A tricky little new tune with ups and downs that reminded me of the road up to Sam’s (Sam Lawrence, musician and pipemaker extraordinaire) which is pretty scary in places! I play it on whistle, sometimes an Eb one.
Here’s another new tune, from the forthcoming EP…
When Colin Ross made my Boxwood 17-key chanter he asked me “do you really want a Bb key?” Apparently they are awkward to make and he was concerned that I wouldn’t make best use of it. I insisted that I did, because playing in G minor on the Northumbrian Smallpipes is one of my favourite keys for the instrument. My set is in ‘F’ which means this actually comes out in F minor when it’s played.
Without Words – F#minor Reel
This works really well on a high D whistle. F# minor is a lovely key for traditional style music.
Without Words
Ted’s Fingers.
This tune came into being after a couple of hours playing on ‘Ted’s Fiddle’, an old fiddle that had not been out of its case for many years and belonging to Edward Arthur Scott. The strings were old style gut and had obviously been on for many years, they were worn and frayed with the marks his second and third fingers had left on them clearly visible. I was too scared to tune it up for fear of them breaking so I settled for ‘in tune with itself’ somewhere way below concert pitch.
Ted’s Fingers – Becky Taylor, all rights reserved, © 2003
Whisky Kiss, Becky Taylor, all rights reserved, © 2003
Baby Rosey’s Slip Jig, Becky Taylor, all rights reserved, © 1999
This tune was written in 1999 shortly after the birth of my daughter, Rosey. She used to call them ‘diddly diddly’ or ‘mummy tunes’.
The harmony written here is not a ‘duet’ harmony, but is a representation of the arrangement as it appears along with full backing on the CD ‘Becky Taylor’. The second part of the tune is a variation on the harmony from the first part, with the addition of a counter harmony just to confuse things!