Doug, coincidentally I just came upstairs from brushing up on The Irish Washerwoman! I also don't care for it much, but it's on the set list for a series of gigs coming up in the next week...played so fast it's over before you know it

Jon, its certainly the season for it! Irish pubs aren't too big around here - one that had music just closed, which may only leave one. There have been productions of some sort of Riverdance and spin offs, but they're touring shows, and a visit by an "Irish" band from Knoxville. What key do you play it in?

I play The Irish Washerwoman in G. I'd be hard pressed to pull it off in A with that high C#.
Most of the gigs are retirement centers and small town venues who want to catch some Irish flavor during the week, which is great as far as I'm concerned. I've played some noisy, drunken St. Paddy's day bar gigs and it's not always a great time.
It's an interesting trend with more and more pubs closing here and abroad...people just not socializing as much?

Trying to find the right cross tuning to play a German tune named Guter Mond, du gehst so stille. There is a beautiful version somewhere out there with the German and English lyrics.
Seems like I converted to something I dunno, very euro?

I've been working on Camp Chase again... much like Dwight Diller's Camp Chase.

Playing it out of GDAE in the key of A... and also using GDGD...playing it in G.... I like both tunings for it,.. but I might prefer GDAE...and the key of A...less droney. 

I happened to be looking at tunes in Samuel P Bayard's Dance to the Fiddle March to the Fife book and Bayard got a tune from Pennsylvanian Irvin Yaugher in the 1940s with the same melodic material. It's tune# 114 in the book.., Irvin called Lardner's Reel (though it is unrelated to the tune usually called Lardner's).

This melody and its variations turns up in other tunes quite a bit. West Virginian Mose Coffman called it Turkey Creek. I may have already shared this info. here. Either way...Camp Chase is my tune of choice lately.

I have been experimenting with the weirdest stuff I could come up with since my D#D#A#D# medley busking experience in the middle of nature. Was inspired by the second busking attempt that followed shortly after my first one: I decided to play in what people here call the Monks Wood, visited the place to honour the Holy Mary, a cave like stone with candles. All of a sudden while still in dead man's tuning I decided to give At Lourdes Upon The Mountains a try on the two highest strings and just when I got the highest part all sounding right and sophisticated, a bird in the tree next to the wooden bench I was seated upon decided to drop a white down feather on the ground.
Back home next day I gave the tune another try in sawmill tuning.
I also tried to find a way to play The Sound Of Silence crosstuned, but so far it only sound right for the chorus.

During my second busking experience I only had interaction with this cute toddler who applauded and I asked him if he would like to play an instrument himself or perhaps played an instrument already hehe. His father revealed he was mainly exploring his percussion skills at his very young age, so I said now that works very well with the fiddle.
Another guy who passed by the cave thanked me for the moment :-))
I had no idea people would actually enjoy my playing out there on a silent walk in the Monks Wood!

Now I feel like repertoire knowledge is everything at this stage.

I love it!!! Out there in the middle of nature is the best place for a player like me <3

Maysville............

LUcy Campbell’s….

…because there was a high-level sesh where I felt uncertain of my welcome, I felt like maybe they were just tolerating my presence. Last time I went, I noticed they played almost every tune I had started at session, sprinkled into their own sets! They are not super friendly chatty players, but this was their way of saying “Welcome” and “I see you.” I felt really touched! SO I’m learning one of the reels they play frequently…Lucy Campbell’s.

Miss Sally at the Party

Midnight On The Water 

German is the angel of the Germanic languages. These lyrics are just way too beautiful :'-)
Guter Mond du gehst so stille

Liedflugschrift (text from 1808) translated to English

O gentle moon, you glide so silently
Through the evening clouds,
So serene, and I feel
That I am without peace!
Sadly my gaze follows
Your gentle, serene path;
O how cruel is my fate,
That I cannot follow you!

Dear Moon, to you I will pour out
What troubles my anxious heart,
And in all my sorrows
My troubled soul ponders.
Dear Moon, you shall know,
Because you are so secretive,
Why my tears flow,
And why my heart is so sad.

But there in that little valley,
Where many young trees stand,
And not far from the waterfall
You will see a hut.
Walk through valleys, fields, and meadows,
Peer gently through the window;
Then your gaze will meet Elisen,
Queen of all maidens.

Not in gold, nor in silk
Will you see this girl,
Only in a white dress
Does she always go about.
Not in nobility, nor in rank,
What is otherwise so highly revered;
Not in a ribbon of an order
Does this girl derive her worth.

Only her charm, her good heart
Makes her dear to me,
Gentle in earnest, and cheerful in jest,
Every trait is good in her;
Expressive are her gestures,
Beautiful and cheerful is her gaze.
In short, to be loved by her
Is for me the greatest happiness.

Moon, you friend of chaste desires,
Sneak into her little hut,
Tell her: that I love her
And she is mine alone,
My delight, my joy,
My pleasure, my everything;
That I gladly suffer for her,
When she also flees in tears

But since I am already bound,
And, alas, all too quickly
My sweet hours of freedom
Have slipped away from me;
But since I can live in this world
Without sin: –
Go and tell the lovely child,
Whether this love pleases her?

ANd SPeaking of our Moon…yay for Artemis 2!

I saw that woman on board coming home being welcomed by her dog :D

Today I decided to give the ChanceMcCoy lesson on Washington's March another try, and yes this time I'm doing ok! I got the A part right now. Having a small break now.

This lesson series has to belong to the top of all fiddle lessons online available. He has such a rich beautiful way of playing, like it a lot! Might have said this before, unsure. Anyway, these videos rock!

I’ve begun to learn The Glen of Aherlow - a fantastic Irish reel. If anyone is curious, there’s a video of Kevin Burke playing it along with his guitar accompanist on YT. There may be more than one video of him playing the tune, but the one I’m referencing has him playing in a man’s study. For those who like cats, there’s a quite handsome one sitting calmly listening. Our cat doesn’t much like the violin though she does seem to like the piano, guitar, etc. Anyway, I’ll never play it like Kevin.

All of the Irish Trad community here is familiar with that video, including Kevin's cat!
Have fun with Glen of Aherlow! :-D.  It's such a great tune.

Written by Sean Ryan. If you want to see Sean playing his own composition, here's a video I've watched many times...
https://youtu.be/q0pXmS1Ljmk?si=yF2j-_JkMzRkUj9t

quote:

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Originally posted by NCnotes

All of the Irish Trad community here is familiar with that video, including Kevin's cat!
Have fun with Glen of Aherlow! :-D.  It's such a great tune.

Written by Sean Ryan. If you want to see Sean playing his own composition, here's a video I've watched many times...
https://youtu.be/q0pXmS1Ljmk?si=yF2j-_JkMzRkUj9t

---

Interesting!  I know I should know better, but I don't often consider that a tune may be "modern".  A living tradition.

Got Washington's March straight but I always forget the first tag of the B part. Trying to give it the necessary attention today. Then pay more attention to the linking of the different parts and speed up just a little more I love DDAD so much!

Need to pick up my other fiddle and have a new string on it.

Also finally got my chromecast reset now it works on the router that I installed.This means next free long moment I can watch the fiddle movie that recently has been posted on FHO <3

quote:

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Originally posted by Quincy

I saw that woman on board coming home being welcomed by her dog :D

Today I decided to give the ChanceMcCoy lesson on Washington's March another try, and yes this time I'm doing ok! I got the A part right now. Having a small break now.

This lesson series has to belong to the top of all fiddle lessons online available. He has such a rich beautiful way of playing, like it a lot! Might have said this before, unsure. Anyway, these videos rock!

---

I have a video on YouTube you can slow down that has a lot of bowing variations.

quote:

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Originally posted by ChickenMan

quote:

---

Originally posted by Quincy

I saw that woman on board coming home being welcomed by her dog :D

Today I decided to give the ChanceMcCoy lesson on Washington's March another try, and yes this time I'm doing ok! I got the A part right now. Having a small break now.

This lesson series has to belong to the top of all fiddle lessons online available. He has such a rich beautiful way of playing, like it a lot! Might have said this before, unsure. Anyway, these videos rock!

---

I have a video on YouTube you can slow down that has a lot of bowing variations.

---

Found it back and looks like we both forgot I already found it and commented hehe. 

Well over here…hmm lately been playing a lot of “Bird in the Bush”, “the Virginia” (reels) and “Rambling Pitchfork” (jig).

Doing some backing on guitar for fun … I wanna try to play it bouzouki-style (sparser, more melodic vs rhythmic guitar strumming). inevitably I put in too much, then I try to back off /pare it down…and I realized that as a newbie backer, I would hate myself as a fiddler - as a fiddler I tend to like the minor/modal keys and play fast, with a bit of swing to the rhythm…I would hate to accompany me!

maybe it was peer pressure, with everybody trotting out their second instruments at session lately…Whistle/flute guy now on pipes. Cello guy now on mando. Guitar guy now on banjo. I look around the table these days, and everybody is holding a different instrument! None of the fiddlers have switched though…but I am going to bring my guitar this weekend and back a couple of tunes as a (perhaps unpleasant!) surprise. :-D

What's everybody up to musically, lately? :-)

Celtic rhythm guitar is very cool. Unique, open sounding voicings and unusual strum patterns. Requires more technique than may at first seem obvious. Lots of players have and are taking it to a high level. I’ve dabbled with it but its impossible to find time for everything… :)

Cool that you’ve dabbled with it! Yea I find it harder than learning the tunes…but I love how the change of a chord can put a whole new mood on a tune…

What tunes are you fiddlin’ around with? :-)

Good job switching out instruments, NCnotes. I started out as a backer long before learning fiddle, so I have the opposite problem-- I'm opinionated about chords and voicings so it can be annoying when backers can't read my mind! Lol.
Been messing around with old-time tunes lately-- Belle of Lexington, Birdie, Rye Straw.