New subject: Musicians Digest, Vol 6, Issue 4

4 Aug 2015

Thanks so much for all the feedback on jig!  It's fascinating to me as I'm
still not hearing it and I'm usually good with tune phrasing but I love
that some people feel it easily and others aren't.

Jim - I tried to play the "Jim Rumboldt’S/Father’S Jig/ Esau Payne’S Tune"
video but for some reason it won't play here.

Anyway, I've had problems carving out time to respond but I've been really
enjoying reading all the comments.  I'll have to track down the notation
and we'll give it a try with four clear potatoes... see what happens.

I do loooove the second tune. I don't know if I wrote this in my first
email but Gillis' Favourite is an old traditional standard in Cape Breton.
I hadn't heard it anywhere else until the clip of the Dardinelles.  Their
swing makes it quite a bit more funky!

:) Emily

On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 3:13 PM, via Musicians <
musicians(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote:

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 Today's Topics:

    1. Re: worthiness of a tune for contra?
       (Patricia Campbell via Musicians)
    2. Re: worthiness of a tune for contra? (James Saxe via Musicians)

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 Message: 1
 Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2015 17:17:31 -0400
 From: Patricia Campbell via Musicians
         &lt;musicians(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt;
 To: Dave Casserly &lt;david.j.casserly(a)gmail.com&gt;
 Cc: musicians(a)lists.sharedweight.net
 Subject: Re: [Musicians] worthiness of a tune for contra?
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 ?I had no trouble hearing the A & B parts of the jig - I've had a lot more
 trouble with other tunes, but this one sounded pretty straight forward to
 me. Where someone might have any issue is between the two B parts, but even
 that was pretty clear to me.

 Just my 2 cents - ?

 Patricia

 Patricia Campbell

 203-364-4554

 On Thu, Jul 30, 2015 at 1:45 PM, Dave Casserly via Musicians <
 musicians(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote:

  I guess I disagree with the majority here.  I
think there is absolutely
 nothing wrong with that jig, and it's perfectly well-phrased and suitable
 to contra dancing.

 I think there are a lot of well-phrased jigs out there that we can make
 sound like they're not by putting an amorphous beat behind them and  perhaps
  tying some notes over that would normally be
repeated.  This is one such
 jig.  I played through it myself this morning on whistle, and I don't  even
  think it's a particular smooth jig when you
just play it normally
 (repeating the first note in the first bar rather than tying it over,
 playing the pickup triplet to the B part so that it sounds more like a
 pickup, and playing it at 120bpm).

 I have no recommendations for how a band should use this jig other than
 how I think a band should play every jig-- start with four clear  potatoes,
  use a strong beat (at least the first few times
through), play so that  it's
  phrased clearly and notes don't cross over
the phrase.

 To the musicians who think this jig is not well-phrased, I encourage you
 to play it for yourselves at 120bpm.  As long as you are clear on the
 phrasing, the dancers will be, too.  I've heard plenty of bands play jigs
 with a lot less clear phrasing in the melody (such as the Roaring Barmaid
 or Myra's) for contra dances with no problems.

 -Dave

 On Thu, Jul 30, 2015 at 12:37 PM, Thomas Verdot via Musicians <
 musicians(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote:

> As was mentioned by Susan, my first thought was that it was a slip jig.
> It is a fine tune for listening but one that I would not use for a  dance.
 > If you really like it well enough to play it
for a dance you probably  want
 > to have a stronger rhythm than the band in
the video. I don't mean  louder,
 > just less amorphous.  That also doesn't
mean dead on regular - it could
> just be punctuated to maintain a sense of form.
>
> I think it is good to always keep in mind that we are there to serve the
> dancers & at times some of our favorite tunes just don't quite meet the
> purpose.  I have sadly rejected several favorites.
>
> Regards, Tom
>
>
> On 7/29/2015 9:48 PM, Emily Addison via Musicians wrote:
>
>> Hello fellow musicians!
>>
>> I've had the following two tunes suggested for our contra band.  The
>> reel at the end seems straight forward (with some doubling up) but the
>> jig seems to have really weird phrasing (especially in the A) that  would
    make it hard for dancers to follow.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DkJQ9xNGuU

 I'm curious what you guys think!

 Emily in Ottawa

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Re: [Musicians] Musicians Digest, Vol 6, Issue 4