On 01/11/2011 13:44, be...@interlog.com wrote:
I think you could play a chord on every bass note without too much
trouble.
Maybe I'm thinking of these tunes as being quicker than they are usually
played. I haven't a clue about them as actual dances so I don't know
what would be a realistic speed for dancers. I've assumed that they are
lively pieces. 180bpm seems a bit slow - maybe more than 200? Strumming
one chord per bar is no problem. Strumming two chords a bar is no
problem. But changing chords on the beat at this speed is possible but
really not easy. For example bars 6 and 7 of the first
Bransle:GmDmGmGm/FCmDmDm. Dead easy if the piece is slow - but then it
wouldn't be a lively dance?
Stuart
Two other techniques I've seen/heard/played are:
Strumming the rhythm of the top line;
subdividing into eighth-note strum patterns at the end of section,
especially leading into a repeat. This provides a nice rhythmic
impetus, and you get heard a bit, 'cause the other instruments are
often on held notes. BCS
Quoting Monica Hall <mjlh...@tiscali.co.uk>:
Thanks Sean and Benny. I actually meant ren guitar or cittern (I don't
have either!). I was wondering exactly which chords would be strummed -
for example in the two tunes
http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/Gervaise/
If you put a chord to each note on the bass line (easy to do) you
sometimes would have to make extremely quick chord changes (which
would be
very difficult to do). Anyway, maybe this idea of putting a chord to a
bass note is a continuo concept and not applicable to the 1550s?
So I still wonder what chords an average strummer (four-course
guitar or
cittern)would actually play - for example on the tunes I uploaded. I
could
imagine that a modern folk guitarist would just look at the tune or
just
listen to it and come up with some chords which are both playable
and more
or less fit the melody (but not fit as closely as four-part harmony).
Well - after just a very quick look it seems to me that the harmony
is so
simple (especially in the first one) that it would be easy to fit
standard alfabeto chords to them. You
don't have to play one chord on every bass note and in any case the
standard
chords are so simple that quick chord changes wouldn't be a problem.
(cf. Foscarini). If
accompanied by a cittern - which is played with a plectrum - strummed
chords
would be the only option.
Monica
On Oct 31, 2011, at 3:56 PM, Stuart Walsh<s.wa...@ntlworld.com>
wrote:
How would a strummer strum chords to these tunes composed
(arranged?) by
Gervaise in the 1550s?
http://www.pluckedturkeys.co.uk/Gervaise/
They are strong melodies (Poulenc arranged some Gervaise dances for
piano - but not these particular tunes). Maybe you just strum a chord
according to the bass line. It's easy enough to work out what each
chord
would be. But playing at speed it would be formidably difficult to
actually play them unless you were a Freddy Green-type professional.
These Gervaise arrangements are in four parts and, as it stands, the
bass is very easy to play as a single note. But really not so easy at
all when the chords are changing very quickly.
But it's often said that strummers strummed in these, and even
earlier,
times. And, if so, surely they would have strummed to accompany tunes
like this. Would they have strummed a chord for each note as
dictated by
the rules of four part harmony? Or something simpler - but
potentially
more rhythmic?
Stuart
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