Hay-on-Wye - Posted - 07/12/2020:  01:25:59

Does anyone play English and Welsh Morris and country dance tunes on banjo.? They are generally such simple
Melodies and in 4/4 time and have been around for 500 years.
Traditionally they were played by simple village folk on basic instruments such as the tabor pipe and drum but in the last 150 years to the melodeon and fiddle. With all this lockdown due coronavirus this year, I’ve missed my fill of watching the Morris dancers. This video this morning on the hangout reminded me of the tunes again;

banjohangout.org/myhangout/vid...&id=37964

And Janet Burtons Old Tom
Of Oxford played on that bassy cello banjo.

banjohangout.org/myhangout/vid...?id=36610

Does anyone else have videos of Morris tunes to share?

Here’s my attempt of Janets tabbed
Old Tom of Oxford.


youtu.be/wT3IWbNPwEU

Hay-on-Wye - Posted - 07/12/2020:  01:35:31

Anyone got an hour of two to tab out this Welsh tune I recorded in 2012 at the Welsh food festival near Powys castle. It starts with a simple tune and develops into several variations. Think the instruments accompany img the dancers were fiddle, concertina and piano but I had consumed plenty of alcoholic free samples so my memory is hazy



youtu.be/g2myPK0I_7M

Edited by - Hay-on-Wye on 07/12/2020 01:36:54

m06 - Posted - 07/12/2020:  03:35:48

Neill, I do play English folk tunes on tenor banjo and play for Morris here in North Somerset. However I'm also a (wooden) flute player and have found that instrument to be a more natural and instinctive fit for me in my English musical setting...to the extent that flute ended up keeping my tenor banjo in it's case at English folk sessions and I play only flute for the Morris.



Clearly that's not any kind've genre 'rule', just what evolved naturally for me. As is shown by yourself and a few others who post very nice versions of British/Irish tunes played on 5-string banjo. Another quirk when playing my local tunes on tenor banjo is that switches to two-finger thumb lead, not clawhammer (and not ITM plectrum-style). Again, that's just the way English music naturally shaped my playing.

You mention 4/4 time signature, yet in addition a large part of the local folk dance repertoire round here are wonderful 6/8 jigs and also 2/4 reels. Reels for dancing are a particular feature around Somerset. I think that was significant in why I went toward two-finger thumb lead. 

Edited by - m06 on 07/12/2020 03:52:21

m06 - Posted - 07/12/2020:  04:01:18

...another link between banjo and English tunes are the early English-made 7-string banjos that appeared in response to the first touring American shows in the 1840's and before the 5-string became the dominant choice (curiously despite the fact that the touring American musicians brought the 5-string). I play an early English-made 7-string; how I play it is really lead by what it seems to do best and the booming bass side has a strong influence in that. English manufacture, the early repertoire and the contemporary early English banjo context are an interesting area for ongoing research.

Edited by - m06 on 07/12/2020 04:03:20

Hay-on-Wye - Posted - 07/12/2020:  04:07:46

Have you got any videos Mike? Be interesting to see

m06 - Posted - 07/12/2020:  04:33:59

I've been thinking for a while to post an English tune played on my 7-string. Your thread may make me put my mind to doing that.

Just an amusing anecdote about contrasting tempo too...for those of us banjo players used to playing high-tempo OT fiddle tunes in sessions and for American-style flatfoot dance, playing for Morris is like someone switched reality onto slo-mo. When I first played for Morris I remember a red-faced, profusely sweating and seriously out-of-breath morris man sidle up to me after a tune at Morris practice and gasp out the barely audible words: "We ain't done it that fast before!"

We live and learn.

Edited by - m06 on 07/12/2020 04:45:46

Hay-on-Wye - Posted - 07/12/2020:  04:44:57

Looking foreword to it!

GrahamHawker - Posted - 07/12/2020:  05:58:16

There must be some tunes that made the transition to clawhammer. The Girl I left Behind Me Comes to mind.

Hay-on-Wye - Posted - 07/12/2020:  06:21:40

youtu.be/oblF9EqE9RA

True

youtu.be/3NPO_xONQVQ

GrahamHawker - Posted - 07/12/2020:  06:47:46

Cuckoo's Nest would be another.

youtube.com/watch?v=Gt36RoKhG6E

Andyrhydycreuau - Posted - 07/12/2020:  07:00:53

@mo6 I'm looking forward to the 7 string tune too!
I have a few English / Welsh tunes on my YouTube, but like Mike 6/8 time is easier on tenor, so much is on my tenor, translated across to 5 string if it works.
Here's "Owen's Jig", "Ap Siencyn" and "Byth Adra" (Clawhammer)
youtu.be/l64p-CVGWZA
youtu.be/O1-p67Fx510
youtu.be/lXXPNy1nyRk
Will Howson, @automaticslim has quite a few in his website too.
Great question Neill!

Remsleep - Posted - 07/12/2020:  09:51:59

A while back I learned "Jamaica" for clawhammer, although I think it's easier in 2FTL. If you're not familiar with the tune, it was the theme music for "Upstart Crow" on Ye Olde BBC.

Hay-on-Wye - Posted - 07/12/2020:  09:53:52

Nice tunes and an even better backdrop in snowdonia, what are the 2 peaks behind you?

hobogal - Posted - 07/12/2020:  10:02:12

I really like Ray Chandler's banjo playing - he plays banjo in English folk band The Rude Mechanicals - he plays fingerstyle but in a rhythmic way  raychandler.net/audio.html

Edited by - hobogal on 07/12/2020 10:03:30

Hay-on-Wye - Posted - 07/12/2020:  11:13:24

Roy chandlers site has some great tunes

m06 - Posted - 07/13/2020:  00:57:53

quote:

---

Originally posted by GrahamHawker

There must be some tunes that made the transition to clawhammer. The Girl I left Behind Me Comes to mind.

---

Many, many tunes from the English (and Scottish and Irish) repertoire transitioned with emigration, contact and assimilation.

The tune The Ship's Carpenter is a one particularly fascinating example to trace that transition right up to the modern day and it's American clawhammer manifestation. 

Andyrhydycreuau - Posted - 07/13/2020:  01:49:04

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hay-on-Wye

Nice tunes and an even better backdrop in snowdonia, what are the 2 peaks behind you?

---

Moel Penamnen on the left, and the rounded one is called Cribau. Just above the A470, a couple of miles north of Blaenau Ffestiniog. And here's a fact: Abraham Lincoln's maternal grandparents lived just over the back of those hills.

Thanks for the comments, tunes mostly from alawoncymru.com, with Byth Adra on the session website.

Andyrhydycreuau - Posted - 07/13/2020:  01:52:44

quote:

---

Originally posted by m06

quote:

---

Originally posted by GrahamHawker

There must be some tunes that made the transition to clawhammer. The Girl I left Behind Me Comes to mind.

---

Many, many tunes from the English (and Scottish and Irish) repertoire transitioned with emigration, contact and assimilation.

The tune The Ship's Carpenter is a one particularly fascinating example to trace that transition right up to the modern day and it's American clawhammer manifestation. 

---

Ship's Carpenter - yes, very interesting. If you've seen the most recent film version of "Far from the madding crowd" with Carey Mulligan, there's a nice version of ships carpenter in the drunken dance scene. 

JSB88 - Posted - 07/13/2020:  08:32:53

I am finding this a very interesting thread. I would like to learn a few English folk tunes and am quite taken with the idea of playing 2ftl on a tenor banjo, as 2 finger picking is what I most enjoy and am best at on the 5 string. Very early on in my banjo days I tried to learn the mermaid but gave up. Now I can’t find the youtube lesson on it.

Andyrhydycreuau - Posted - 07/13/2020:  10:49:52

quote:

---

Originally posted by JSB88

I am finding this a very interesting thread. I would like to learn a few English folk tunes and am quite taken with the idea of playing 2ftl on a tenor banjo, as 2 finger picking is what I most enjoy and am best at on the 5 string. Very early on in my banjo days I tried to learn the mermaid but gave up. Now I can’t find the youtube lesson on it.

---

Hi John,

Here's a tenor banjo tab for the mermaid in GDAE tuning. tenor-banjo-tabs.com/the-mermaid.html

And a video of 2ftl playing it on the five string. youtu.be/BVgidY32fio

Quite often I'll learn the tune on a tenor, then, when the tune is in my head move it over to five string. It's a good way to learn, if you have both banjos. 

Some things sound better staying on the tenor though.

Good luck!

Andy

JSB88 - Posted - 07/13/2020:  11:04:07

Thanks Andy, I’ll give it a go. I’m a 5 string person, I have never even held a tenor banjo but often fancied having a go. It was the flat picking that put me off, never had the imagination to simply 2ftl it. I will give the 5 string versions some active listening and having a bit more skill (?) now will have another go. Thanks

Hay-on-Wye - Posted - 07/13/2020:  14:03:06

Bleu Ffestiniog is a strange place, every time I’ve been there it’s been shrouded in fog. The Main Street has a massive cliff overhanging it yet I keep going back there. I knew a Uilleann pipe reed maker who lived there called Alun Moller. He passed away several years ago now. He’d fallen on hard times and had to move from his lovely house in Rhyd Which looked out towards Snowdon.



I digress, I’m trying to learn the three sea captains in clawhammer, it’s proving to be tricky but he’s a video of a melodeon version I found on youtube

youtu.be/ae4a9okD2xA

Edited by - Hay-on-Wye on 07/13/2020 14:04:32