Yesterday at band practice we were playing a lot of fiddle
tunes for an upcoming gig (this Saturday at 4:30 at the Good Neighbor Festival
in Middleton, for those who are around), and a lot of these tunes are modal,
but the chords often cover that fact up. For example, “Old Joe Clark” is in the
Mixolydian mode, and in the B part of the tune there should be a C chord when
you are playing it in D major (as we were), but our arrangement had an A7 chord
there, as if it were just regular major key. I advocated for changing the
chord, so we played the C and then Hardingfele’s husband suggested a C6 would
be even better. We all agreed it did sound better – it gives it that “bluesy”
feel that straight major key just doesn’t have. We have another tune, “Liza
Jane,” that seems to be screaming for a modal chord in the A part – do any of
my readers know this tune? Is it in fact Mixolydian and not just major key?
Maybe it is Lydian, and that’s why, when I tried a Mixolydian chord, it didn’t
sound right. We probably won’t solve this mystery before Saturday, but at some
point I’d like to emphasize the modes in our fiddle tunes, to make them more
fun and more true to the original intent.
Last night Luxuli and I went on a brisk three-mile walk. It
felt great! We agreed we have to do it more often. Maybe not in my
neighborhood, though – the cars are supposed to only go 25 mph along the road
with no sidewalk, but they sure seem to be zipping by much faster than that.
Travalon is having some bizarre issues with his new phone, a
Samsung Galaxy S6. My name in the contacts randomly changed from “Famous” to “Famous
Table Tennis rrr 564,” and somehow his alarm got turned on so it went off every
morning at 6 am. When you can sleep a few minutes later than that, you do NOT
appreciate being awakened, so finally this morning I tried to turn the alarm
off. It took some doing, but I finally did it. His phone is not as intuitive as
my iPhone. We are wondering if someone actually hacked his phone and purposely effected these
changes, or how are they happening? Nothing weird has happened with my phone
yet, knock on wood…
Famous Hat
1 comment:
Pa Hat thinks "Liza Jane" may be in the Lydian mode. I found a mountain dulcimer blog that claims you can play it in both the Mixolydian and the Ionian (basic major key) modes. I guess we'll just mess around with chords till we find one that fits that particular spot.
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