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[forrest]

That's a lovely sounding box, and your tasteful playing has turned an old tune I've taken for granted into something quite special. Great choice of bass chords.

What he said - a gorgeous sound, and harmonies a little off the beaten track which still fit nicely.

Thanks for the kind comments....I'm quite pleased with the box, and it will hopefully improve when I perform my finish tuning on it. As for the harmonies, I confess that it's what I hear. So many of these tunes have fantastic melodic possibilities, I can't resist experimenting! If they are not politically correct, just allow that I am a foreign hillbilly and don't know any better

[forrest]

Another couple of band and session favourites, and a bit seasonal:

Fireside Polka and Albert Farmer's Bonfire Tune

Great set of tunes!

Great stuff from Anahata and j.w.forrest!

Here's my offering:

http://www.onmvoice.com/play.php?a=72655

A slightly spoof tune I wrote some years ago - 'My Love She's Fed on Lassie'.

Very nice Chris!

[Ellisteph]

Great stuff from Anahata and j.w.forrest!

Here's my offering:

http://www.onmvoice.com/play.php?a=72655

A slightly spoof tune I wrote some years ago - 'My Love She's Fed on Lassie'.

Great tune Chris; even better title! You must write some more.

[Chris Brimley]

Thanks, Ellisteph and J.w.forrest.  Can I just share something about this tune? - Obviously, I wrote it as an alternative to a similar tune with a similar name, recommended in the EFDSS CDM book 1 as a tune for Cumberland Square Eight ('..or any 32 bar reel or jig').  For many years, I played in bands where we followed those recommendations, and started with the original reel, then changed to a jig such as Atholl Highlanders (which apart from being a great tune, has the added benefit of being 64 bars long, as is the dance).  But I've always found in playing or dancing this that the reel rhythm just doesn't fit the galoping across, and perhaps also the basket, both of which come on the A part of the music.  Jigs would be much better here (which probably is the reason why the change to Atholl H is always popular with the dancers), though for the B parts reels are fine.  Has anyone else found this too?

So after all these years, I think I'm going to re-arrange my tune so that the A part is a jig.  (We have a gig on Saturday, and if I can persuade the rest of the band to play it, I'll let you know whether it works!)

[Ziachmusi/Louise]

Here's a 32 bar Polka written by Dave Ball (the Well Dressed Band). It was on the music sheets he brought to Folk Camp Germany this year but sadly one of the tunes we didn't get round to. So I thought I'd learn it for ThOTM
The Curry Polka by Dave Ball
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69gbzwkfGUk&feature=channel_video_title

Enjoy!

[boxcall]

Here's an offering for this theme, played on an old (20's or 30's) Supertone in Bb/Eb. This box is a project that I have been working at quite slowly due to heavy work schedule in the world of getting by. It's the Ballydesmond Polka #3, which makes a good set when played with #1. Would have done that, but my playing of #1 is not so good at the moment.

                         http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vhKR4EOKg1Y

Nice sound !!  I think that you play Ballydesmond #1 really well ! Sounded like that to me.

[Pete Dunk]

Enjoy!

I did! I don't suppose there's any chance of an ABC or the dots? 

[Graham Spencer]

A few to go at here, all played on the Dino Baffetti Black Pearl III:

Two tunes from the Yorkshire Dales, Buttered Peas, and another one (I can't remember what it's called!). Cracking tunes for the dance called Buttered Peas!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTHZQ9g902E

Nice, jolly playing!  

In case you've got the order muddled in your head, Buttered Peas is actually the second tune in your set. Of the first tune: the A music is from one of a set of polkas called simply "the Kerry polkas", although someone else might know a less prosaic name. However, the B music of that first tune doesn't go with the A music; it seems to be a variant of the B music of 'The Flowers of Edinburgh'.

The second tune is definitely "Buttered Peas"; the first tune is "The Officer's Polka" as played by Tufty Swift on "How to make a Bakewell Tart" - slightly different from (and better than, in my opinion) the version in Dave Townsend's 1st  Collection.

Graham

[pikey]

Thanks Graham, now I remember!  I was always rubbish with the names of tunes :-)

[Ziachmusi/Louise]

Enjoy!

I did! I don't suppose there's any chance of an ABC or the dots? 

no problem

[Mcgrooger]

Here's my contribution to this month's theme. Once through four tunes with a similar feel - Whitehaven Volunteers, Flos Headford's Tanner Man, Michell Soinne's Willie Taylor's High Tea, and Robert Whitehead's Great North Run.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3qntKj57-g
Now then guys and gals (blimey - I seem to be channeling the spirit of Jimmy youknowwho!!) would you say that played at this speed they're polkas or reels?

[Clive Williams]

Hi folks - here's a couple of sets I recorded last night:

First, 2 french style Polkas: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQBVswCYQaE

These are the Knife Edge Polka, a (as far as I know) traditional, possibly Belgian, polka, and Polka Avignon No.2 which I'm sure has a proper name that I don't know. Played on a Castagnari Mory in D/G (first tune in D, second in G) [[ Interestingly, the Knife Edge polka is where the Knife Edge Schottische comes from (2:12 on this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQBVswCYQaE)... for the schottische version I've simply minorised it, and tweaked the rhythm a little. ]] I think the Knife Edge comes from either the On Bouge tune books, or maybe the first Blowzabella tune book. Polka Avignon No.2 is definitely a refugee from the On Bouge tune book, which more than likely means that La Chavannee had something to do with it.

Second, a couple of nice reel-like things: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoT3Bx1VGnw

The Rosetree a standard (and in my opinion underrated) session tune, normally played in D, but here in G since I'm using a G/C 1930's Hohner. And Beetle on the Wine, a cracking tune written by one of my favourite players, Dave Whetstone when he was with the Cock and Bull band, and the Albion Dance Band (which for a time were one and the same thing!). Both of these tunes work great on a standard 2 row 8 bass... 12 basses are not necessary for these tunes at all.

Enjoy,

Clive

[Clive Williams]

Oh, and special bonus, here's a couple of tunes also learned from the Cock and Bull band, which I recorded a while ago to teach to a couple of friends I was playing with in a ceilidh:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HR28MV3ldfs - William Irwin's No.2 and No.3

Sound quality is truly awful, sorry about that, but as a special bonus, the chords I use are plastered over the top of the video which should make following it rather easier. And they are *cracking* tunes. It's played on the Castagnari Mory in D/G.

[howard mitchell]

Here are a couple of tunes, "Jack's Life" and Quigley's Reel.
http://youtu.be/ZO1ei6eUfLY
Recorded directly on a flip camera so the audio is not the best.

Jack's Life is by Ralph Page http://www.phantomranch.net/folkdanc/teachers/page_r.htm and, I believe, was written for Jack Hamilton of the Southerners band. It's published in various books of contra tunes.  I learnt it from the Southerners in the 1970s.

I couldn't remember where I got Quigley's from so I searched for it and, surprise, it was recorded on an LP called Southerners Plus Two Play Ralph Page, EFDSS RP 500, (1969).  So it's probable that I stole the tunes as a set.

Howard
 

[joreema]

Here is another tune from the last years folkcamp in Germany. Its name is "Dear Tobacco" and it is from the Docker m/s, Lake District. This tune is played by the band "The Well Dressed Men" and is arr. by Carolyn Francis. My melodeon is a Delicia Popular in D/G.

This video is the 1387th version. The webcam and me, we weren't friends. And the smiling in the end was important because friends told me to laugh on the videos and I can't smile while playing. Here is the compromise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKiuJ8AiTlY

[Hugh Taylor]

Here's my contribution to this month's theme. Once through four tunes with a similar feel - Whitehaven Volunteers, Flos Headford's Tanner Man, Michell Soinne's Willie Taylor's High Tea, and Robert Whitehead's Great North Run.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3qntKj57-g
Now then guys and gals (blimey - I seem to be channeling the spirit of Jimmy youknowwho!!) would you say that played at this speed they're polkas or reels?

Well I think that a reel counts two lots of four, so played like this these are more like polkas or rants than reels.

[Chris Brimley]

Hugh, great tunes, lovely playing!  I'd say you could rant to those tunes, or polka.  A reel, which I think of as a quick 'mincing' walk, would to my ears be slightly faster.

[Bobtheboat]

@ Joreema , I really enjoyed that, well played! Bob.

[joreema]

Thank You, Bob.

My family forced me to play this tune again. So we made a folkcamp Germany memorial concert in our living room. Unfortunately I was not allowed to make a video with them. They are teens.  But I love to make music with them. My children are Emma (violin), Antonia (tin whistle), Emil (triangle). Lilly and my wife were the groupies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB0LUzgfaKs

[Chris Brimley]

I promised to report on whether my rewrite of 'My Love she's fed on Lassie' for the dance Cumb Sq 8 worked.  (That's with the first half being a jig, the second a reel.) 

Well I'm pleased to say it worked last night, and seemed to bring new life to the dance - they didn't seem to have any trouble with the rhythm change, but just went naturally into the walking, then back into a jig for the gallop across.  In fact they seemed to quite enjoy the effect of the change, judging by the whooping noises you sometimes get at dances!  (And we all managed to play it OK, with minimal rehearsal.)