Here’s some fiddle videos I’ve uploaded recently. They represent about 2 years of me playing fiddle.

3 Reels:

3 Jigs:

It’s been a while since I updated — it always is I’ve been meaning to post these two videos for a while.

The first I did after seeing Breabach play a concert in Wimborne as part of the Celtic Folk club here. They were fantastic. Ewan Robertson plays guitar and sings, Callum MacCrimmon and Donal Brown play pipes, whistles and flutes and the lovely Pasty Reid plays fiddle. Unfortunately Donal wasn’t there, but another fantastic chap took his place (although I can’t remember his name right now). At the concert we indulged in a purchase of their CD – The Big Spree – and it has since (3 weeks now) been a permanent fixture in the car’s CD player. On that CD the band sing a song called The Rolling Hills of the Borders. It was written by Glaswegian Matt McGinn but it’s Breabach’s version that I really like. I attempted my own version (not a patch on their’s but still fun to do).

I also did another music video recently. It’s a couple slides played on the concertina and the fiddle: The Road to Lisdoonvarna and Two Little Boats Went Out to Sea.

In the past six months or so I’ve been half-heartedly trying to learn to play DADGAD guitar. Tuning the guitar to DADGAD provides a very different timbre for accompaniment to songs or melodic instruments: the strings ring out (if you can be accurate with your fingering) and the deep bass provides a lovely accent when needed.

Back in August I posted a cover of Wild Mountain Thyme, which I used a DADGAD guitar to accompany. I used some basic chord for that:

Recently, I’ve been trying to do more finger picking on DADGAD. The video below is Shi Beg Shi Mhor written by Turlough O’Carolan, the blind harpist that lived from 1670 to 1738. The tune is apparently based on a legend about a war between two fairy tribes. It’s a beautiful tune.

I have also been learning to play Paul Brady’s lovely tune, The Lakes of Pontrachain. Paul actually plays it in DADF#AD (Open D) tuning, but it’s just as easy (easier?) to play in DADGAD. The issue with doing a video of that, is that it requires someone to sing the melody

For Christmas I was a very lucky boy. I got myself an Rochelle anglo concertina. It’s like an small accordion – in fact, it’s more like two harmonica’s tied together with bellows. It was pretty confusing to play at first because each button plays a different note depending on whether you are drawing air through the bellows, or pushing air out of the bellows.

Anyway, for the past couple of months I’ve been trying to get a bit better, and I’ve now posted my first recording on YouTube.

The tunes are two jigs – The Swallowtail Jig and Out on the Ocean.

I found that to play the anglo, you have to clear your mind of anything and do your best not to think about whether to draw or push the bellows and just let your arms work it out — that’s why there’s a blank look on my face most of the time!!

The music is available on The Session, although I’ve scored it out below, if you want to play along.

The Swallowtail Jig

Out on the Ocean

As with all the multi-track videos I do now, this was recorded into the computer first (while videoing onto tape) and mixed into an MP3. The video was then captured and synched up. This time I was trying out the trial version of Edit Studio 6 which is why there’s a watermark on the video.

Here’s a couple of jigs I recorded a few weeks ago. The first is the Milltimber Jig, a Scottish Jig in D that I learnt for a Cape Breton workshop I was participating in. The second is a jig called The Rambler that I learnt quite a few months ago when I was learning to play in the key of E.

Milltimber Jig

The Rambler

No, no. No baby on the way. I’ve now been playing the violin for 9 months. I realised I haven’t done a violin video since way back in April, so I thought I better fix it. So here’s two Irish polkas: Dan Mack’s (also known as the Newmarket) and Tourniore Lasses.

The video was created from the first take of both guitar and violin parts; I guess if I’d done more takes I might have gotten them better – particularly the A-part of Tourniore Ladies!

Tourniore Lasses and Dan Mack's Polkas

On Friday, Caroline had a day off and I was still on my week off. The weather was forecast good and so we headed down to the sailing club and out to the boat with Dad. It was calm, sunny and beautiful.

We motored out to the North Channel in Poole Harbour and sailed round, past the Sandbanks’ Ferry and out into Poole Bay. The wind was directly from behind, although barely strong enough, which allowed us to goosewing down towards Studland.

We tacked East and sailed towards Boscombe. The wind began to pick up a little and made for nice sailing. The odd passing cloud gave an indication of things to come, giving us a push of wind.

We tacked back towards Bournemouth as it clouded over more and the wind began to really pick up. We had to reef in the Genoa and main sail. The direction of the wind had changed a bit meaning we were sailing hard into the wind. We tacked inland a little so that we weren’t sailing so close to the wind. However, even reefed in, we were right over, probably flying one of the bilge keels.

At the entrance to Poole Harbour we started the motor so that we could avoid tacking through the busiest part of the area. The sails came down and we motored back to the mooring.

It was a nice sail which got increasingly frantic! Dad was tired at the end, as he is pretty much always in charge of sail trim.

I put a video together of the day:

Just messing about… here’s a reel called The Tap Room played, rather badly, on my mandolin.

I only really picked up my mandolin for the first time in about 3 years about 2 weeks ago. I was actually getting it to steal the pick that was on it, because I’d lost my guitar pick. I realised it was tuned the same as the fiddle and maybe I could get a few tunes out of it. Turns out it’s great fun to play!

Here’s the ABC for The Tap Room, as it’s played here:

X:1
T:The Tap Room (as played by Matt)
M:4/4
R:Reel
K:Edor

E2 Bc dB ~B2 | dB AF DF AF |
E2 Bc dB ~B2 | dB A=c BE ED |
E2 Bc dB ~B2 | dB AF Dz fg |
af ge fd ec | dB AF DF AF  

(3Bcd ef gf ec | dB AF DF AF |
Bd ef gf ec | dB A=c BE ED |
B2 ef gf ec | dB AF Dz fg |
af ge fd ec | dB AF DF AF 

…and if you prefer the dots:

The Tap Room (reel)

Note that I’ve put some possible ornamentations into the first notes of phrases in the B-part. Feel free to use your own.

On Saturday, Daisy, Dad and I went out sailing on the boat. Dad did his back in earlier in the week so I was officially capt’n, but not knowing a sodding thing about what I was doing meant that every decision I made I consulted with Dad!

We were able to sail as soon as leaving the mooring and sailed out past Poole Bar, where the Sandbanks Ferry and Harry Redknapp’s house is, and sailed straight up to Old Harry Rocks near Swanage. That tooks about an hour and we turned around and headed back.

As we were sailing back through Poole Bar, avoiding the jet skiers, the other yachts and the fast ferry to France, Dad noticed that one of the metal wires that stops the top of the mast bending too much (I can’t remember the name of it now) had come off! When the boat’s listed over to one side, all the pressure is on the windward side of the boat and the wires go slack on the opposite side. However, they’re not supposed to come adrift. We quickly took the sails down and motored back to the mooring from there.

Once stopped, it wasn’t too hard to get the wire back in its rightful place although it was clear that a small piece of plastic had become brittle and broken off. Dad is hoping to get a replacement soon, although how we intend to get it into the appropriate place near the top of the mast is another thing!