Tag Archives: Shetland

The North East Scotland Session Tunes Project 2: Shetland jigs

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David Flett and Marie-Elaine Maguire at the Friday night session, Aberdeen 2019. (c) Gordon Turnbull

FluteFling NE Tunebook Project: 02 Peter’s Peerie Boat / Da Shaalds of Foula/ Da Brig

This second video of the NE Scotland Session Tunes Project stays with Shetland music with a set of three jigs.

For background to the project of 10 sets of tunes being recorded over 10 weeks, and to see the first video, start here. Alternatively, go straight to the videos on my Youtube channel.

You can download the PDF here: FluteFling Aberdeen 2019 NE Scotland Tunes

Shetland Jigs: Pushing the Boat Out Set

Like the reels covered in the first video, Peter’s Peerie Boat is by fiddler Tom Anderson. “Peerie” means “small”. Wikipedia has a helpful overview of Shetland dialect. Other settings of the tune can be found on The Session, where there is also some related discussion.

The tune is in D and begins with a slightly tricky d-D octave drop that for flutes requires good control of the embouchure and breath. This is less of an issue for whistles and in both cases, adopting the middle d fingering o x x x x x will also help the transition. Ensure the flute is warmed up and responsive.

In the second part of the tune there’s a single low C# that will require a key to play. If you don’t have this, the workaround is to simply play the octave c# above. Although that then loses the effect of successive descending phrases, it still makes musical sense and echoes the octave jumps elsewhere in the tune and in the set.

Da Shaalds of Foula is a traditional tune with a few settings in different keys. The title apparently refers to hidden reefs off the Isle of Foula. The ever helpful Traditional Tune Archive has useful notes on these that show it was first collected from the Island of Yell in 1862 and also links to a 1954 field recording of the tune being played by Yell musicians Peter Scollay (fiddle), Lowrie Scollay (guitar) and Alice Manuell (accordion). The recording is from Scotland’s amazing online archive Tobar an Dualchais/ Kist o’ Riches, which everybody should bookmark. There’s a more Nordic-sounding arrangement on this Youtube recording by Faroese band Spælimenninir.

As for the tune itself, it’s very flute and whistle friendly, swinging along with some scope for simple variation in the second part. Again, octave drops feature, this time at the end to help lead into the first part again.

Da Brig is in D, this was apparently written by Friedemann Stickel from Unst, who is associated with several Shetland tunes.

 On The Session, that great font of knowledge and teaching Nigel Gatherer (check out his website):

Friedemann von Stickel was a German fiddler who was shipwrecked on Unst in Shetland in the 1770s (or his shipmates got fed up of his fiddling and tossed him overboard…); he ended up staying and marrying a Yell woman. His son was also called Friedemann and became a respected fiddler, composing a number of tunes. One evening he observed a brigantine sail past and was inspired to write “Da Brig”.

Watch out for the jump after the opening phrases and in B part, avoid confusing it with the B part of Peter’s Peerie Boat. Once you’re past the opening bars it becomes clearer. Let’s say, you’re in open water.

Ten weeks of videos

Over a 10 week or so period, I am recording and uploading to YouTube a set of tunes from the PDF roughly once a week. The aim is to introduce the tunes, point out some techniques along the way and then play them as a set as I might play them in a session.

As I go along, I’ll take in suggestions to improve the sound and presentation and get back into the way of teaching again. There is an in-built slow down function in YouTube and the PDF is available to everyone, so why not join me on the journey?

Look out for some Highland pipe marches in 6/8 next week played on the whistle. In the meantime, enjoy the music!

The North East Scotland Session Tunes Project

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The Sunday session at Ma Cameron’s, Aberdeen FluteFling 2019 (c) Gordon Turnbull

A music project for the Winter

Everyone needs a project for the winter and an idea I had over lockdown has finally clicked for me. Inspired by elements of the Dig Where You Stand movement, I looked at an underused resource that already existed within the FluteFling archives.

John Crawford put together a couple of PDFs of session tunes ahead of the 2019 Aberdeen weekend with the idea that people would learn the tunes and have a few core common tunes for the music sessions. This made sense because people attending come from different areas and have different repertoires.

The result was a useful document containing 10 sets of session tunes that might be expected to be found in NE Scotland sessions. The resources were drawn freely from those already available online and might even be regarded as standards, from Shetland reels to pipe jigs, strathspeys and more. Despite it being a good idea, we failed to promote the idea enough and then the pandemic came along and swept things away.

During lockdown I looked at John’s PDF again and realised that it would be useful to learn  those tunes that I didn’t play properly. Recently I also felt I needed a focus for my playing as I haven’t been in sessions for a long time and nor have I been teaching. So my FluteFling NE Session Tunebook Project was born.

Ten weeks of videos

Over the next 10 weeks or so, I will be recording and uploading to YouTube a set of tunes from the PDF roughly once a week. The aim is to introduce the tunes, point out some techniques along the way and then play them as a set as I might play them in a session.

As I go along, I’ll take in suggestions to improve the sound and presentation and get back into the way of teaching again. There is an in-built slow down function in YouTube and the PDF is available to everyone, so why not join me on the journey?

You can download the PDF here: FluteFling Aberdeen 2019 NE Scotland Tunes

FluteFling NE Tunebook Project: 01 Hurlock’s Reel / Da Rodd to Houl

Two Shetland reels by fiddler Tom Anderson, the first of these I associate with Cathal McConnell’s flute playing with The Boys of the Lough, with Shetlander Aly Bain on fiddle. Composed in 1938, Hurlock was apparently the drummer in the ceilidh band Tom Anderson played with. There is discussion and other settings on The Session website.

Hurlock’s Reel is in A and I use the G# key on my flute. See the video and video notes for some more discussion on the keys I use.

Da Rodd to Houl is in D (not G as suggested in the video). Houl  (sometimes spelled Houll) is on the Isle of Whalsay in the Shetland Islands. Shetland has its own language (Norn) and dialect; “da rodd” means ” the road”. This comment on The Session website gives more information:

In “Haand Me Doon Da Fiddle” Tom Anderson says “Dis tun was written in 1936 whin I came up to Unst to visit a schoolmaister friend o’ mine. It happened it dat moarnin wis da prizegiving an I was axed to play at it. I guid fir a walk an da tun cam in me head. Da place I wis walkin ower wis caaed da Houll Road bit I tocht da Road ta Houll soonded better”

I’ll try to record and upload the tunes in the order that they appear in the PDF. Look out for some Shetland jigs in the next week or so. In the meantime, enjoy the music!

FluteFling Online December 2020 Roundup

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FluteFling Online December 2020 Roundup

It was wonderful to see such a great turn-out for our first ever FluteFling Online event.

Claire Mann took us through some fine tunes over four workshops on two consecutive Saturdays and there is a group recording of everyone playing together to look forward to as well.

Claire herself was in Newton Stewart in Dumfries and Galloway, Pete Saunders did a great job controlling the technology from Aberdeenshire, while Sharon Creasey in Dumbarton, John Crawford in Aberdeen and myself in Edinburgh were also on hand to support. We had much of the country covered and then people attended live from Canada (a 5.30 am start!), USA, Germany, Sweden, France, Ireland, England, the Netherlands, Spain — apologies if I have missed anywhere — and more people accessing it through recordings afterwards, including one person from Japan.

We are already thinking of when we will do our next one, so make sure you are signed up to the newsletter to hear about it first.

Event Resources

The Event Resources archive, including recordings of the workshops themselves, will remain accessible to all ticket holders until 9 January, which is also the date for submitting videos for the group video. Once this is edited it will become available in January.

Most questions were answered either in the workshop or by chat in the messages, which have also been archived in the Event Resources.

Someone new to Scottish traditional music asked for some useful tune collections. It’s something we should maybe address more fully, but here are a few, plus some others:

 

December workshop roundup: Seasonal Basque and Shetland tunes, exploring breath control

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This month we looked at some seasonal tunes, including Gabriel’s Message, taken from concertina player Paul Hardy’s Xmas tune book (available as a free PDF download) and the Shetland slow air Da Day Dawn. We also explored some flute technique, in particular breath support – also useful for any wind player – and embouchure.

The next workshop will be 21st January. Details will go the the website and be announced in the newsletter very soon.

Technique

Notes below the range of the flute

We played long tones on Em (E-G-B) to warm up and then learned Gabriel’s Message by ear. The tune features a B below the range of our instruments, so we looked at strategies for accommodating it. In this case we settled on playing the B in the low octave – i.e. an octave above what is written – but when we then played the melody entirely in the upper register, we played the same B. Other options include playing a low note that harmonises, such as E or F#. Keeping it low respects the feel of the melody.

It is not uncommon for traditional tunes to drop to G string on the fiddle. What strategy is adopted depends on the tune and how those notes feature.

Breath support

We looked at a few ways of employing the diaphragm for more efficient use of air in producing a sound. This included exploring playing the flute while lying on our backs, as described by Ciarán Carson in Last Night’s Fun:

Playing the flute while lying on your back encourages use of the diaphragm. Photo: Alan Chan

We included a refinement that brought us closer to the Semi-Supine position in the Alexander Technique.  Bringing the feet up the body and supporting the head. This may be helpful in developing good posture while playing the flute.

We thought about extinguishing a candle flame with directed and controlled breath and keeping it spluttering. We also looked at keeping a piece of paper to the wall using breath:

Flute exercise

Eileen demonstrates pinning a piece of paper to the wall using the breath. This helps to develop stamina while training the embouchure to focus and be efficient. Photo: Alan Chan

We explored whistle tones to find the embouchure sweet spot (see Jennifer Cluff on this) and tried singing and playing to open up the throat. Flutecolors lists some of the benefits in its extended techniques pages. Larry Krantz’s web site also includes an exploration of technique.

Books

Books that were brought in or mentioned and look at extending technique:

Repertoire

The tunes we covered and some others are on the Resources page. The written music will follow on. Gabriel’s Message is a Basque carol but SW England song collector Rev. Baring-Gould translated the lyrics and it is widely sung, here by Sting:

The other tune was Da Day Dawn, which I have written about previously. Mairi Campbell’s version and recording of the modern song is here.

Finally, I recorded a version on the Bb flute:

Spoots and Salmon

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This week we consolidated the two tunes that Amble Skuse taught the class while I was away. She focused on examples that are built on the pentatonic scale, illustrating with the Shetland reel Spootiskerry and the march/ rant/ polka Salmon Tails Up the Water.

Spootiskerry is so well known that it is easy to forget that it is a modern tune, written by Ian Burns from Shetland and named after his farm. A skerry is a shoal of jaggy rocks usually found offshore protruding out of the water (from the Old Norse language and also found in Gaelic), while a spoot is a razor shell, which can be found and harvested on beaches.

The reel fits the flute and whistle very readiily and has some syncopated phrases that are quite distinctive. My version is a little different from Amble’s, and it may be one that I have developed in order to emphasise that rhythmic play. However, the version that I have recorded is Amble’s.

There is some good discussion on it at The Session, including an intriguing comment from Kenny Hadden who suggests that it fits the whistle in A as well. I haven’t tried that but it is very tempting. Kenny will be teaching again at this year’s Flute Day on 9th May.

Amble’s other tune, Salmon Tails Up The Water, I am less familiar with to play, but I have been aware of it for many years and should have known it. It is one of at least two tunes going by this title and this version is also known as The Banks of Inverness. I have seen it in Scottish collections, (but possibly the other tune with this title) and it feels to me like a march, but I see online it is claimed by Northumberian pipers as a rant, written in the 18thC by piper Jimmy Allen, who sounds like a colourful character.

There is once more some decent discussion on The Session, where it has also been associated with Irish singer and mandolinist Andy Irvine, once of the influential Planxty. It seems that the tune may be part of The Siege of Ennis set of Irish ceili tunes, probably as a polka. Good tunes tend to stick around and gain acceptance in other traditions.

We consolidated the tune and explored a couple of settings of it, one as taught by Amble, the other published by Nigel Gatherer in one of his many fine tune books. I have recorded and provided music for both of these, as well as music for Spootiskerry, on the Resources page for this year. Thanks are due to Amble for teaching these fine tunes and to Sarah and Adelheid for joining me on the recording.

 Photo: Salmon Jumping by Karen Miller, some rights reserved.