564 members, as you say, the support that the members give to tune selection is minimal; and I include myself in this as I regualrly do not vote. #540 - 7 votes, #541 - 9, #542 - 12, #543 - 9, #544 - 6, #545 - 5. With those statistics it seems that the vast majority of members are part of the group just to listen to the tunes posted by the small band of active regulars that we have, so I am not really expecting a sudden surge in postings. Barbara has tried lots of ideas to get more responses from us and to get tunes nominated by us and continues to do a sterling job of holding the group together especially as she is regularly away from her main computer. It was not too long ago that we went from Song-A-Week to Song-A-Fortnight, and for many folk this is still a big commitment among their other demands and interests. Interestingly there is another part of the forum where folk can post videos of themselves playing, but our regular posters seem not to go there but stick largely with the SAW group. I guess that is because we like being here!
Back to fsusubdad: The two little black dogs have no musical ear, they run away instead of enjoying some great slip-jiggimg. Nice sounding mandolin.
Excuse me! It wasn’t my intention to start such a discussion. No reason to distract from Dan`s fine playing. Quite the contrary: I used his recording to play along and improve my own playing. I have to admit that I had to turn down the YT-speed to 0,8 and go ahead to 0,85 after a few runs. More fun then practicing only with metronome. Thanks Dan.
No intention to hijack the thread on my part either, Frithjof, and my apologies if I gave that impression. I am delighted to read that you are working on this tune at the moment with help from Dan's version and will be adding your version to the others here. I just find it interesting that such a large group (1564 members) can function so well with such a small cohort of active posters. We must be doing something pleasing in our postings, and the responses we get are always very encouraging.
I took my eye off the song a week group for quite some time. Trying to get back in the swing with it. I'm mostly working irish tunes these days - want to give a shout out to Aidan Crossey at https://theirishmandolin.com/ - he has a lot of great tunes on his site including this one. Thanks for all the nice comments - I enjoy participating and really like all the different versions of each tune! Dan
Thanks for the link, Dan.
That site of Aidan's has a lot of really good material in it, Dan, and he keeps it very regularly updated.
Thanks Dan, Aidan’s site’s great. Here’s AN AMAZING RESOURCE from a bunch of crazies, they update almost every day! and here’s: ANOTHER ONE (updated every two weeks)
Thanks Simon! You are right!
It was fun to learn and play the tune:
This was worth waiting for, Frithjof. A fine delivery. That is a lovely instrument you are playing and I really like those fretboard markers - they remind me of the ones that Gretch used on many of their guitars, a sort of semicircle on the edge of the fingerboard. Great tone too.
Nice one Frithjof! And it's also reminded me that I need to work on this tune!
Lovely tone, and great playing Frithjof, nice steady and dynamic rhythm. Lots of smiles in this one!
Well done, Simon, Dan, and Frithjof. You all make your instruments sound good and unique. And you have found a number of different solutions to the undefined ending!
Really tight renditions here! I'm already learning this tune and haven't picked up my mando yet. Thanks guys!
Thanks to all of you! Seems that at least three additional versions are in the pipeline.
Frithjof there’s also that woman who practices the tunes, but is not sure if her first recording will be good enough. That makes it four additional recordings.
Nice version of that slip jig, Frithjof. I'm always happy to see and hear your Musikwinkel-mandolin.
Good to see all the regulars still posting. You've inspired me to pick up the mandolin again and have a go at this fun tune.
James, it is coming up with an error and won't open. Maybe you have it marked as Private on YT?
Great playing, and nice to see you posting James. And thanks for the motivation to really get swinging with the mandolin. The vid seems to be working here in France John, but I have had some error messages in the past 24 hours.
Thanks for this great example of the tune, James. The sound of your Moon mandolin is as gorgeous as your playing. It’s calling you to play more! Hope this works for all of us:
That was the business James!
Great playing, James. Thanks for sorting the link, Frithjof - now working fine!
