DADGAD Guitar - Leaving Out the 3rd

Irish backup accompaniment - whether it's on guitar, bouzouki, or some other instrument - is a mystery to me.  Which is why I'm glad I play melody.  Although I do think it's good to have some idea of what the other instruments in the ensemble are doing.  This can help you play your own instrument better.

For this reason, I was searching online about DADGAD guitar last weekend.  All I really knew about DADGAD guitar was that it was an open tuning and that you often leave the third of the chord.  I know enough basic music theory to grasp what leaving out the 3rd means.  The 3rd is the note that makes a chord sound major or minor.  The notes in a D chord are D, F# and A, with F# being the 3rd.  When you leave out the 3rd it gives the chord a droning, power chord quality that suits Celtic music.

What I didn't know was what you replace this note with.  I found a page devoted to DADGAD guitar that suggests there is a formula.  Michael Eskin says that as a general rule, when in DADGAD he replaces the 3^rd of the chord with either the root, the 5^th, the 7^th or 9^th depending on what's easiest to play, what suits the melody, and/or what reinforces the tonal root of the tune.

For the D chord you would replace any F#’s in your typical chord shape with one of the following notes:  D, A, C or E.  (D is the root note, A is the 5 of the chord, and C or E are the 7 or 9 notes one whole step away on either side of D).  It doesn’t really matter if you are doubling up or tripling up the D or the A notes – that helps the root tone of the chord ring out.  If you can get by on just the notes D and A for your "D" chord - such as DDDAAD - those will work fine.

A Gmajor chord would typically use the notes G, B and D.  Using this same formula, when you need to make a G chord in the key of D you’ll remove the B note and replace it with either G, D or A.  Why A?  Because this G chord is being used in the role of the IV chord in the key of D, using an A note makes sense because the sound of the A will reinforce the D note to which the tune centers around and resolves to.  GDDGAD.

This might be an oversimplification, and there's a good chance I misinterpreted the instructions.  At the very least, I think I know know a little bit more than I did before.  I would like to hear what others thoughts are on this.

Traditional Irish Band Kind Stranger debuts this Friday at Beers and Banjos

Beers and Banjos is a great Richmond, VA music series.  Every Friday evening from 6 to 8pm The Camel features a roots-music act free of charge – bluegrass, folk, oldtime, Western Swing, Americana…or in the case of this Friday, Irish music!  Did I mention it’s always free?!  Talk about a happy hour.  Usually there's a banjo present, but it’s not a requirement.

A new band called Kind Stranger is making its debut at Beers and Banjos this Friday, May 24, 2013.  The group consists of some of the top Irish traditional musicians in our local area.  How do I know this?  Because I’m fortunate enough to get to sit in with most of them every 2^nd and 4^th Wednesday evening at an informal Irish session at Rosie Connolly’s pub in the Bottom.  Sessions are different than gigs though.  In a performance setting with nothing to hold them back these these cream-of-the-crop players should really be able to shine.

Kind Stranger image from Facebook. Doesn't resemble anyone in the band.

I’m still not exactly sure what Kind Stranger will sound like.  The only description given on the Facebook event page is ‘traditional Irish Music and a few originals’.  I do know that most, if not all, of the band members have a musical life beyond Irish trad, so there could be quite an eclectic mix in store.  We’ll find out on Friday I suppose.

Kind Stranger consists of:

Andy Cleveland - Fiddle

Jeff Brown - Banjo (and Beer!)

Glenn Sutor - Bouzouki, Bodhran, and Vocals

Sean Sutor - Button Accordion, Whistle and Vocals

Paul Willson - Guitar and Vocals

Jerry Garcia Video on Improvisation

I had heard about about a BBC documentary on improvisation from the 1980's that featured an interview with Jerry Garcia.  It took a bit of searching to track the video down, so I am linking it to it here for future reference.

The documentary is called Derek Bailey: On the Edge and Garcia is featured in part 4 of 5.  I watched a little bit of some of the other segments and it looks like an interesting film as a whole.

The part with Garcia starts at about a minute and 45 seconds into the clip and runs for about 10 minutes.

Derek Bailey: On the Edge (Part 4) from Andy Wilson on Vimeo.

In related content, here's a link to a well researched New Yorker article by Nick Paumgarten on the recorded legacy of the Grateful Dead.  Breaking from the norm a bit on this Sunday morning.

Some More Recordings with the Olympus LS-14

Most evenings Laura and I will spend at least an hour playing some tunes and practicing together.  On 4/30/13 and 5/1/13 I recorded those practice sessions using my Olympus LS-14 digital recorder.  I placed the recorder on the coffee table in front of us, in between our two instruments, and recorded live with no overdubs or editing of any kind.  Here are some excerpts from those recordings.

Shoes and Stockings - an oldtime tune in G that I heard on some Alan Jabbour and Bertram Levy recordings.  It's also played at the Cary St. Cafe Oldtime jam. Currently one of my favorite tunes. I play tenor banjo and Laura plays baritone uke.


I Buried My Wife and Danced on Her Grave - a great Irish jig in D (as if there aren't enough of those).  Mick Moloney plays tenor banjo on it on the CD Live at Mona's.  I'm playing tenor banjo and Laura is playing bodhran.


Saturday Night Breakdown - a ragtimey oldtime tune in C (aren't all fiddle tunes in C sorta ragtimey?) that I got out of the All-In-One-Jam book from Celestial Mountain Music.  I play tenor guitar and Laura is playing her concert scale uke since this is in the key of C.


Paddy Has Gone to France - a short Irish reel from Brian Connolly's book "Play Tunes on the Irish Tenor Banjo".  I managed to get in a few triplets!  Speed this one up to 140% and it almost sounds like we know what we're doing. Laura on bodhran, and me on tenor banjo.


Grasshopper Sitting on a Sweet Potato Vine - a hypnotic oldtime tune in the key of D, with a subtle change in the B-part as it switches from D to A.  This take is sort of a merger of the Portland Play Along Selection version and Steve Kaufman's arrangement.  More people need to play this one. I'm on tenor guitar and Laura plays baritone ukulele.


The Eavesdropper - Irish jig in G. This also comes from that Brian Connolly tutor. I like to pair this jig with I Buried My Wife.  This recording was actually made on 4/16/13. I'm playing tenor banjo and Laura is playing bodhran.


Home with the Girls in the Morning - dark oldtime tune in Dminor.  Recorded 5/1/13.  I heard this tune being played at the Cary St. Cafe oldtime jam and then looked it up and learned it.  Laura is playing concert scale ukulele since this is in Dminor, and I'm playing tenor guitar.


Humours of Tullycrine - Irish hornpipe/march in Aminor from County Clare. Heard this tune on a Cillian and Nial Vallely CD and had to learn it. Found a slightly different arrangement on Mel Bay's Mandolin Sessions by Michael Gregory. I play tenor banjo and Laura plays baritone uke.  Recorded 4/30/13.

An Traidisiun Beo and Southern Summits - My Go-To Irish and Oldtime Albums

If I could only listen to one album of Irish traditional music and one album of Southern Appalachian oldtime music, to use as sources for learning to play in each style, the choices would have to be Angelina Carberry's An Traidisiun Beo and Alan Jabbour's and Ken Perlman's Southern Summits.

For me, nothing better defines trad music than the sweet sounds of An Traidisiun Beo, the 2005 album of Irish tenor banjo music by Angelina Carberry.  Not too technical, not too fast; just straightforward interpretations of jigs, reels and hornpipes.  On about half the tracks Angelina's banjo melodies are matched with accordion - either played by her husband Martin Quinn or her father Peter Carberry.  On the remaining tunes her lead playing is backed by the subtle guitar or piano of John Blake or the equally subtle bodhran playing of Martin Quinn.  It's on these arrangements - with her easy-going, bouncy plucking front and center - that Angelina really shines.  Many of the unwritten, informal rules of Irish tenor banjo are contained within this album's 27 tunes; a lifetime of learning within its 51 minute playing time.

Alternatively, for Southern Appalachian music the best thing I've heard so far is Southern Summits by fiddler Alan Jabbour and clawhammer banjoist Ken Perlman.  It too was recorded in 2005.  Instead of fiddle leading and banjo seconding, on this album the two instruments are working as equals - in sync and intertwined.  Perlman's melodic clawhammer style may be innovative, but when played alongside Jabbour's stately fiddling it sounds like it was that way all along.  As usual, Jabbour draws heavily on tunes learned from his mentor Henry Reed, but also brings in some from fiddlers Taylor Kimble, Edden Hammons, Vaughn Marley and more.  Since I don't play fiddle or clawhammer banjo, or tune my tenor banjo to anything other than GDAE, it's not as easy to directly hone in on the lead melody as it's played here, but because the two instruments fit so well together, an outline can begin to be drawn by listening to both.

I like how each of these recordings stay true to their respective genres without trying to modernize the music in any way.  In Angelina's case she's more concerned with well-paced, tasteful playing than an inundation of flashy notes.  For Jabbour and Perlman, they sound like a couple friends playing music in a parlor rather than the driving, string band music you hear reverberating around festival campgrounds.  There's something to be said for old school nuance and integrity.

Converting YouTube Videos to MP3 Files

As a traditional musician, it's helpful to record the jams and sessions you attend in the hopes of capturing tunes you might want to learn. These are the folks you're going to be ultimately playing the tunes with, so you might as well learn their versions.

However, you don't really have to do that because chances are you can find multiple videos on YouTube of a similar enough arrangement.  Problem is, these recordings might be too fast, too slow, or have unnecessary fluff before or after the recording you want to listen to.  So what I do is use a site like listentoyoutube.com/ or youtube-mp3.org/‎
to convert the video to an MP3 file.

AudioStretch

Then I use an easy to use free software called mp3DirectCut to trim the selection to just the audio that I need to hear.  Finally, I put the recording on my tablet or smart phone, or send it to my email, so that I can open it in the Amazing Slow Downer or in AudioStretch - both of which are apps that allow you to slow down or speed up a track without changing the pitch.

Now that YouTube video with a bunch of talking before the audio, or a medley of tunes with the one you want to hear in the middle, or a setting that was too slow or too fast, can be trimmed to the part you need and either sped up or slowed down.  You lose the visual component, but it opens up a whole world of Clifftop Festival video field recordings, Irish session videos, how-to videos and more for a headphones jam.

Origins of the Six Water Grog Symbol and Name

Icelandic Road Sign - Lagarfljót worm

The symbol you see being used on this blog is taken from a road sign I came across during a trip to Iceland in May 2008.  The signs were placed around Lagarfljót lake  to indicate good viewing points for the Lagarfljótsormur, a 300 foot long worm monster that lives at the bottom of the lake.  Sightings date back to the 1300's and people are still claiming to catch glimpses of the elusive cryptid to this day.  It's kind of like Iceland's Loch Ness Monster.  

I didn't happen to see the Lagarfljót worm on the day were were there, but I did make note of the cool design on the road sign.  (If you like hiking, there's a challenging and scary path leading from the lake to a lovely waterfall).  I have adopted that design as my personal logo - if that's OK with Iceland - and even had it inlayed onto the headstock of my new Romero tenor banjo!  I'm also considering getting this symbol as a tattoo!

Inlay on Romero banjo

The term Six Water Grog means rum (grog) that has been heavily diluted with water (one part rum, six parts water).  Back in the day, six-water-grog was given to people who were pretty low down the totem pole, as punishment.  I'm using it as a reference to my fairly diluted approach to traditional music.  I come to these traditions as an ignorant outsider or "adult learner" with no formal schooling in music, molding Irish and Appalachian tunes into a blended repertory as it suits my interests.  But, it is fun to experiment like that.

I guess there's no real tie-in between the symbol and the phrase.  Still, they do seem to go well together.