I have been searching for the music for two of Jim reid's songs The Wild Geese/Noran Wind" and  "Up the Noran Water"  I can get the words and chords but cannot find anywhere the music either as sheet music or in a book  Any Ideas?

cheers

Alcluith

Just letting you all know what a great afternoon we had in the Royal Concert Hall this afternoon (Saturday 21st January) at Nigel's workshop.  Record number of players - eighty were counted excluding Nigel - and many different instruments.  People came from far and wide, the furthest being from Spain, and we were taken through three different tunes in Nigel's usual laid-back and totally encouraging style of teaching.

A big thanks from all for a great day, Nigel.

I got a fife in the Greenside car boot sale last weekend.  I can't judge the sizes of fifes and my phone has gone phut so I didn't have a tuner; figured it was going to be in B flat, D or D flat and didn't really care which.

It turned out to be in B, which I wasn't expecting.  It's a Miller Browne plastic one, obviously made on a production line to meet a standard.  (Basic, but it works).

But what standard?  Who uses that pitch?  The BBs maybe?

I have three Susato G recorders surplus to requirements.  I've had them for many years and if you've heard me play you've probably heard them.  Two are altos and one is a sopranino (I'm keeping one of the two sopraninos I have).

Selling because I now have three wooden G altos, two wooden G sopraninos, and a bunch of G ocarinas in both pitches, so I don't still need these.  The wooden recorders are far easier to play in the high register, though much more expensive; the ocarinas are more dramatic in their sound and cost about the same as the Susatos new, but they're heavy, fragile and harder to play.

The point of a G recorder is that its range is a good match for Scottish music - you can play the 9-note pipe scale without overblowing using fingerings that will feel familiar to anyone who knows the pipes, and like the pipes, Renaissance models like the Susato are powerful at the bottom end.  They also cover most of the first-position range of a fiddle and you can do a lot of fiddle tunes that don't fit on a C recorder/D whistle/flute.  (I tried to persuade George Kelischek to market them in tartan plastic to indicate their most appropriate market niche.  He didn't get it).

They have the advantage over a whistle that you can turn on a sixpence to move between A major and A minor.  Hardly any half-holing required.


Physically, the Susatos are just the same as Susato whistles, but with the holes in different places.  This gives them some of the same issues as the whistles - the high end plays harsh and flat unless you know what you're doing (e.g. washing up liquid and the rubber O-ring trick).  Fingering is Renaissance-style, a little bit different to what standard school recorders use, but easy to adjust to.

These are a bit hard to get hold of in shops.  Let me know if you're interested.

Does anyone have the dots and chords for Dream Angus, I have two of the Corrie's books but neither have this lullaby.

cheers
Alcluith

January again, so here's a selection of my favourite Robert Burns Song melodies, featuring the Mandolin, Fiddle, English Concertina & Hammered Dulcimer, with photographs taken in my own north Antrim garden.

A Red, Red Rose, Ae Fond Kiss, Leezie Lindsay, Ye Banks & Braes o' Bonnie Doon, Willie Brew'd a Peck o' Maut, Whistle o'er the Lave o't, Willie Wastle, The Weary Pund o' Tow & Rattlin Roarin Willie.





Cheers,
Dick

Three tunes which really suit the English Concertina: Lamshaws Fancy, Herd on the Hill & Holmes Fancy.

Played on my lovely 1923 62 Key Wheatstone Aeola Baritone / Treble English Concertina.





Cheers,
Dick

Hunting the Wren: A medley of tunes relating to one of our smallest & most fascinating little birds, the Wren, played on Nyckelharpa, Hammered Dulcimer, English Concertina, Mandolin, Whistles & Bowed Psaltery. Photos taken in my garden, here in north Antrim. 

Hunting the Wren: Wales, We'll Hunt the Wren: Ireland, Wren An Dro: Brittany, Hunt the Wren: Isle of Man, Death of the Wren: Scotland & The Wren's Nest: Ireland





Cheers,
Dick

The Christmas Polka ... watch out for the gear change. ;-)

Played on Mandolin, English Concertina, Hammered Dulcimer, Nyckelharpa & Bodhran. 





Cheers,
Dick

The old traditional "Carval ny Drogh Vraane": (Carval of the Wicked Women), from the Isle of Man, which sounds very Breton to my ears, played by me here on Mandolin (Sobell), Hammered Dulcimer (Rick Thum), English Concertina (Wheatstone), Nyckelharpa (Olle Plahn) & Tin Whistle.





Cheers,
Dick