Hi all,

Just posted this tune elsewhere but thought some of you here might enjoy it too.
  Topsy.pdf (Size: 216.78 KB / Downloads: 21)



 It was composed by Ian Holmes, an excellent accordion player from Dumfries, for a very playful kitten.

It can be simplified if you wish and the chords aren’t strictly necessary if you play the tune on the fiddle. There are a few recordings on You Tube but this one is quite straight forward..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p-JR16g7tw

Hi,

I’m learning a set comprising Scarse O Tatties into The Athole Highlanders but I’m really struggling to get my speed up while keeping the rythme. I’m trying a metronome on my phone. Anyone have any advice on practice exercises I could do to help me get my speed up? 

I’d love to get it to this speed https://youtu.be/Kw1l6mdZ9-E

Many thanks

Alice

Niels Jorgensen's Polka (Sweden)




I used to play this in a folk group back in the 1990s, and I've always liked it. Click on the image to access PDF downloads.

I'm in the early stages of organising a mixed instrument workshop in Cairnbaan, beside the Crinan Canal in Argyllshire. At the moment I'm looking at mid-August. As you might know, I like to have themes for my workshops, so I'm thinking about what theme I could use. Perhaps "Canals" or tunes from the area. I'm still thinking... (Any suggestions welcome!). The format would be from about 10.30am to 4pm, with breaks for tea and lunch. I'm hoping to hire part of the Cairnbaan Hotel for the workshop, and there may be rooms available if anyone wished to stay. More details as I firm them up.

Raasay House



I can't remember where I got this tune. Does anyone recognise it? It's part of my Hebridean Hopscotch project, exploring tunes from the Islands.

Robinson County


I got this tune from The Phillips Collection of Traditional American Fiddle Tunes. I think I just changed one note to bring it into the D pentatonic scale completely. A nice easy tune, it still has the joy which I find special in Old Time tunes. Click on the image to access PDFs and an MP3 sound file.

Hi 

I was wondering if anyone regularly plays 250 to Vigo and whether they bar the strings for the B/F, F/C and G/D parts or whether they use separate fingers? I’m struggling to get clear notes when barring as it’s fairly new to me. Any advice would be much appreciated. PDF of music attached. Thank you.

Attached Files

  250 to Vigo Treble.pdf (Size: 137.35 KB / Downloads: 14)

There has been several comments on this forum being a good resource that no one is using, which is very true. 

There are a couple of very good forums on the net, "The Session" mostly Irish and "Mandolin Cafe" "Song of the Week" are two which are great resources and are well used.  
For me sadly their is no similar resource for Scottish music, I have always thought that this forum would fulfil this role given this great website, full of Scottish music, that it is attached to. Nigel put so much into this site which I am sure is appreciated worldwide by those you love Scottish music  as well as all the others Nigel posts for us.

The "Tune of the Week" could fulfil a Scottish version of "Song of the Week" with participants taking part in submitting their own rendition of the given tune.

To this end I will propose a little Jig by Andrew Rankine called The Weaver and his Wife"  I have attached the dots along with mandolin tabs
enjoy. 

look forward to hearing members take on this tune.
 
Alcluith

Attached Files

  Weaver and his Wife.pdf (Size: 39.76 KB / Downloads: 10)

For a while, I have been looking for the tune "Iona Theme" by Billy Jackson of Ossian, just cannot find it anywhere on the internet.
I have the other two tunes  "The Cunning Workman" and "Columba" which is parts of  Ossian's  "Iona Theme" on their Album "Dove Across The Water".
sadly still do not have the skills to play by ear yet so still need the music.

Alcluith

On this day (26th March) in 1834, Jean Armour, wife of the poet Robert Burns, died. Burns wrote a few songs for her, including I Love My Jean which was written to the tune of Miss Admiral Gordon's Strathspey. The tune is still well known today, usually given the first line of the song as a title:

I Love My Jean 

Of a' the airts the wind can blaw,  
I dearly like the West; 
For there the bony Lassie lives, 
The Lassie I lo'e best: 
There's wild-woods grow, and rivers row, 
And mony a hill between; 
But day and night my fancy's flight 
Is ever wi' my Jean. 

I see her in the dewy flowers, 
I see her sweet and fair; 
I hear her in the tunefu' birds, 
I hear her charm the air: 
There's not a bony flower that springs 
By fountain, shaw, or green; 
There's not a bony bird that sings 
But minds me o' my Jean.