old movie themes

There's a 17th century German cavalry song I've wanted to learn called Morgen Rot (Red Morning) referring to charging into battle in the 30 Years War

I wold suggest Roseville Fair by Bill Staines, I think.  There is no dulcimer tab out there because is not in the public domain.  A lovely song and maybe folks would be interested in tabbing out a version.

Lisa, that's a great idea.  The song has a straightforward but uncommon melody.  I did a workshop with Neal Hellman a few years ago and he gave us tab to that tune. My memory is that the crowd wanted a faster tune, so Neal didn't spend too much time on it.  It's a really nice, old tune, though.  And if my memory serves me well, Mark Gilston recently posted a video of his version on dulcimer.

I learned the tune years ago from an album by Trapezoid, the hammered dulcimer group.

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Dusty T., Northern California
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As a musician, you have to keep one foot back in the past and one foot forward into the future.
-- Dizzy Gillespie
updated by @dusty: 04/20/17 08:41:38PM

Jan, I don't have a specific song to suggest, but I often pick songs from a fiddle or penny whistle website, print out the standard music notation, and then try to tab it out for the dulcimer.  The SMN for those instruments only contains the melody, and often the rendition offered is the simplest possible, so the challenge is in adding some rhythmic complexity and then fitting chords in and around the melody.  Sometimes I just Google "fiddle tunes in D" and see where that takes me.

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Dusty T., Northern California
Site Moderator

As a musician, you have to keep one foot back in the past and one foot forward into the future.
-- Dizzy Gillespie

I've thinking on this since you posted it, Jan. My minds a blank. It's like a pop quiz... I got nothin'. I would like to hear Dan's put to tab. Sounds interesting.


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updated by @jim-fawcett: 04/20/17 04:22:02PM

Guess I should have been more specific....I was thinking about familiar tunes that you've just never seen tabbed for dulcimer--something like a children's song or a hymn or a well-known tune for a particular holiday...something most of us grew up singing, perhaps, but we've never seen it tabbed out.  So I was just expecting to have some titles thrown out for me to consider....

 

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Jan Potts, Lexington, KY
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"Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best." Henry Van Dyke

Jan, do you need sheet music to work from? 

Here's a lead sheet and guitar tab for "The Lakes of Pontchartrain."  I arranged this for the ukulele club last month (gotta love Irish songs with alligators).  I think this could be worked into a gorgeous dulcimer arrangement, but I haven't had time to play with it.  While the arrangement is copyrighted, the song is, I think , in public domain and that should make it ok to post MD tab.  How nice of Paul Brady to share his arrangement!

I'm working on a beautiful 16th century tune called John Com Kisse Me Now.  I definitely haven't seen any tab for it, so I'm creating my own arrangement based on my favorite version of the tune.

How about this one, Jan.

 

 

Are there songs or tunes that you would really like to play, but you can't find any tabbed arrangements?  An instructor has asked us to bring one to an upcoming class so that we can work on making a tabbed arrangement.  Since I mostly play by ear, I can't think of any.  I thought I'd throw the question out here to see what people have been itchin' to play!

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Jan Potts, Lexington, KY
Site Moderator

"Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best." Henry Van Dyke