November 20, 2010

Sally, Ursula, Laura, Ellen and Anne met at Anne's and played: Country Waltz, Molly's Waltz, Valse de los Panos (in honor of Gerry being in Machu Pichu (sp?), In My Life, Pig Ankle Rag, Faire's Hornpipe, Inisheer, and Ellen introduced us to Crested Hen (waltz).... she said she'd get the music for us. We ended with 'All I Have To Do Is Dream' by the Everley Bros. We talked about playing next summer at one of the Tuesday Craft Fairs in downtown Falmouth... we should figure some tunes to play and practice.

July - November 2010 Meetings

We have been meeting regularly every two or three weeks through this period and, as always, have been enjoying it immensely.

July 10, 2010

We met at Gerry's house on July 10. Attending were Gerry, Ursula Boyce, Sally Cann, Ann Oberteuffer, Gerry's neighbor Gail Graham, and me, Laura Higgins. Gail came to observe. She is a new mandolin owner and player. She had played the clarinet, so she knows music. We played:
Angel Band, first and third verses were sung by Laura, with an instrumental in the middle
Country And Molly waltzes, 3 x each
Boda Waltz
Fairies Hornpipe
In My Life
Petronella
San Antonio Rose in D
My Cape Breton Home in G
Over the Waterfall
John Ryan's Polka in D
Dennis Murphy's Polka in D
and the Valse de los Panos

May 22 & June 12, 2010

We met and had a great time. Sorry for the lack of detailed reports.

May 1, 2010

Anne, Gerry, Jen, Ursula and Cynthia met at Gerry's. It was Cynthia's first time playing with us, and we hope she will be an active member of our group from now on. We played: My Cape Breton Home, Country/Molly's Waltzs, Boda Valsen, Lovely Stornoway, Ashoken Farewell, Valse do los Panos, and the Fairies Hornpipe. We have changed our meeting time to 1:00 pm in the hope that this will be a better time for some of us.

April 10, 2010

Anne, Ellen, Gerry, Jen and Laura met at Ellen's and played: Country/Molly's, Lovely Stornoway, Boda, Valse de los Panos, Fairies Hormpipe, Cape Breton Home, Shepard's Wife, Askoken Farewell, Pig Ankle Rag, Can't Help Falling in Love, Remember Me, Gold and Silver Waltz.

March 13, 2010

We met at Laura Higgins's home in North Falmouth. Attending were Laura, Ann Oberteuffer, Ursula Boyce, Marilyn Rowland and Ellen Bailey. Opened with Country/Molly waltzes. Then did In My Life. Had guitar intro. from I Can't Help Falling in Love with You (last line). Then instrumental, then vocal version, then instrumental. With a vocal repeat of the last line at the end. Then played Kinrarra, My Cape Breton Home (2As and 1 B), and Fairies Hornpipe.

February 27, 2010

Ursula, Anne, Laura, Sally, Ellen and Jen met at Anne's. Once again, we started by warming up with our three 'performance' waltzes. The we worked on The Auld Resting Chair, In My Life, My Cape Breton Home and Ashoken Farewell. We clearly need to keep up with our old tunes as even the 'performance waltzes' are a bit rough in places. We decided some harmony on In My Life would be good and will try to come up with some. We do have harmony parts for Cape Breton and Ashoken that sound pretty good. We will keep working on these.

February 13, 2010

Ursula, Anne, Laura, Sally and Jen met at Ursula's. We started by warming up with our three 'performance' waltzes, then played Valse de los Panos. We spent a long time working on "In My Life" both practicing and figuring out the best arrangement. Here is what we settled on after trying many options: 1. Sing first verse with guitar; bridge: guitar. 2. All instruments play (no voice); bridge: single fiddle (Sally). 3. Same as #2. 4. Sing second verse with guitar; instrumental ending: whistle. We also spent a long time working on "Can't Help Falling in Love" in the key of G. Arrangement: Instrumental first, with voices second, end with another round of instrumental only. Sally plays harmony on fiddle.

January 30, 2010

Gerry, Laura, Ursula, Sally, Anne, Jen and Ellen met at Gerry's house. We started with a two-part version of Ashoken Farewell. Then we played through on our 3 'performance waltzes' (see entry below for titles). Next we worked on Pig Ankle Rag which still has a couple of rough spots but is otherwise coming along very well. Then we worked on My Cape Breton Home, first in unision until we all seemed to be getting it, then in two parts. We finished with Valse de los Panos, and Can't Help Falling in Love.

January 16, 2010

Gerry, Anne, Laura, Ursula, Marilyn and Jen met at Jen's house. We started by working on the Pig Ankle Rag which is a new tune for us. We talked about the need to run through our 'performance' pieces each time we meet in order to keep them up to snuff, and will be playing them first each time we meet which will also serve as a good warm-up. These tunes are: Boda Valsen, Country Waltz/Molly's Waltz, Lovely Stornoway. After playing these we worked on: Gold & Silver Waltz, Can't Help Falling in Love, In My Life, Faries Hornpipe, High Road to Linton.

January 2, 2010

We met at Laura Higgins's house. Attending were Anne Oberteuffer, Ursula Boyce, Jennifer Kano, Diane Maranchie, Ellen Bailey, Marilyn Rowland and Laura. We started with Can't Help Falling in Love, in G. Our arrangement idea is for all of us to sing the whole song with guilar, ending with the bridge repeated and the final part. We need to find out if it changes time signature for the "Like a river flows, surely to the sea part." It appears to be a walz tempo before and it slows up there. We were going to check it out on UTube to see if Elvis sang that part more slowly. (See note below.) We then played Jamie Allen, follwed by Chinese Breakdown. Diane said our version of Chinese Breakdown is different from the traditional version played at dances. Diane will find sheet music for the more traditional version for us. Then we worked on the Beatles' "In My Life." We sing both verses with the guitar only. Then Jen and Ursula play once through with whistle and guitar only. Then all instruments play one time through. Perhaps, ending with a song line at the end? We also played Kinrara and Da Old Resting Chair. Tunes we talked about working on next time were: Pig Ankle Rag, Campbell's Farewell to Redcastle, and High Road to Linton.

Note from Jen: I found free sheet music for Can't Help Falling in Love online (key F). It is in cut time (4/4) through out. I also watched several different renditions on Utube and everyone performs it that way. Here's the sheet music.

November 7, and December 12, 2009

We did meet on these days and had a great time as usual. Sorry for the lack of detailed write-ups.

October 24, 2009

Gerry, Ursula, Anne, Jen and Laura met at Gerry's. We warmed up with Band Played On/Let Me Call You Sweetheart, and Country Waltz/Molly's Waltz. Then we worked on Marino Waltz, Valse de los Panos, and Chinese Breakdown. Gerry played the Fairies Hornpipe for us so that we could get a feel for it. We finished up with Boda Valsen and Valse des Jeunes Filles.

October 3, 2009

Just three of us were in attendance: Laura Higgins, Gerry Orlando, and Ursula Boyce. Gerry came with a bunch of music from the suggested stuff we worked on from our previous meeting. We played Gold and Silver Waltz, Old Resting Chair, Fairies Hornpipe (in G), and Ash Grove (a waltz and very nice; ditto the Fairies Hornpipe). Also the Valse de los Panos (hankerchiefs), San Antonio Rose, Sweet Georgia Brown, Chinese Breakdown, and Valse des Jeunes Filles.

September 12, 2009

The ladies group met at Anne Oberteuffer's house on Saturday, September 12. Playing that day were Anne, Sally, Ursula, Diane, Ellen, and Laura Higgins. Ellen's son was here for a few songs (he is in Sonnay and had to go to a birthday party near Anne's). Jennifer couldn't attend because she was at a funeral. Gerry also could not attend.

We played Lovely Stornaway, Country Waltz/ Molly's Waltz, Ashoken Farewell, Bode Valse, and Jamie Allen. Also played were Gold and Silver Waltz, Ladies Choice, the Let me Call you Sweetheart Medley, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

Discussed as possible tunes for the group were: Genevieve's Waltz (need music), Cape Breton Home (need music), Wild Rose of the Mountain, In My Life (Beatles), Swinging Fiddles (Anne has a CD and book), Ragtime, I Will (song, Beatles), Amazing Grace (the version Jen gave us), Chinese Breakdown (Diane knows), South Wind (Irish fiddle tune) and Ash Grove (song).

June 13, 2009 Performance

Our very first public performance at Cy Kano's birthday party dance was well received. The dance floor was full of enthusiastic waltzers for all of our selections. We started with County Waltz/Molly's Waltz, then did Boda Valsen, Lovely Stornoway, and Midnight on the Water/Ashoken Farewell. Photo below of us on stage at the Navigator Club. Ladies Choice on stage

Saturdays, May 16 & 30, and June 6, 2009

We have been working exclusively to polish up the waltzes we will be performing on June 13th.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Sally, Ursula, Jen, Anne, and Laura met at Sally's in Marion. We worked on the waltzes we will be playing for the party in June the entire time. We spent a lot of time on the Country/Molly's set and the transtion between the two. We talked a little about playing at the party. We are going to be the 'opening act.' In other words, the dancing part of the party will start with waltzes and then move on the contras. This is to acommodate the many older guests that may not stay for the contra dancing. So we will be playing all three of our selections.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Just four of us (Ursula, Jen, Anne, and Sally) met at Jen's in Cataumet. We knew attendance would be light when we scheduled the session because so many people would be away. We spent a lot of time working each tune: Ladies' Choice, Molly's Waltz, Country Waltz and Boda Valsen. We worked on Ladies' Choice in the new key (Em/G) which is working out well. Molly's Waltz and Country Waltz are going to be played as a set with Country Waltz first. We tried it both ways, and this order will work out best for a couple of reasons. We worked on Molly's Waltz with the harmony part, which makes it really beautiful.

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Laura, Ursula, Jen, Diane, Anne, Sally, Marilyn and Gerry met at Laura's in North Falmouth. We worked on Molly's Waltz first. This is a new one that Diane brought and includes a harmony part. Next we spent some time playing and then talking about Ladies' Choice and decided that we would play it in the key of Em/G rather than Am/C. We had a couple of good reasons for making this change. The PDF and sound file in the Tune Resource have been changed and are now available in the new key. We worked on three of our best waltzes last: Boda Valsen, Lovely Stornoway, and Country Waltz. We worked a little with playing these grouped around a microphone and digital recorder in preparation for our first performance in June.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Anne, Laura, Ursula, Jen, Diane and Marilyn met at Anne's in Teaticket. The big news is that we have a name! We had a very brief discussion about it and all agreed that 'Ladies' Choice' is it! Thanks to Diane for coming up with the idea. We worked on our waltzes agin this time. We are looking for another waltz to go with either the Gold and Silver Waltz or the Country Waltz to play two together. Diane thinks she has one (Molly's Waltz) and will bring it to our next meeting. We also played Jamie Allen and Kinrara, and we took a look at Ladies' Choice--a tune we will definately be learning since it is where I name came from. See the Tune Resource box for sheet music and sound file.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Ursula, Sally, Jen, Laura, Anne, Ellen, and Diane met at Ursula's in North Falmouth. We worked hard on our waltzes in preparation for our birthday party gig in June. We will have to choose which 2 or 3 to play as the date gets nearer. We also discussed the need to practice playing standing, and wondered about the availability of a sound system at the party venue. Diane said it was high time we had a name and suggested "Ladies Choice" which is also the title of a tune. We discussed the need to learn this tune if we adopt this name. This seems to be the best suggestion we have had so far, but we decided to think it over and discuss it again at our next session. The waltzes we worked on were: Boda Valsen, Sweetheart/Band, Lovely Stornoway, Vale des Jeunnes Filles (with harmony), Amelia's, Gold and Silver Waltz. We finished up with Kinrara (not a waltz).

Note from Jen on the tune 'Ladies Choice': I found this tune at thesession.org. It is a barndance written by Charlie Lennon. There was a lot of online debate over this tune when it was posted and there are 3 different versions there, none of them direct from the composer. I listened to them all and they clearly are just variations on the same tune. I like it. The A part is in Am and the B part is in C. Check it out: sheet music, sound file.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Sally, Ursula, Anne, Laura and Jennifer met at Sally's in Marion. We worked on the following waltzes: Boda Valsen, Let Me Call You Sweetheart/The Band Played On, Valse des Jeunes Filles, Country Waltz and Amelia's Waltz. We discussed the need to play the waltzes a little faster than we have been in order to get them up to dance speed after listening to a recording of Country waltz and finding it to be faster than we expected. We worked on the rhythm in the B part of Ameila's Waltz paying special attention to the placement of the dotted quarter notes. (Sheet music PDF and MIDI sound file are now available, see Tune Resource box on right.) We also listed to a beautiful recording of Valse des Jeunes Filles with harmony (See Tune Resource for MP3). Sally copied and handed out the sheet music that includes the harmony for us.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

The women's session met at Laura Higgins's home on January 24. Attending were Gerry Orlando, Sally Lacey, Ursula Boyce, Marilyn Rowland, Jennifer Kano and Laura Higgins. We continued our preparation for Jen's father's 88th birthday celebration to be held at the Navigator on June 13.

We started with our medley of Let Me Call You Sweetheart with And the Band Played On. We played Let Me first as an instrumental, then it was sung, then we played Band as an instrumental, followed by a vocal. Then we played Sweetheart one last time, with a reprise line at the end of The Band Played on.

Then we concentrated on the waltzes: Country Waltz, followed by Boda Waltz (begins on B), then Lovely Stornaway (Gaelic Air). On Stornaway, the arrangement was that it was played six times, with the cello playing the harmony on the third, fourth, and fifth times. See the waltz arrangement sheet for details. We then tackled Valse des Jeunes Filles. Have a problem with the harmony and there is a problem with the B part. There is a kickoff with this. Then we did Jessica's Waltz and Amelia's Waltz.

We next tackled Oif'n Pripitchik. Starts with a one chord intro, then the first time is voice and guitar, second time as an instrumental, and the third time, all with play, with the vocal.

Decided that the next session will be on a Sunday, February 15, at Sally Lacey's house in Marion.

Saturday, January 3, 2009

The women's session met at Laura Higgins' house on January 3. We had a full house. Only missing were Sally Lacey and Melinda McAra. Attending were Jennifer Kano, Diane Miranchie, Ellen Bailey, Gerry Orlando, Ann Oberteufer, Ursula Boyce and Marilyn Rowland.

We started out with Lovely Stornaway...arranged it so it started with Ursula on guitar and Jennifer on whistle, then all together, 3rd, 4th, 5th times played in harmony, and the sixth time just guitar and whistle.

Next we did our medley of Let Me Call You Sweetheart and The Band Played On. We began with Sweetheart, played two times, the first as instrumental, then a vocal; then Band played twice, first instrumentally, then vocally, then back to Sweetheart, vocally. For the ending, for a reprise line, the entire group sang "And the band played on" after the last line of Sweetheart. Updated waltz arrangements sheet.

We next played Gold and Silver Walz, then Valse de Jeune Filles, Boda Walsen, and Slow Air in G.

Then we played Oif''n Pripichik. We agreed to play it three times: vocal, instrumental, then repeat vocal. Then sang the Beatles In My Life. Also want to do that as vocal, instrumental, then vocal. We also played Jamie Allen, Booth, and Jessica's Waltz. And we finished with Road to Boston.

The next meeting will be after the gig at the Mashpee Senior Center. Laura Higgins will host it again. Seemed like a central place.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Ursula, Sally, Jen, Anne and Laura met at Jen Kano's. We worked on six of our waltzes: Valse de Jeunes Filles, Let Me Call You Sweetheart/Band Played On, Lovely Stornoway, Boda Valsen, The Gold and Silver Waltz, and Amelia's Waltz. We polished up our arrangement for Sweetheart/Band Played, and settled on an arrangement for Lovely Stornoway. See the waltz arrangements sheet for details. We discussed the need to work on possible arrangements for our other waltzes as well.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Six of us met at Anne's including Diane and Marilyn. It was good to have them back. Anne, Ursula, Jen and Sally were also there. We worked on the following: Jamie Allen, La Maison de Glace, Boda Valsen, Gold and Silver Waltz, Valse de Jeunes Filles, Kinrara, Auld Resting Chair, Let Me Call You Sweetheart/Band Played On, and What Child is This. We modified the sheet music for Valse de Jeunes Filles slightly, so that it matches the way Diane plays it. We all agreed that is sounds better than the sheet music version we were using for reference. The updated version is available as a PDF in the Tune Resouce box on the right.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Our first session of our second year after a long summer break was at Jen Kano's in Cataumet and was attended by Jen, Anne, Ursula, and Sally. We blew the dust off some of our old standby's: Jamie Allen, Lovely Stornoway, Amazing Grace, Boda Valsen and Oif'n Pripitchik. And then worked on two new tunes: a jig--La Maison de Glace, and the Gold and Silver Waltz (see Tune Resouce box on right for sheet music and sound file). In spite of our small number, we had a great time, and hope that some of you other ladies out there that have joined us in the past will come back and play with us again. We also have our first "gig" lined up--playing a few waltzes at a birthday party contra dance next June.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

We had a very ejoyable but lightly attended meeting at Laura's, and agreed to suspend meeting for the summer. Most people are just too busy during the summer months.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Six of the "core" plus new member, fiddle player Ellen Bailey, met at Ann Oberteuffer's. We had quite a workout, playing 13 of our songs and tunes. We talked about adding a couple of jigs and reels to our repertoire, and Diane will suggest a few at our next session.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Six of us met at Sally's in Marion and a beautiful spring day. We worked on 7 of our songs and tunes. We decided on a mandolin introduction for Kinrara, and after much discussion and experimentation, settled on a format for Let Me Call You Sweetheart/The Band Played On: First - Sweetheart, 2 times (key D), second - Band, two times (key G), third - Sweetheart, one time, with the final phrase of the song to be repeated once.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

It hardly seems possible that we have been meeting regularly for 6 months already, but we have! We seem to have a "core" of 7 members that come almost every time, a few more that come now and then, and a few that have come only once. All, of course, are always welcome, and the more the merrier. This time six of the "core" met at Ann Oberteuffer's. We mostly worked on polishing up tunes we have already been working on. We talked about starting a list of our "performance ready" tunes and songs, and working toward a goal of being able to play enough material to fill a 15 minute time slot. Of course we will need a name if we are going to perform!

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Five of us played together at Jen Kano's: Diane, Ursula, Ann, Melinda, and Jen. We worked on a few of our weaker tunes a bit more than usual and made some good progress. We didn't add anything new this time.

Saturday, March 1, 2008

We had 8 ladies in attendance at Melinda's including first timer Audrey Turplin on guitar. Others present were: Melinda, Diane, Anne, Sally, Jen, Laura and Ursula. We worked on the following: Boda Valsen, a Swedish waltz with both melody and harmony parts (a new one from Diane), Amazing Grace, Kinrara, Jamie Allen, Amelia's Waltz, In My Life (a new one from Laura), La Valse des Jeunes Filles. It was great having a little larger than usual group and we hope that this continues.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

The Ladies met at Laura Higgins’ house in North Falmouth on February 9. In attendance were Ann Oberteuffer, Melinda McAra, Jennifer Kano, Diane Maranchie, and Laura. We started out by playing Jamie Allen, then the medley we have been working on: The Band Played On and Let Me Call You Sweetheart. We started with a vocal of the Sweetheart, followed by an instrumental of it, then a vocal of The Band, then an instrumental, followed by a vocal of Sweetheart and ending with an instrumental. Then we played Of’n Pripitchik, Waltz of the Jeune Filles, Kinara, Lovely Stornaway, Slow Air in G, Booth, Colored Aristocracy and finished with a version of Amazing Grace with a chorus by Chris Tomlin that Jennifer brought (see Tune Resource for sheet music and video recording). We decided to meet on March 1 at Melinda’s. We hope to see the return of some of our former attendees.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Session at my house (Anne) included Sally, Ursula, Marilyn, Jennifer and Laura. We worked on Happy Trails to You (Dale Evans/Roy Rogers' theme song), Oif'n Pripitchik, Let Me Call You Sweetheart and The Band Played On (as a medley) and La Valse des Jeunes Filles. Next session at Laura's house Saturday, February 9, 3-5pm.

Saturday, December 29, 2007

The Women’s session met at Laura Higgins’s house at 3 PM. We were saddened to hear of the death of Melinda’s mom. Our sympathies to her and her family. We had a small group meeting. Attending were Sally Cann, Anne Oberteuffer, Ursula Boyce, and Laura Higgins. The group worked on “Old Lang Syne” first, since the Falmouth Fiddlers will be playing this on New Year’s Eve. Ursula supplied the music. We attempted to do some harmony on the chorus. Then the group moved on to practice a Yiddish song, “Oif’n Pripitchik,” which Laura sang the words to. The melody she sang differs a little ( in one section) from the music posted on the Women’s session website.

Then we played the “La Vase des Jeunes Filles” and attempted to play both the melody and harmony line on that also. We followed that with “Jamie Allen,” which Diane Maranchie had brought to us. Then we played and sang “Let Me Call You Sweetheart,” in D, which was short, and after someone suggested it, we played, “And the Band Played On,” also in D. That formed a medley of sorts.
The next meeting will be at Anne’s house in Teaticket on January 19. Directions will be included in an emailing.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Our third session was again held at Jen Kano's. The six of us in attendance worked on our newest tunes, "Jamie Allen" and "La Valse des Junes Filles" and played a succession of 8 or 9 familiar Christmas songs. We also worked on "Lovely Stornoway" and "Da Auld Resting Chair." We also looked at the Yiddish song "Oif'n Pripitchik" or "On the Little Hearth" to work on next time. Sheet music and a sound file for it are available in the Tune Resource sidebar.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Nine lovely ladies showed up for our second session held at Jen Kano's in Cataumet, two of them joining us for the first time. We started with a brief demonstration of the ABC Convert-a-matic at concertina.net. See the ABC Resources sidebar for information and links on this.

We continued to work on all the new tunes we started on last time, and added in two more new ones:

  • "Jamie Allen"
  • "La Valse des Jeunes Filles"

We also played a bunch of old familiar tunes and sang some songs.

We talked again about a name for our group and mulled over a few suggestions, but did not make a choice, so the search is still on. Email your ideas to Jen, and she will post a list of them here so we can all be thinking about it. The beginnings of this list are on the right at the bottom of the column. If you don't see a suggestion you made at the meeting, its because the girl who wrote this report has a crappy memory. Send them in!

Sunday, October 21, 2007 Session

We had our first practice session today at Melinda's from 3-5. There were 8 of us in attendance. We played 3-4 tunes that most of us knew and also tackled 4-6 tunes that were new to us.

Marilyn Rowland brought us some gems from the Boston Harbor Scottish Fiddle School that we hope to practice and learn:

  • "Lovely Stornoway" (A Gaelic Air in A with Harmony). It's a short lovely piece (no B part!)
  • "Slow Air in G" by Tom Anderson (aka "Da Auld Resting Chair"?)
  • "Kinrara" a Scottish Reel (I don't think we got to the B part)

We also played:

  • "Booth" (R-172; Trad. Version from Bruce Molsky) that some folks had previously started to learn.
  • "Angelina Baker"
  • "Over the Waterfall"
  • "W' a Hundred Pipers"
  • "Red Haired Boy"

We tried a few songs:

  • "The Roseville Fair"
  • "Across the Great Divide" by Kate Wolfe (we didn't actually get time to sing this, but Laura Higgins passed out the words.
  • "I'm Still in Love With You"
We thought it'd be really fun to work on some good solid harmonies, vocally and instrumentally, with these songs.

We also talked briefly about a name for our group and decided to think about it in the interim and talk about it again at our next meeting.

For the folks who can't make it to Sunday sessions, we've scheduled our next get together for Tuesday, Nov. 13th from 6:30 - 8:30 at Jennifer Kano's house in Cataumet. Stay tuned for Jennifer's e-mail that will have directions and possibly some links for the songs. It was a delight to play with everyone today. Tell your musical friends to come join us. If you have any questions about the tunes, let me know.

All the best,
Melinda