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Subject: Speed The Plough key From: Zany Mouse Date: 24 Feb 06 - 03:12 PM Please help with this little problem. Which key is Speed The Plough normally played at sessions? I presume D or G - but which? I can't play by ear so I need to learn it from the dots and I'm hopeless at transposing 'on the hoof', so I need to get the key right before I learn it. Many thanks Catters. Rhiannon |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: GUEST,Maurice Date: 24 Feb 06 - 03:19 PM Usually G, I think. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Crane Driver Date: 24 Feb 06 - 03:39 PM We play in it G. But no-one ever accused us of playing 'normally' Andrew |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Chris Green Date: 24 Feb 06 - 03:52 PM I've always heard it in G and a quick glance through O'Neill's seems to back this up. However thesession.org has it in A! |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Zany Mouse Date: 24 Feb 06 - 03:52 PM Thanks both - G it is. Don't worry Andrew, I'll try and play it as abnormally as possible at Easter! lol Rhiannon |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Zany Mouse Date: 24 Feb 06 - 03:54 PM Thanks DB. I can understand about the A key as the Irish Fiddler has it in A but I decided not to go with that as I want to be able to play along with Melodions. Rhiannon |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 24 Feb 06 - 04:18 PM Whatever key happens to suit the instruments and the instrumentalists. The assumption that there is a single right key for a tune is not really sustainable. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: GUEST,session regular in Chicago Date: 24 Feb 06 - 04:36 PM Depends on which "Speed the Plough" you're talking about. There are at least two very distinct tunes, one in G, and one in D, that go by that name and occasionally come up in sessions. The A tune mentioned above could be based on either of these, or it could be yet another tune going under the same name. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: GUEST Date: 24 Feb 06 - 08:09 PM |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: GUEST,Jack Campin Date: 24 Feb 06 - 08:10 PM In Kerr's "Merry Melodies" it's in A, so I guess that's the Scottish way to do it. It's not a tune I've heard much in Scotland, though. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Leadfingers Date: 24 Feb 06 - 08:17 PM IF you are at a Melodion Inclined sssion , it would be in G , But Us Smart Arses wouldnt care about the key - We'd just play it ! |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: GUEST Date: 25 Feb 06 - 03:39 AM Repaet after me, it's melodEOn not melodIOn, and they are never found at sssions :-) |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: GUEST,Tim Date: 25 Feb 06 - 04:57 AM |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Andy Jackson Date: 25 Feb 06 - 05:28 AM Ah the joy of the English language....I could even understand the meaning of Repaet despite the misspelling!! Tee Hee.... By the way I'm prakersin speade th plowe in G and perhaps D if I can find it!! |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Mooh Date: 25 Feb 06 - 07:14 AM Fiddler's Fake Book has it in A as well, fwiw. Mooh. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Zany Mouse Date: 25 Feb 06 - 07:19 AM Thanks to everyone. As I want to be able to play along with melodEOns, even though my instrument is fully chromatic (please note, Leaden-one), I've decided to learn the tune in G. Thanks, again, for all your help (including the spelling lesson). Now - can anyone teach me to play by ear please? Rhiannon |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Dave Hanson Date: 25 Feb 06 - 07:43 AM Most of the written down versions are in A, it's the fault of bleedin box players that everyone thinks it should be in D or G eric |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Leadfingers Date: 25 Feb 06 - 08:05 AM The Melodeon Police insist on D and G - Us mandolin and whistle players dont care . And isn't it strange that it's a Hell of a lot easier to type when its NOT just about midnight after an evening in a pub !! |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Lester Date: 25 Feb 06 - 09:42 AM I'm getting a Streb E-Melodeon which can play in just about any key and is adjustable +/- half a tone for you mando players who can't tune. Speed the Plough in Eb anyone? |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Leadfingers Date: 25 Feb 06 - 09:58 AM OK Lester -- Speed the Plough in Eb next wednesday at Uxbridge ? |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Lester Date: 25 Feb 06 - 01:36 PM Not got it yet but may make Uxbridge |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Mrs.Duck Date: 25 Feb 06 - 02:12 PM I can do it in Eb on the sax but usually do it in G on concertina. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: treewind Date: 26 Feb 06 - 01:22 PM "Now - can anyone teach me to play by ear please?" Sit in sessions listening and trying to join in with what you can, for hours on end at every festival or other gathering you can find, and after a few years you'll start to develop the required skill. Worked for me, anyway. Being a music reader, learning tunes by ear didn't come easily. After a while, you find that many tunes are built up from patterns of notes like Lego blocks, so you learn phrases rather than lots of disconnected notes. (in other words, just like everything else, it's all a matter of practice) Anahata |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: greg stephens Date: 26 Feb 06 - 02:23 PM Any half way decent D/G melodeon player can play "Speed the Plough" in G or A/ It sunds great played in A on fiddle and melodeon, so that's what I would recommend. But G is fine too. "Speed tyhe Plough" is like "Miss McLeod": A and G are both popular. Of course, an ideal solution would be to play it a couple of times in G and then change to A, always a thrilling key change if fiddles are invoved, because of the open strings in A. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: jonm Date: 26 Feb 06 - 03:39 PM Five times through, in F, C, G, D and A. It sounds like it's getting faster, even when it isn't. |
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Subject: RE: Origins: Speed the Plough (or Plow if you pref From: Joe Offer Date: 05 Apr 07 - 02:15 PM MMario sent me this MIDI, which is from Snuffy's transcription of the singing of Geoff Higginbottom. Click to play |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: GUEST,terrier Date: 05 Apr 07 - 02:54 PM Different version of Speed the Plow to the usual sesion tune (the MIDI is in the key F). I have played both Scottish versions and English versions. Mostly A and G respectively. Mostly when I've heard it at sesions, its been played by melodeon people who play it VERY slow, in that case I call the tune 'Drag the Plow'. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: leeneia Date: 05 Apr 07 - 11:44 PM If you want to learn how to play by ear, you should start with something something simple, like a ballad or hymn. Fast fiddle tunes, which have a plethora of eighth-notes and are hard to remember, are not the place to start. So think of pretty songs and just try playing sounding them out. If a song just won't come, then try another key (different starting note). When they do come, play them often enough to get them memorized. When you are sounding a song out and find yourself playing a sharp or flat, make a mental note of it. That sharp or flat is a clue to the key, and the key is clue to the rest of the song. The more you do it, the easier it gets. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 06 Apr 07 - 12:25 AM That midi isn't 'Speed the Plough' at all; or, at any rate, it isn't the well-known dance tune of that name. What it is is a song more usually called 'The Farmer' or 'The Farmer's Toast', which used to be quoted on ceramic drinking mugs and the like, frequently accompanied by the motto 'God Speed the Plough', from the mid 18th century up to the late 19th. Thomas Hardy knew it. It appeared on broadsides, too; see Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads: The Farmer Some traditional singers learned words off a mug and made up or adapted their own tunes; Geoff is a revival singer, though, and so far as I know he learned the song from Marrow Bones, a book published by the English Folk Dance and Song Society back in 1965. It was edited by Frank Purslow, and consisted of songs from the collections made by George Gardiner and Henry and Robert Hammond in the first decade of the 20th century, mostly in Hampshire and Dorset. 'The Farmer's Toast' in that book was noted by Dr Gardiner and J F Guyer, from Frank Gamblin at Portsmouth Workhouse in 1907. Think of this as an advert for the forthcoming re-issue of Marrow Bones, in a revised edition prepared by Steve Gardham and me, a little later this spring. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Les in Chorlton Date: 06 Apr 07 - 03:52 AM Simon Care's band Ticled Pink play a great version of Speed the Plough. It's a bit quick and they call it Plough the Speed. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Leadfingers Date: 06 Apr 07 - 08:33 AM And didnt Three Mustaphas Three call it Speed the Tractor ? |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: leeneia Date: 06 Apr 07 - 10:57 AM "That midi isn't 'Speed the Plough' at all; or, at any rate, it isn't the well-known dance tune of that name." Thanks, Malcolm. Yesterday I couldn't get that MIDI to play, but today I got it to work by opening it in a new window. It's a nice song. I think my early music group would get a kick out of something off a beer mug. Now that I've heard that song, I think it would be a good candidate for playing by ear. (It's in the key of F and starts on a C.) |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: MMario Date: 06 Apr 07 - 11:01 AM my fault - I forgot to give Joe the link to the thread where Snuffy had posted the tune for the song; which is *not* the dance tune. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Old Grizzly Date: 06 Apr 07 - 12:02 PM Widely known as Speed the Melodeon .... and always but, always played far too fast at sesssions - Try it at half 'session speed' and add a bit of emphasis and lift Dave |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Arkie Date: 07 Apr 07 - 10:43 AM According to the Fiddler's Companion, there are five tunes called Speed the Plow. Some versions are also known by other names. Speed The Plow |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: mick p r.m s.c Date: 07 Apr 07 - 02:38 PM SPEED THE PLOUGH seems like a popular song. Anyone got the words and tune. Might be OK for a Morris tune,we are always looking for something new to dance to. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Schantieman Date: 07 Apr 07 - 03:48 PM Isn't the whole point of the Morris that it's a traditional dance form and there are traditional tunes for each dance? Apart from using some unusual tunes for a larf sometimes surely we shoul dbe preserving the trad tunes that go with the dances. Discuss. Oh, and another thing: It's not Speed the PloW it's Speed the PloUGH, since it's an English, or possibly Scottish, tune. (Gets off hobbyhorse and ducks behind the battlements).... Steve |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: treewind Date: 08 Apr 07 - 04:04 AM I looked behind the battlements and I saw no ducks. Lots of rabbits though (Easter bunnies) Your hobby horse has run off with the morris men. Anahata |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: GUEST Date: 08 Apr 07 - 04:23 AM To learn to play by ear: 1 listen to tune. 2 listen to tune a lot (record and play back if necessary) 3 hum along to tune until you know it 4 hum on your own 5 pick up instrument 6 pick out tune slowly, note by note, using hum as a guide 7 stup humming 8 practice until up to speed |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: GUEST,ME Date: 08 Apr 07 - 05:17 AM Steve - isn't the early English form of plough, "plow" (as in Piers Plowman)? Just a thought (or thowt) Martin |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Old Grizzly Date: 08 Apr 07 - 02:22 PM Guest "learn to play by ear...etc.... no 8 practice until up to speed May I submit a no. 9 ... Never exceed the speed limit Dave |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: leeneia Date: 08 Apr 07 - 09:35 PM Very good advice about playing by ear, but there is one possible hitch. Suppose someone records a tune in B flat and someone else comes along and tries to sound it out on a D whistle. There will probably be a lot of frustration, and the beginner might falsely conclude that she just can't play by ear. In this case, I say, get the tune memorized, then sound it out a considerble time (will vary with the individual) after listening to the recording, so as to let the original key be lost to memory. Other than that, very good advice. |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Lady Nancy Date: 09 Apr 07 - 08:53 AM For a real laugh, learn it on a fiddle in D, then using the exact same fingering on a fiddle, move to the G or A string and Lo! You can now play it in THREE keys!!! Impressive...? Sounds good, though... LN x |
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Subject: RE: Speed The Plough key From: Bernard Date: 09 Apr 07 - 09:12 AM Speed the Pluff is one of those tunes that works as a reel or a slow hornpipe equally well - in fact, I've even played it as a waltz when stuck for a waltz tune at a ceilidh...! Try playing the Keel Row as a reel, and it doesn't reely work! Ahem... I usually play it in G whether on the accordion, Anglo concertina or melodeon, and that's the key we use when doing the Morris. |
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