Transcript The Music of Scotland

The Music of Scotland
Contents page
• The Instruments
• Scottish Scale
• The dances
• The Bands
• Songs
The bagpipes
•
Pipes have been used
throughout the world in
many cultures, although they are mostly thought
of as “Scottish”.
• They consist of a bag (made of
goat once), three drones, a chanter
and a mouthpiece.
• The drones create the loud
tuneless sound, while the chanter
creates the melodies we hear.
• The chanter is often used to teach
beginners how to play the pipes.
The Fiddle
•
The Scots fiddle is used
to play the melody in many
dance bands.
• Although they look like an ordinary violin they
are played with a different technique, with
different styles being played from all over
Scotland.
• The melodies they play are
based on anything, from a
story, to a tribute to a battle.
The Accordion
• The Accordion uses bellows
to suck air in and blow it out
through reeds to create sound.
• On one side it has keys like a
Piano, while on the other side it
has buttons which the player presses to make
chords.
•
The Accordion often plays the
melody in a dance band, as
well
as playing an accompaniment.
The Clarsach
•
The Clarsach is the Scottish
version the harp.
It has 42 strings instead of a harps
74 strings. It is also much smaller.
•
It is used as an
accompaniment instrument
as well as a solo instrument.
• It is leant against the
shoulder while played and
the strings are plucked.
Bodhran
• The Bodhran is a goat skin drum used to
play along with others in a dance or ceilidh
band. It is not hit head on, but struck with
the grain of the skin using a small beater,
called a Bone.
• The drum is circular and thin
and has cross bars across
the back of it to support it.
• It is often decorated
with celtic designs.
Pentatonic Scale…
The word PENTATONIC refers to a 5 note scale used in
many scottish tunes. A standard scale would use
GABDE
And this is found in many songs such as
“the Skye boat Song”
“Auld Lang Syne”
And many other Scottish songs can be played using mostly
these notes with a few extra ones here and there such as…
“Flower of Scotland”
“Ye Banks and Braes”
“Scotland the brave”
“Loch Lomond”
Songs using this scale don’t tend to have a specific Major
or Minor feel to them.
The Dances
• Scottish Dances tend to fall into two category's – Simple
and Compound time. The difference is in the counting.
If a piece of music is in simple time with four beats in the
bar you count…
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
(Co Ca Co La Co Ca Co La)
Or if there are 3 beats in the bar you count…
1 & 2 & 3 &
(Co Ca Co La Co Ca)
However, if the music is in Compound time it has a bouncy
three feel to it. In 6/8 time you would count…
1
& a
2 & a
(Straw-Ber-ry Straw-Ber-ry)
Reel
• A lively dance with two or four beats in the
bar.(Simple Time)
• A reel uses lots of running notes giving the
melody a fast, up-tempo feel.
•
You can recognise a reel by
counting
R E E l or 1 2 3 4
in time with the music.
Waltz
• A Waltz is another Scottish
dance that uses 3 beats in
the bar.(Simple Time)
• It is normally a slow dance
using a simple melody with
names like “the St Bernard's Waltz”
• You can recognise a waltz by counting
1 2 3 1 2 3 or Doom Ching Ching.
The Strathspey
•
This is more bouncy
dance with 2 or 4
beats in the bar.
(Simple Time)
It can be counted
1 2 3 4, or 1 2 12.
It is easily recognisable from
a Reel as it uses a Scotch
snap.
Jig
The Jig is a fast Scottish
dance in COMPOUND time.
Usually in 6/8 time, it has a
bouncy feel and is counted
1 & a 2 & a
An easy way to recognise a
Jig is to count the letters
J – I – G as the music plays.
The bands
• There are several types of Scottish bands,
but we will only look at Three.
• The Dance band/Ceilidh band.
• The Pipe band
• Folk Group
The Pipe Band
• The Pipe band is commonly found at
gatherings throughout Scotland such as
Hogmanay and town celebrations, etc.
• The group consists
of Pipes, Snare
drum, Bass drum
and Tenor drums.
• It is led by the
Pipe Major.
The Dance Band
•
The dance band can
be found at most
Ceilidh’s leading the
dances.
• It commonly consist of a Fiddle, bass,
drums, piano, Accordion and occasionally
a Bodhran, although it can use many
variations of instruments.
• The bands often sing as well as play
Melodies.
Folk Group
• A Folk Group tends to comprise of several
players who use traditional instruments
and sing songs/ perform pieces. They will
normally play in bars, venues and
sometimes at Ceilidhs. They sing songs
from many times, all with a Scottish
theme, such as Loch Lomond, Skye boat
song and even Sky Scraper We-in.