Scottish tunes for mandolin

[ollaimh]

i grew up in guysborough county when young, we could see cape breton. so i failed as a fiddler but i remembered a few good tunes that work on mandolin. "the highlkanders jig, aka wind from ben wyvess" very scottish snap paced, nice to play next to an irish jig and get some contrast. the scotts fiddle version of macleod's reel, called "miss macloun's reel, rasaay" its very percussive so does nicely on mando--but hard to get the triplets--a good practice piece. "the high road to linton" , "pipes of donal dubh" slow jig. swcotts tunes tend to be slower and more percussive and with more ornimants, they suit mandolin very well.

dan r macdonald wrote thousands of tunes. many fabulous, none bad. i rather like "go to the devil and shake yourself" for the name. and "the stool of repentence" the last two are on the tablature pages.

what i want is a tablature to erin's green shore??

[ollaimh]

speaking of dan r macdonald. "the north nova scotia highlanders enter the reichwald forest" is a great tune and about the first allied unit to enter germany in ww2. i was in the north novas militia when a boy so i am partial.

"king george the V", is a very popular tune in nova scotia as well.

[Gelsenbury]

Right now, I'm liking corny-sounding Adam Rennie tunes: Caddam Woods, JB Milne (particularly), Kemnay House.
Try them!

JB Milne is a great tune! As it happens, I was just searching for the social group on Scottish music, which no longer seems to exist.



For a "Burns Night Special" on the Song-a-Week group, I have also tried my hand(s) at Loch Ruan - which I learnt from Dagger Gordon's book "The Scottish Mandolin Tutor" - and Major Malley's.



The boundaries between Scottish and Northumbrian tunes seem to be very blurry, probably for historical reasons and because the tunes are likely to have crossed the political borders of the day several times during their development. If anyone can point out particular hallmarks, I'd be very interested. What they all have in common is that I enjoy them a lot!

[Ben Cooper]

Really enjoy listening to this. My take me a while to,learn though.

[mandogerry]

Glad this old thread has reemerged. I've been exploring Scottish music for the past year or so but had overlooked it. Thanks, Geisenbury.

And I especially enjoyed the "Loch Ruan" video. I recently got hold of Dagger's Scottish Mandolin Tutor book and CD, and "The Lambing Storm" (which he wrote) has become one of my favorites (although I doubt if I can ever play it at his speed).

[Dagger Gordon]

Good stuff guys.

I'm delighted that you're getting something from my book. Please get in touch if you have any questions or anything.

Loch Ruan is a nice little tune. The Lambing Storm is the only one of my own tunes in my book.

[kmmando]

Can anyone identify this tune name for me?
many thanks Kevin

[kmmando]

OK, sorted, its Dh’fhalbhainn Sgiobalta (I Would Go Quickly)

[Jim Garber]

OK, sorted, its Dh’fhalbhainn Sgiobalta (I Would Go Quickly)

Great! Please pronounce that Celtic!! Or else I would go quickly!

[Ben Cooper]

Good stuff guys.

I'm delighted that you're getting something from my book. Please get in touch if you have any questions or anything.

Loch Ruan is a nice little tune. The Lambing Storm is the only one of my own tunes in my book.

I can't wait to get your book. I am just waiting for the next paycheck to order it. I am thinking of ordering from Elderly Instruments or Amazon. Relative newbie to mandolin here (been playing less than a year) and I really want to learn some Scottish tunes. Hoping that some are accessable to one of my abilities.

[whistler]

OK, sorted, its Dh’fhalbhainn Sgiobalta (I Would Go Quickly)

Great tune.

Here's its Donegal cousin, Darby Gallagher's:
http://thesession.org/tunes/810
Different enough to be another tune, but close enough that the connection is obvious.

[Dagger Gordon]

I can't wait to get your book. I am just waiting for the next paycheck to order it. I am thinking of ordering from Elderly Instruments or Amazon. Relative newbie to mandolin here (been playing less than a year) and I really want to learn some Scottish tunes. Hoping that some are accessable to one of my abilities.

Yes I'm sure you will be able to play several of the tunes. It is more than just a tune book, however. It discusses techniques and ways to make the tunes sound better (I hope! ), features different types of tunes and looks at playing in different keys, so I hope it will help both your playing and give you a greater understanding of Scottish music.

Thanks a lot,

Dagger

[Bertram Henze]

Great! Please pronounce that Celtic!! Or else I would go quickly!

Much of it is lenited away, so I guess the pronouciation would sound like "alvenn skip alta"

[Ben Cooper]

Yes I'm sure you will be able to play several of the tunes. It is more than just a tune book, however. It discusses techniques and ways to make the tunes sound better (I hope! ), features different types of tunes and looks at playing in different keys, so I hope it will help both your playing and give you a greater understanding of Scottish music.

Thanks a lot,

Dagger

Fantastic! Thank you very much!

[whistler]

There are many tunes from the Highland piping repertoire that work well on mandolin.

Here are a couple of pipe jigs I enjoy playing:

Troy's Wedding (by Colin Magee of Victoria, British Columbia)


Glasgow City Police Pipers (by P.M. Donald McLeod)


The syncopated 3rd part of Troy's Wedding presents a bit of a technical challenge (even after playing it for 17 years) - especially if you play the optional variation that I include on the repeat. I think I managed to keep the tempo fairly steady on this rendition, but my apologies to those with a more finely tuned rhythmic sense than my own.

Apologies, also, if my playing seems a bit soulless - I suffer from 'red light syndrome' (...which is not a condition picked up in red light districts).

[harper]

OK, sorted, its Dh’fhalbhainn Sgiobalta (I Would Go Quickly)

This is a wonderful tune for mandolin. I have tried to transcribe it from Mr. Macleod's video, but I do not have the tech savvy to slow it down. Can anyone have a look to spot errors in my transcription?



Thanks,
Evelyn

[whistler]

...Can anyone have a look to spot errors in my transcription

Looks fine to me, Evelyn.

[zoukboy]

Whistler: Thanks for reminding me of "Glasgow Police Pipers." I first heard it about 30 years ago when Alistair Anderson brought his "Steel Skies" tour to Kansas City. Robin Dunn played it on mandolin.

[John Kelly]

Looks fine to me, Evelyn.

In the General Mandolin Discussions, Kevin asked for the identity of this jig and I posted the following info there:

Hi folks, just been listening to Kevin's effortless playing and realised that I know this tune as "Cold Winds From Ben Wyviss" or "Highlander's Jig" and it is from the famous old collection Kerr's Merry Melodies Book 3. It is available at that great source of tunes, our own Nigel Gatherer, on his website and I attach the abc from Nigel's site for your delectation. The B part is played slightly differently by Kevin, who plays triplets rather than the crotchet and quaver combinations on the music.
As a Scot but not a Gaelic speaker I am glad of the Kerr's titles! Ben Wyviss is the mountain near Inverness which is often thought of as Inverness's own mountain, just as Fort William has Ben Nevis! Both can be the source of extremely cold winds.

Nigel's abc:

X:1
T:Highlander's Jig
T:Cold Winds from Ben Wyvis
B:Kerr's Merry Melodies Bk3, p32
Z:Nigel Gatherer
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:A
d|c2 e ece|fdf ecA|c2 e ef=g|B=GB B2 d|c2 e ece|fdf ecA|
cec dBG|ABA A2::g|a2 f g2 e|fdf ecA|a2 f =g2 d|
B=GB B2 ^g|a2 f g2 e|fdf ecA|cec dBG|ABA A2:|]

[ollaimh]

I really like wind from ben wyvess "highlander's jig" on mandolin, but I have to transpose it to g. its in A as a learning tune for cape Breton fiddle, but I never got far with cape Breton fiddle , so I play some of those on mandolin. mrs macleod's reel"rassaay" and high road to linton are also fiddle learning tunes in like on mandolin.

"go to the devil and shake yourself" is on tablature right here on mandolincafe. and the stool of repentance.

[whistler]

I think I managed to keep the tempo fairly steady on this rendition (of Troys Wedding - ed.)

No I didn't! I just listened back to it and I speed up something terrible.

[James Rankine]

Whistler - I thought you did a really good job, great playing.
I was recording something with a singer the other week, playing guitar not mandolin. At the end he said why did you slow down? I must have been so conscious of my tendency to speed up at the finale that I over compensated. I think having an in built metronome must be one of these God given talents like perfect pitch.

[Bertram Henze]

No I didn't! I just listened back to it and I speed up something terrible.

What James said - I could not detect any speed-up.
But you just wanted us to say that, didn't you

[whistler]

What James said - I could not detect any speed-up.
But you just wanted us to say that, didn't you

Only if it's true, Bertram. Anyway, I can still hear it. It's just, I've been playing that tune for years, presumably with wavering tempo every time, and I never realized it. I've even taught it to people. I wonder now how many other tunes I do it on.

Anyway, carry on talking about Scottish tunes - apologies for the intermission. I'm off to buy a metronome.

[Fretless]

In the General Mandolin Discussions, Kevin asked for the identity of this jig and I posted the following info there:

Hi folks, just been listening to Kevin's effortless playing and realised that I know this tune as "Cold Winds From Ben Wyviss" or "Highlander's Jig" and it is from the famous old collection Kerr's Merry Melodies Book 3. It is available at that great source of tunes, our own Nigel Gatherer, on his website and I attach the abc from Nigel's site for your delectation. The B part is played slightly differently by Kevin, who plays triplets rather than the crotchet and quaver combinations on the music.
As a Scot but not a Gaelic speaker I am glad of the Kerr's titles! Ben Wyviss is the mountain near Inverness which is often thought of as Inverness's own mountain, just as Fort William has Ben Nevis! Both can be the source of extremely cold winds.

Nigel's abc:

X:1
T:Highlander's Jig
T:Cold Winds from Ben Wyvis
B:Kerr's Merry Melodies Bk3, p32
Z:Nigel Gatherer
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:A
d|c2 e ece|fdf ecA|c2 e ef=g|B=GB B2 d|c2 e ece|fdf ecA|
cec dBG|ABA A2::g|a2 f g2 e|fdf ecA|a2 f =g2 d|
B=GB B2 ^g|a2 f g2 e|fdf ecA|cec dBG|ABA A2:|]

FWIW, here's a slightly different version I learned from Cape Breton fiddler Andrea Beaton last fall:

X:1
T:The Highlander's Jig
C:Traditional
C: Andrea Beaton 2013
M:6/8
L:1/8
K:Amix
d|cBA ecA|fdf ecA|cBA efg|BGB d2 B|cBA ecA|fdf ecA|
cec dBG|1 BAA A2:|2 BAA Afg||a2 f g2 e|fdf ecA|
a2 f g2 d|BGB d2 e|a2 f g2 e|fdf ecA|cec dBG|BAA Afg|
a2 f g2 e|fdf ecA|a2 f g2 d|BGB d2 e|
afa geg|fdf ecA|cec dBG|BAA A3|]