Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Strigulino]

Just having a go at the Rochdale Coconut Dance lately. The ABC I've found has a chord sequence totally impossible on the box - there's Em chords while playing a D, and a couple of Am in there too.

I've been playing C instead of Am and a D instead of Em in places where I have to play some chord other than Em on the push. Anyone got any tips?

[Ollie]

Here's some basic chords that work. 

X: 1
T: Rochdale Coconut Dance
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
|: [Em]EFGF E2 B2 | EFGF E2 B2 | [C]c2 Ac [G]B2 G2 | [D]AG F2 E2 D2 |
[Em]EFGF E2 B2 | EFGF E2 B2 |[C] c2 Ac [G]B2 G2 | [D]AG F2 [G]G4:|
|: [G]G2 BB G2 B2 |[D] AGFG ABcA | [G]G2 BB G2 B2| [D]AGFE D2 D2 |
[G]G2 BB G2 B2 |[D] AGFG ABcA |[G] BdcB [D]AcBA |[G]G2 B2 G4 :|

[Strigulino]

Yup, that's pretty much how I'd fudged it. Thanks for the confirmation.

[penn]

I'd been getting into ABC recently. I notice that the above representation of chords doesn't display or play chords in the iPad "Tunebook" app.
The spec says chords should have the square brackets as in [Em] (as per Ollie's one) but the ABC's that I have that play and display chords have parentheses I.e. "Em". When I change all the chords in this ABC to have parentheses they do then display and the app plays the chords too.
Can anyone explain this?
Steve

[Strigulino]

Don't know. I use Tunepal myself and that's the same - although I think you mean quotes "" rather than parentheses (). Different spec? Maybe there was some old coding reason.

[Anahata]

In the original ABC standard, chords went in double quotes as described above.
I've never seen the use of square brackets for this; I thought square brackets were for embedding header directives (like key and time signature changes) without having to put them on a line to themselves.

I haven't studied the standard for ABC V2.1 so maybe square brackets for chords are a recent addition.

[Theo]

I had to look this up this week, the latest abc spec still uses quotation marks to denote chords.
Perhaps parentheses are used to add lyrics?

[Lester]

For some reason or other around here we play it with the A and B reversed

X: 1
T: Rochdale Coconut Dance
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
|: "G"G2 BB G2 B2 |"D" AGFG ABcA | "G"G2 BB G2 B2| "D"AGFE D2 D2 |
"G"G2 BB G2 B2 |"D"AGFG ABcA |"G"BdcB "D"AcBA |"G"G2 B2 G4 :|
|: "Em"EFGF E2 B2 | EFGF E2 B2 | "C"c2 Ac "G"B2 G2 | "D"AG F2 E2 D2 |
"Em"EFGF E2 B2 | EFGF E2 B2 |"C" c2 Ac "G"B2 G2 | "D"AG F2 "G"G4:|

[Graham Spencer]

For some reason or other around here we play it with the A and B reversed

X: 1
T: Rochdale Coconut Dance
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
|: "G"G2 BB G2 B2 |"D" AGFG ABcA | "G"G2 BB G2 B2| "D"AGFE D2 D2 |
"G"G2 BB G2 B2 |"D"AGFG ABcA |"G"BdcB "D"AcBA |"G"G2 B2 G4 :|
|: "Em"EFGF E2 B2 | EFGF E2 B2 | "C"c2 Ac "G"B2 G2 | "D"AG F2 E2 D2 |
"Em"EFGF E2 B2 | EFGF E2 B2 |"C" c2 Ac "G"B2 G2 | "D"AG F2 "G"G4:|

Or some others of us think the rest do .  I play the Em paret as the A because a0 that's the way I learned it from the Dave Townsend books and b) I think it gives the tune a more satisfactory structure that way round.  Any road up, I'm not changing now! (Incidentally I use the same chords as Ollie).

Graham

[Anahata]

I've been told the the G major part should be first, but so many people have learned it from Townsend's  book that it's more commonly played that way, even though it's technically wrong.

[Bob Ellis]

My grandmother and great-grandmother both performed this as a song as part of their music hall routines and I have been told that they sang it with the Em part for the verses and the G major part as the chorus. That does not prove, of course, that this was the original order in which the tune was played.

I never met either lady because my grandmother died before I was born. However, my mother told me that the Rochdale dancers learnt the tune from my great-grandmother, Flower Dawes. This is possible because she lived in the vicinity, but it may just be an old wives' tale!

[Graham Spencer]

even though it's technically wrong.

A brave statement!

[Strigulino]

I'm with the Em first brigade. It resolves better with the G at the end.

[Theo]

I heard a similar discussion recently about Calliope House.  Someone in the room had asked Dave Richardson, the composer of the tune, about which order was correct for the parts, and he replied "It's all correct"

[Lester]

I'm with the Em first brigade. It resolves better with the G at the end.

I mostly only ever play it at the end of band bookings where we resolve it by playing the Tip Top Poka after it 

[Mike Hirst]

I'd been getting into ABC recently. I notice that the above representation of chords doesn't display or play chords in the iPad "Tunebook" app.
The spec says chords should have the square brackets as in [Em] (as per Ollie's one) but the ABC's that I have that play and display chords have parentheses I.e. "Em". When I change all the chords in this ABC to have parentheses they do then display and the app plays the chords too.
Can anyone explain this?
Steve

abc:standard:v2.1 is very clear on this:

Chord symbols (e.g. chords/bass notes) can be put in under the melody line (or above, depending on the package) using double-quotation marks placed to the left of the note it is sounded with, e.g. "Am7"A2D2.

curved brackets can be used:

Alternate chords can be indicated for printing purposes (but not for playback) by enclosing them in parentheses inside the double-quotation marks after the regular chord, e.g., "G(Em)". 

http://abcnotation.com/wiki/abc:standard:v2.1#chord_symbols

Square brackets are used to group chords and unisons:

Chords (i.e. more than one note head on a single stem) can be coded with [] symbols around the notes, e.g.

[CEGc]

indicates the chord of C major.

http://abcnotation.com/wiki/abc:standard:v2.1#chords_and_unisons

[penn]

I should know better than to post at that time of the morning

I think you mean quotes "" rather than parentheses (). Different spec?

Yes, I knew that, my brain didn't, sorry.
And I think I was hastily cherry-picking the spec - section 4.17 talks of Chords as a group of seperate notes being wrapped by square brackets,  but it's the next section 4.18 that covers chord symbols expressed inside double quotes. [All covered nicely by Mike's post]

I understand now, but Ii think my initial suspicion that Ollie's abc was wrong is correct and that's why Tunebook didn't play it.
No matter, mystery solved thanks,
Steve

[Anahata]

Chords (i.e. more than one note head on a single stem) can be coded with [] symbols around the notes,

Duh! I knew in the back of my mind there was another use for [] symbols that had something to do with chords.
I've even used that notation myself 
Not the sort of chords that Ollie posted, though.

[Ollie]

In the original ABC standard, chords went in double quotes as described above.
I've never seen the use of square brackets for this; I thought square brackets were for embedding header directives (like key and time signature changes) without having to put them on a line to themselves.

I haven't studied the standard for ABC V2.1 so maybe square brackets for chords are a recent addition.

The square brackets used in my post above was because I couldn't remember what to use, so guessed. 

[Strigulino]

And here's you on a music degree. Tut tut. What are they teaching young people in university today, I ask you.