Tunes of the month for the January 2012 Session

From Ayla:

After a bit of discussion at the December session we've decided that we won't specify one tune or the other as the 'easy' tune for the beginners' hour ... mainly because one person's 'easy' is another person's 'hard'!

We are going for a Northumbrian theme for the 10 January 2012 session - the two tunes are Redesdale Hornpipe and Because He Was A Bonny Lad.




1st tune - Redesdale Hornpipe

Written by James Hill, a Scottish fiddler who lived in Gateshead and Newcastle.

Here it is played on the melodeon.

And for those of you who like to see the sheet music (from abcnotation)

And here it is in an abc file.


2nd tune - Because He Was A Bonny Lad

Traditional Northumbrian tune, allegedly in the repertoire of 18th century Northumbrian piper Jamie Allen - but possibly originally of Scottish origin.

The following video shows it played in a two tune set on the melodeon after Whinhams Reel. You will probably need to click through and watch it on Youtube.

And for those of you who like to see the sheet music (from abcnotation.com)

And here it is in an abc file.

Both tunes are also very nicely played in the following clip on cittern - but to note, they're played in the key of A, whereas we'll be playing them in G.

As usual, the sound clips and printed music links aim to give a feeling for how these tunes are currently played in sessions, but they don't of course represent one 'correct' way of playing these tunes.