Monday, September 06, 2010

Time to go ahead and learn "Money Musk" now that I've got the new Folkcraft tuned to AEE

... which gives me the high A at the 10th fret, so the rest of it falls in place and I can play tunes in A major.

Especially since Thomas Jefferson played it ... and notated it (in Amaj) by the way ... http://explorer.monticello.org/text/index.php?id=54&type=5 ... Steve Austin's Vashon Celtic Tunes website has sheet music with A, B and C parts clearly notated and a nice, somewhat slowed-down MIDI file ...

Most listenable version is of Nils Fredland calling Money Musk at the Swallowtail 30th anniversary dance weekend ...

Bring Back Money Musk from John Michael Seng-Wheeler on Vimeo.



A good learning version is Ryan Thompson "Capt. Fiddle" ...



It's a promo for his website at http://www.captainfiddle.com

Four settings of "Money Musk" played back to back by the Pratie Heads ... from a Scottish strathspey ... a couple of Southern versions ... and a very fast New England contradance version. Personnel: Bob Vasile, guitar; Jane Peppler, fiddle; Jim Baird of Mappamundi, acoustic bass.



A strathspey is a dance in 4/4 time, a little slower than a hornpipe and played with a lot of syncopation (at least for Celtic music). Thw Pratie Heads play theirs with a lot of lilt, very hard on the downbeat, lots of syncopation, good example of "Scotch snap" ... lots of drone throughout

No comments: