What's New

*12/29/2000
Whew! I have the last of those fife tunes notated! They are: Bernard Brown's Buffet, Cuckoo's Nest, Denman Duncan's Drumbeat, Guilderoy, My Love She's But a Lassie Yet, and Montezuma. Those that I could not track down to their original source have been noted as "American". If someone knows the original source of one of these fife tunes to be something other than American, please let me know! I've also added the lyrics to Don Oiche Ud I mBeithil (That Night in Bethlehem)--thanks David! (I also recorded this song on the Susato Kildare low D for a whistle message board I'm on, so I'm adding it to the website. If any of you are interested in that message baord, go the the Chiff and Fipple website from the whistle webring hub). I'm also selling that instrument on Ebay item # 1401464072 if someone would like to pick one up for less than retail.
As promised, I've also notated Inisheer, an Irish air, and played a version on the whistle. I'll probably re-record this later when I get more comfortable with the song. Next week, we're back to primarily celtic music. Nobody sent me any Channukah, Ramadan or other religious or traditional music for this time of year..maybe next year I'll have a more diverse offering!
I also noticed that a couple of the icons in the "GemMusic" theme tended to come in corrupt-looking about half the time with my browser. Since it didn't happen every time, I thought it might be a flaky jpeg compression interpretation in my browser, so I pulled them into my favorite photo editor, re-jpeged them, and they seem to work fine now.

*12/22/2000
Well, I have notated about half of the fife tunes I mentioned last week, so here they are: Adam Bells March, Granny Will Your Dog Bite?, Kenderbeck's Quick Step, Maggie's Melange, Old Dan Tucker, and Tatter Jack. I've also added another kid's song: O! Susanna.
Also, I re-recorded Roisin Dubh, now that I've had more than a few minute's practice with it. I think it's a little better. :)
Next week will be 6 more American fife tunes. I'll try to find the time to notate a couple Irish songs for you too, but I'm not promising anything! After that, we're back to our regularly scheduled programming.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!
I'm thinning out some of the instruments that I rarely play. I'll make mention of them here in case any of you guys want to get one of the instruments I'm selling. I currently am selling a Kildare model (2-piece tuneable) Susato Low G on Ebay, item #1400581843. This would make a great Christmas present for someone..the whistle sounds great! (Here's me playing Down by the Sally Gardens on it). I feel it's a real shame for a quality instrument to go unused. Hopefully, someone will buy it that will be able to give it more love and attention than I have.

*12/17/2000
Sorry for the late update. The website was down for a while, and took me some time to get everything settled. On to the music!
I've run across a whole slew of American fife tunes. Most of these come from the US Civil War period. These will be great for anyone who uses the tinwhistle or fife in period recreations from that area. This week, I'm uploading Dixie as well as a bunch of camp calls (assembly, taps, reveille, retreat, dinner, breakfast). Over the next couple of weeks, I'll upload a bunch of the regular fife tunes, and try to get them all in post-haste. After I get all these notated, I'm sure I'll return to traditional Celtic music; I've still got a ton of it to notate!
While not noted on the sheet music or midis, these songs should truly be played in the fife octaves on the tinwhistle (8va or 1 octave higher than noted). This is a requirement when doing recreations and such, so that you can be heard outside over distances and people. I certainly recommend wearing ear protection though! If you don't know the 3rd octave fingerings, or you don't plan on trying to make your music carry outside over noise and distance, just learn them with normal fingerings.

*12/9/2000
A day late and a dollar short (grin). This is mostly a kids' song update; you won't find any traditional Celtic music this week.
Added the following songs: Battle Hymn of the Republic, Grandfather's Clock, J' Ai Perdu Le Do De Ma Clarinette (which is French for something like "I Lost the 'Do' On My Clarinet"), Long Long Ago, and Ten Little Indians.

*12/1/2000
I've added the following songs: The Nutting Girl (a morris dance), and Stone Grinds All (an American march). Also, added more Christmas songs: O Tannenbaum, Joy to the World, and Jingle Bells. I also added the Dreidel song (Judaism/Chanukah tradition). I looked for the sheet music to the Dreidel song for about 4 hours, and failed to find it anywhere. Unfortunately, all of the midi files I found online were pretty pathetic as well, so I wasn't able to import them and make sheet music, either. So, once again, I had to go by ear. If any Jewish folks think that I've made errors in the music, please don't hesitate to correct me! Also, the Dreidel song is about the limit of my knowledge of non-Christian religious songs traditional for this time of year. I'll happily add more if someone points me in the right direction.
Note: Nutting Girl is in A-major. This necessiates half-holing to make G sharp…or you can just ignore the sharp on G, and play it slightly out of tune (D Major). (Or, you can find a whistle that's out of tune, with G sharp. I have a brass Generation that plays A Major tunes perfectly!) My original transcription of the Dreidel song was in A-Major as well, but it covered a small enough range that I could transpose it up a bit so it would fit in D-Major, and prevent the necessity of half-holing.