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Author Topic: The Butterfly  (Read 1687 times)

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arty

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The Butterfly
« on: April 22, 2014, 09:14:08 PM »

I am trying to learn "The Butterfly", from Dave Mallinson's English Pub Session Tunes book and I am finding it a bit tricky. Some of the chords as written in the music don't seem to fit and I am finding it difficult to work out the fingering. Has anyone here recorded it on You Tube?

I have found only one recording on You Tube which doesn't help much as I can't see the bass side of the instrument. I am playing a D/G instrument.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

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Stiamh

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Re: The Butterfly
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2014, 09:52:02 PM »

I'm curious to see the chords that don't fit, any chance you could show them to us?

As a C#/D player I have no choice but to play the melody all on the D row bar a couple of notes (Cnat and some F#s for smoothing or chordal purposes) but it works very well there. B minor is a very useful chord to have for this tune, which you may not have on your D/G. But actually since (in my opinion) a bass-chord dum-ti dum-ti l/h accompaniment would put lead slippers on this graceful melody, you could stick mainly to bass notes, in which case you can have a B bass to suggest a Bm chord against some of the F#s in the melody.

This is probably of no great help but I thought I'd get the ball rolling. :-)

Theo

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Re: The Butterfly
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2014, 10:06:19 PM »

I think that is helpful Steve.  But on a DG the B bass is on push so it may mean crossing to the G row to get the treble B or G on push.
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arty

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Re: The Butterfly
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2014, 10:34:01 PM »

Thank you Steve.

On the fourth bar, (last bar) of the A section, the treble notes are as follows: b  c#  d  b  a  f  a
                                                                  the chords written underneath: G               D
I am playing that bar on the D row.

What I am doing is playing the chords which sound better to my ears:           E, D chord, D, B chord, D, D chord

(I hope I have written that right, it's too late to get my melodeon out. I live in a flat!)

Thanks so much for trying to help
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JohnAndy

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Re: The Butterfly
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2014, 10:51:45 PM »

I suspect you're actually playing E, A chord, D, Em chord, D, D chord

You'll be pulling to get the C-sharp, so if you finger the D-push-chord button you'll get an A chord instead (you could get a D chord on the pull by using the other button, the one that give a G-chord on the push, but that would sound a bit odd against this C-sharp, so I don't think that's going to be what you're doing).

And you'll also be pulling to get the B on the D row, so your chord will come out as Em not B.

Anyway, if that's what you're doing, I agree that it sounds pretty good here. That's one of the joys of the instrument - you can mess around and find chords that you like, no need to stick what it says in the book :-)
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JohnAndy

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Re: The Butterfly
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2014, 11:19:40 PM »

For those who don't have the book, and to avoid confusion, here's the bar in question, with Mally's chords.

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Stiamh

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Re: The Butterfly
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2014, 03:54:51 AM »

I don't object to Mally's chords in that bit but I do think the tune sounds better if you leave out the c# and play d instead (i.e. B2d d2B AFD)

Here are some chords you can try - fresh from a quick run through in the basement. I'm sure they could be improved. As I said earlier bass notes alone work well, which gets around the problem of your B chord being major. Also on your D/G box you can play the F# on the D row against the B bass.

Let's call the key Em (not dorian) and in case anyone thinks (as I used to do) that the c-nat in line 2 is a mistake, or a liberty taken by the Bothy Band, well I have it on very good authority (namely a journal article by Micheal O Suilleabhain) that the composer, Tommy Potts, put that c-nat in the tune because he was fascinated by effect of the minor second that he had heard in the well-known funeral dirge!

Actually to say Tommy Potts composed it is a bit of stretch - he took parts from two existing jigs (which you can find in the Ceol Rince na hÉireann books) and added a few bits - mainly the second part if I recall correctly. Anyway I ramble.


   Em  G    Bm E    G    D     Em  G    Bm G          D
|:B2E G2E F3|B2E G2E FED|B2E G2E F3|B2d d2B AFD:|

   Em                        D    E               G          D
|:B2c e2f g3|B2c g2e dBA|B2c e2f g2a|b2a g2e dBA:|

   G  Em  G     G  Em   D     G  Em  G     G    Em  D     
|:B3 B2A G2A|B3 BAB dBA|B3 B2A G2A|B2d g2e dBA:|
« Last Edit: April 23, 2014, 03:56:38 AM by Steve Jones »
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arty

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Re: The Butterfly
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2014, 02:03:24 PM »

I suspect you're actually playing E, A chord, D, Em chord, D, D chord



You are absolutely right JohnAndy, thank you for putting me right! That is exactly what I am doing. It does sound good doesn't it - I shall continue with that then and ignore the written chord suggestions.

Steve Jones, thank you for all your help too, I shall try your suggestions. When I have learned the tune and I can play it confidently, I shall experiment with the bass line. I agree with you, that an oom pah bass spoils the flow of the melody. I want to learn this tune because it is a popular one in my local session, when I probably won't need to play the bass at all - the two guitars are probably enough.
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