Folk Group Term 37

17/04/23

Welcome back 🙂

We’ve got a couple of gigs coming up, but not for a while yet…

Catch the Wind Festival on the 25th June and
More Music’s 30th anniversary ceilidh on 7th October

Here’s a renaissance song for us to try…

MIDI FILE: All in a Garden Green

Lyrics
Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

N.B. “Yfer” is a friend or companion
If there’s time, we’ll also have a go at this one…

MIDI FILE: I am a Poor Shepherd Undone

Lyrics
Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

The Beggar’s Opera lyrics can be found here: Beggar’s opera script

24/04/23

Here are a couple of lovely Welsh tunes. A jig and a slip-jig (9/8). Both from the excellent Alawon Cymru website (and then altered slightly to match how I’ve played them before…).

MIDI FILE: Mabsant

Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

Here’s a link to the tune being played by a robot harp 😉

N.B. Gwyl Mabsant is the Welsh equivalent of St Patrick’s day (ish) – lots of drinking, gambling and carrying on! Technically it’s a saint’s day, but…

MIDI FILE: Dere i Jigio

Treble Harmony
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele Harmony
Mandolin
Cello

Lit. Come jigging

Here’s that robot harp again!

If there’s time after learning these two we’ll perhaps re-visit The Busy Bee of Gwent

Arrangement as follows:
1/ Pizz melody. Flute joins on B
2/ Everyone play melody
3/ Soloist (Andrew) plays melody. Others join on G-drone or harmony
4/ All in – melody and harmony
5/ Pizz melody for first half then everyone loud (and arco) on B.

01/05/23

Bank holiday! No group tonight

08/05/23

Still on despite the bank holiday today.

After re-visiting the Guatemalan tunes on the 24th of last month I was reminded of this tune: “Carnaval”. It’s a wonderful Québécois tune from the playing of Jos Bouchard – N.B. he varies it massively throughout, but this is as good as I can get!

MIDI FILE: Carnaval

Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

15/05/2023

Here’s a lovely Scottish Lament

MIDI FILE: Neil Gow’s Lament for the Death of his Second Wife

Treble Harmony
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

22/05/2023

Here’s a couple of tunes from Morpeth in the North East of England. The Rant is the “national dance” of the “Kingdom of Northumbria” and is a bit like marmite for dancers 🙂

MIDI FILE: The Old Morpeth Rant

Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

MIDI FILE: The Morpeth Rant

Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

We are playing for:

The Spring Fling Thing on 4th June. 12:15 for 30 mins and 2:15 for 30 mins. We have been asked to play for the maypole again too!

Catch the Wind (Kite festival) is on 25th June (times tba)

More Music’s 20th anniversary ceilidh in the hall on the 7th October

Charity ceilidh on 20th October at the King’s Community Church, Kings Community Church, Phoenix St, Lancaster LA1 1DD, Lancaster

Busy busy x

29/05/23

Here’s a couple of new tunes. We might use the Croatian one for some of the upcoming ceilidhs

MIDI FILE: Djatchko Kolo

Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello


And a lovely klezmer tune to coincide with the “election” of a not new leader in Turkey!

MIDI FILE: Terkisher

Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

This Sunday 4th June 2023:

We are playing at 12:15 (arrive 11:50) and 2:15 (reconvene at 2). At some point we’ll be playing for the maypole, but we also need to play some tunes (order of play to be decided on the day – all maypole dependent!):

05/06/23

Here’s a fun Tango – I realised we haven’t done one lately :). Tango Caliente is a bit of a generic title really and there are hundreds of them! Here’s just one I originally transcribed for Ukulele from an old cassette quite a few years back!. Unfortunately I don’t have the original recording anymore and can’t find it online, or even remember who played it. Pathetic I know, but a satisfying tune.

MIDI FILE: Tango Caliente

Treble Large
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele Fancy Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

12/06/23

UPDATE THIS WAS NOT THE: Last official session for this term, although I think we’ll keep going in some form or other until the end of the school term (July 17th), with a focus on good arrangements of ceilidh sets and making everything shiny :). In the More Music hall still – am waiting to hear, or in the cafe around the back of the War Memorial Hall, Church St, Morecambe LA4 5PR. Same times and £ etc.

Here are some lovely Irish polkas – quite common session tunes (and two of them are in Dorian mode).

MIDI FILE: Tralee Gaol

Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

Lyrics and info about the Scottish version

MIDI FILE: Dálaigh’s Polka

Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

MIDI FILE: The Britches Full of Stitches

Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello
Martin Hayes is a marmite player, but I love marmite!

19/06/23

So. Due to some office confusion over dates etc (they asked for 8, but had 11 in the diary and contracted me for 10…) we are to continue for another three sessions yay!

Here’s a simple tune we’ll learn before having a rehearsal for Catch the Wind festival’s weekend gig on Sunday between 2:30 and 4:30 pm. We might even have a go at writing our own dance. I’ll try to get more specific times tomorrow!

SÃ¥ngsyttevalsen was on a Groupa album back in the 80s. SÃ¥ngshytte is the name of a town.

MIDI FILE: SÃ¥ngshyttevalsen

Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

Here’s our dance 🙂


Waves of Morecambe Bay (5-couples ideally, Danced to a 32 bar waltz):
A1: Sway in and out x4
A2: Couple 1 weave in and out of their lines doing the Eric Morecambe pose
B1&2: Waves – top couple make an arch and all go over/under until back in place

On Sunday we will meet at 2:45 in the area between the Midland Hotel and the Fairground. We’re playing 3pm to 4pm. A mix of dances and tunes – playing by ear a bit tbh.

Set to possibly/probably include:
Mr Lane’s Maggot
Westmoreland
Neil Gow’s

Circassian Circle – Waddington/Rochdale
March to the End – Kerry Polkas D/G
Cumberland Sqr – Jig of Slurs
Djatchko Kolo – in G. Watch Ben for speed changes, but generally keep speeding up in the last two bars each time through.

ALERT: The forecast for Sunday is looking increasingly grim. I, for one, will not be keen on being around kites in a thunderstorm! Keep an eye on this webpage and More Music’s for updates please. 24/06 – I’ve not heard anything from management yet, but am going to chat to them today at the festival and see what the plan is – I think we’ll be in a marquee either way, but…

25/06 – still not heard anything, so the assumption they told me yesterday will be to carry on – meet at the marquees near the lifeboat station and hope for the best! Fingers crossed and see you soon. If you feel you don’t want to or can’t that’s perfectly understandable – just drop me a message – ben@benfarmer.co.uk if you would like to.

26/06/23

Here’s a popular (and for good reason) Galician Muiñera.

Bridge o’er the Bay – to a 4 part jig e.g…:
Lines of 4:
A Forwards and back (like the tide?)/ One side makes arches whilst other goes through/ Repeat the other way
B Top couple cast & make arch at bottom, others follow and through the arch
C Top couple arches over one side (from the bottom), then back up over the other side and over both sides at once
D Top couple weaves to top, swap sides and weave down other way, swing if time

MIDI FILE: Ponte de San Paio

Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

03/07/23

Here are two lovely hornpipes from the Matthew Betham Manuscript, Towcett (near Shap), Cumbria, 1815. Calgarth House is near Windermere and was built in 1790.

MIDI FILE: Calgarth Hornpipe

Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

MIDI FILE: Richers Hornpipe

Treble
Guitar
Banjo
Ukulele
Mandolin
Cello

RegencyDances.Org

10/07/23

Unofficially we rehearsed the first half of this:

FoLune Ceilidh Sets 2023

17/07/23

We did the other half

I’ve updated the above set list following last night’s session. I’ll get onto doing some recordings asap 🙂