The Ashgrove - anyone play this one?

[BrassBlower]

Hehe, great minds and all.

And regarding the harmonies: there's a very pretty descant part that floats above the last few lines. Used to love singing that.

Carol

That's how I do it, too! Now, are you sure about the "great minds" bit?

[jbarter]

I use the harmony too but it is only needed the first time through. Where I play you can bet that by the second time round somebody will be singing 'The Mayor of Bayswater' to the tune and when that particular set of words gets going you can be sure that no-one is listening to the music anymore.

[Cariad]

Well it's nice to know so many people across the big pond seem to know and like this traditional Welsh tune. Everyone in the UK used to learn this one at school when I was a child.There are masses more very beautiful traditional tunes here in Wales - seems this is the one which travelled!

Cariad

[BrassBlower]

I have a tune book which also includes All Through the Night, Hunting the Hare, Men of Harlech, and The Little Saucepan. All these tunes appear to be fairly easy for the whistle.

The book is called "International Folk Songs", and is published by Hal Leonard.

[jbarter]

There are masses more very beautiful traditional tunes here in Wales

Cariad

There most certainly are, it's a shame they don't get more exposure.
BTW love the net-name. It's the only word of Welsh I know, which is a terrible admission for someone with a Welsh grandfather.

[Guthrum]

I think you should be able to play it like this:

http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/get ... hgrove.gif

[bob baksi]

For most whistles that I've tried, the creative fix for playing an occasional low C note on a D whistle is to play your normal low D note, that is with all fingers down, but add your right hand fifth finger (fourth finger if you're technical and don't count your thumb) over the open bottom end of the whistle to about 3/4 cover the opening. You'll get a sort of C that's very quiet. If your playing is miked, you can compensate adequatley for volume with closing the distance between mike and whistle.

[Kar]

I have a tune book which also includes All Through the Night, Hunting the Hare, Men of Harlech, and The Little Saucepan. All these tunes appear to be fairly easy for the whistle.

Oh, All Through the Night is a beautiful song and very, very pretty on the whistle.

I tried going up to the G over the weekend when I played the Ashgrove and it worked fine. By the way, this tune also sounds fantastic with a guitar. I played it with my mom and she did melody-picking the first time thru and then big chords on the repeat and it was SO beautiful!

[Cariad]

There are masses more very beautiful traditional tunes here in Wales

Cariad

There most certainly are, it's a shame they don't get more exposure.
BTW love the net-name. It's the only word of Welsh I know, which is a terrible admission for someone with a Welsh grandfather.

I agree! So to help them get more exposure here's a few sites:

http://www.tunebook/welsh.htm
http://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/welsh.html
http://www.contemplator.com
http://www.welshtraditionalmusic.com

That little lot should keep anyone interested going for a while (that's all I found on the net so far - I mainly learn from a trad piper/flute player here)
Yes - its a lovely word. I know a few more now I'm living here and trying to learn Welsh. Not such a terrible admission. My father is Welsh but never spoke a word of it (same story as with the Irish - terrible repression of the language by English invaders)

Cariad

[Jo C]

Yes there are many beautiful Welsh songs and tunes. Ar Lan y Mor is obviously a very common one and I think Hen Ferchetan is great as a song or a tune. Most are better in Welsh I think (I haven't really heard many in English though). Oh and Llongau Caernarfon is another beutiful song.

Whereabouts are you based Cariad? I live in Pembrokeshire.

Jo.

[Cariad]

[
Whereabouts are you based Cariad? I live in Pembrokeshire.

Jo.[/quote]

I'll pm you
Cariad

[boomerang]

For my unqualified opinion simply look at the e note previous to the low c, hold it for 2 beats, add an extra e instead of the low c, it all works.
and saves transposing , which i really hate....yup note substitution works for me,
Regards David

[Pat Cannady]

Gorgeous tune. Let me recommend Robin Huw Bowen's Welsh triple harp album if you like welsh tunes and/or harp music.

[paulsdad]

This tune also appears in church hymnals as a Thanksgiving hymn.

Happy toons'

Paulsdad

[Cariad]

I have a tune book which also includes All Through the Night, Hunting the Hare, Men of Harlech, and The Little Saucepan. All these tunes appear to be fairly easy for the whistle.

Oh, All Through the Night is a beautiful song and very, very pretty on the whistle.

All Through the Night (Ar Hyd y Nos) is another tune, along with the Ashgrove (Llwyn Onn), that all UK school kids used to get forced upon them so they are very well known over here and sometimes therefore appear hackneyed - however, this is a real shame as they are very lovely pieces when they are played well. The tunes above, and many others, have mostly become known (as far as they have) through the famous Welsh Male Voice choirs and a lot of traditional Welsh tunes were taken and used by the church with new words for hymns (often English words too rather than Welsh)..... made them more formal than the way trad welsh tunes are played...

Cariad