>I've been reading everyone's postings here about Shetland guitar playing
>traditions. It does seem to parrallel American JAzz guitar evolutions.
>
>My question pertains to playing back up. Do your descriptions apply to
>palying backup to strathspeys?
>
It would all depend on the type of strathspey and the tempo your melody
player chooses to play it at. If you were playing the strathspey at a
slower tempo, e.g. for a Scottish country dance, or going for one of the
Skinner specials you might want to follow the Scottish convention and beat
two in the bar. Some of these grand old 'art' strathspeys sound very nice
with the kind of harmony we've been talking about. If, however, your
fiddler is playing a strathspey in the Cape Breton way, i.e around 92 to 96
bpm, beating four in the bar is the way to go. Then you probably could try
a different chord for every beat. It's worth listening to how the Cape
Breton pianists accompany strathspeys for clues on timing and rhythms.
Their bass lines are good; they generally avoid any kind of fancy harmony.
Would I be right in saying that the strathspey is not widely found in the
older Shetland repertoire?
David Francis
Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To
subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
