A great tune suggested to me by a fellow Franco-Ontarion.
Posts Tagged ‘violoneux’
Tune 41: Le reel de ma tante Lydia
Posted in Québécois/Canadien français/French Canadian, tagged canadien francais, fiddle, fiddle tune, fiddle tunes, french canadian, french canadian fiddle tune, french canadian fiddle tunes, instrumental, musique trad, musique traditionnelle, quebec, Quebecois, reel de ma tante lydia, trad, violoneux on March 13, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Tune 25: Reel Sherbrooke
Posted in Québécois/Canadien français/French Canadian, tagged canadien francais, fiddle, fiddle tune, fiddle tunes, french canadian, french canadian fiddle tune, french canadian fiddle tunes, Genticorum, musique traditionnelle, Pascal Gemme, quebec, Quebecois, reel Sherbrooke, trad, violoneux on February 4, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Tune 25 – a milestone! Only 75 tunes to go. I have to stop learning bluegrass tunes in A for a while because they’ve all melded together, so unless there’s someone to prompt me, I can’t remember how a bunch of them start off the top of my head (but strange how my fingers know what to do once my ears recognize the first few notes.)
Reel Sherbrooke is a very popular traditional Québécois tune. Pascal Gemme, an excellent fiddler who plays with a truly wonderful band called Genticorum has a blog where he’s posted sheet music of about fifty traditional Quebec tun.
Tune 4: Le reel du pendu (Hangman’s reel)
Posted in Québécois/Canadien français/French Canadian, tagged canadien francais, fiddle, fiddle tune, fiddle tunes, french canadian, french canadian fiddle tune, french canadian fiddle tunes, musique trad, musique traditionnelle, quebec, Quebecois, trad, violoneux on January 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Swing la baguette dans l’fond d’la boêtte à bois!
Day 4, tune 4. And it’s non other than the hangman’s reel, le reel du pendu, a fun tune from Quebec. I’m even more excited about this tune than I have been for Jerusalem Ridge, that’s how good it is. And on top of that, it’s a suggestion from my sweetheart and a tune my friend and mentor MC Marteau and I had meant to work on over last summer. So it’s high time and it’s with great trepidation that I set about tackling this maple syrup and fèves au lard fueled beast.
To whet your appetites, none other than Ti-Jean Carignan.
Things you’ll quickly notice about this tune:
- It’s in an unusual tuning – AEAC# (from your lowest string to your highest)
- You get to pluck your strings with left and right hand!
- The rhythmic phrasing is interesting, so be forewarned – your expectations will go one way and the tune another.
- It’s hard.
I’m practicing very slowly, with the intention of having both bowing and fingerings well ingrained before speeding up. I am very thankful to this fiddler, Tania, who learned it from Pierre Schryer. She does it a breakneck speed, looks completely relaxed doing it and then kindly offers a tutorial on it (one of the best instructional videos I’ve seen, actually). I highly recommend her video, whether you are a Hangman expert or beginner.
A quick report on the progress of tunes one to three: I practiced, I swear. Though after this, I feel I should give them another whirl or two. A friend of mine came over to jam, and though he called it the ‘bane of [his] existence’, agreed to play Shady Grove with me and let me squeak and squeel as I tried to figure out a (vocal) harmony for the chorus. And of course, we played it in none of the four keys I have previously practiced it in (in Am this time). Be careful what you wish for…
