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Transcription:
Hi everybody! Welcome!
Vi Wickam here for iFiddle Magazine and mytalentforge.com.
This is a free fiddle lesson for you. It’s a tune that I’ve been playing around with and really having lots of fun. I think you’ll hear where the name comes from. It’s called “49 Cats in a Rainbarrel”.
It’s in the key of D, and it goes back and forth between D and b minor. The a part just kinda rocks back and forth.
I’m gonna teach you the melody first. We’ll look at the melody, kind of look at what those important notes are in it.
I’ll play it for you up to speed first, then we’ll break it down, then we’ll play it slowly and maybe if we have time we’ll look at a little bit of variations and improvisations that I do with it.
When I play it up to speed, I’m gonna throw a little bit of fun into it. When I teach it and play it medium speed, we’ll play it a little more straight.
(1:05) Here we go.
[…] Full-Speed Play-Along
(3:40) So that’s “49 Cats in a Rainbarrel”. Rainbarrel! Let’s break it down.
So, our first notes are on the A String […]
If we do a couple of chops to come into it, we’ll do that with the D note on the A string, and an F# on the e string. 1 and 3, 3 and 1. […]
And then we’ll go […]
(4:06) Our first note on the downbeat is that A note. […] Now, we might do a […], or […], or […]
So, there are a number of options to get into that, […] but we need to be on the downbow on that third finger. […] Downbow on a downbeat. […]
(4:36) So, since that’s long note on the A, […] we’re gonna slur the next two notes […] to get us the next downbow on the D note. […]
(4:55) Now, probably the melody note here is just an […] open E […]
(5:13) So that’s our first phrase.
3 1 0 3 0 1 3 0 1 3 1 0 3 1 0
(5:27) Now, if we wanna make that a little more interesting, we can add an accidental there. We can go from F to F# instead of E to F#, and I’ll demonstrate that. […]
(5:47) So, adding that accidental makes it a lot more fun, and I prefer that at least most of the time. You can play it straighter as a variation, in my opinion. […]
(6:06) So that’s our second phrase. […] Or, […]
(6:22) So that second phrase you can hear is like same as the first phrase with a second ending on it. […] is the same in the first phrase and the second phrase; the first ending is […], and the second ending […]. So, we want to scoop that […]–catch it on an upbow—low string, high string, and then […], or low together, together. […]
(7:06) Or like that, down, up. […] There’s a number of ways you can do that bowing. […] But, I always like when I can throw a scoop in there. […]
(7:42) Alright, so first phrase would be: […]. Now, you notice, […] I didn’t move my hand, I just slid my first finger back. […] Second phrase: […]
(8:13) Now, third phrase—if we’re sticking to the melody—is just like the first phrase. […] I like to fancy up that third phrase, and make it a little different, but you are totally welcome to play that exactly like the first phrase, and it will sound perfectly correct. I usually do something more like: […]
(8:47) So, […]
(8:58) Now, our fourth phrase is just an ending. […] So that’s kind of our […]
Now, if we’re breaking this into what are the important notes that make it sound like “49 Cats”, that’s kind of what makes it “49 Cats”. It’s not that all the notes you play are the same as me. I hope you don’t play all of the notes the same as me. But I want what you play to still sound like “49 Cats in a Rainbarrel”. […]
(9:46) […] That’s probably our simplest melody, or […].
(10:13) Something like that. I mean, your simplest melody may be a little different than mine, but the idea is pick the notes that (in this A part) make it sound like “49 Cats”. […]
(10:58) In your head as you’re doing this, I want you really ruminating on this. Take this melody and play around with it. Get this A part in your head, cause I think it’s kind of sticky—I think it’s a catchy tune. It sticks in my head for sure.
(11:17) So, now we’re on to the B part. The A part repeats, but I’m not gonna teach it to you twice, cause it’s the same the second time around. Onto the B part.
(11:29) The B part, […] that’s our first phrase. […]
(11:40) So, if we’re listening to this we have […], those are kind of our skeleton notes—or the notes that connect those […]. Or you could do […]. I like the B note, […] because it makes it outline the b minor chord, as well as the D chord, which keeps that b minor feeling going in the B part. […]
(12:14) So the second half of that phrase […].
1 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 2 0 2 1 0 2 0
Which gives us that […] b minor […]. Again, […].
(12:41) Now, if we’re gonna fancy it up, we can do something like: […] Which just adds a couple of accidentals, a G# […] and then an F natural, or an E# […]. Because it’s functioning as that E, I’d call it an E#, even though that’s kind of a weird note to call an F natural. […]
(13:18) So that second phrase is just like the first phrase, with a different ending. So, the B part is a mirror of the A part structurally. So, you’ll hear: […]. So
(13:38) The first phrase and the third phrase are gonna be the same as well. If you look at it, the A part has a more complicated first and third part. The second part is a mirror of the first part, with a different ending that’s simpler. So, both the A part and the B part have the same structure. […]
(14:04) Second phrase like the first, with a different ending: […]. Third phrase, same as the first: […]. And final phrase is like the first phrase but it’s an ending: […]. So you can hear that variation of the fourth time brings finality. […]
(14:42) So really, you could do: […]. You could totally do the same thing, but in the last time […]. It gives that finality—that final ending.
(15:08) So that’s our melody. […]
1 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 2 0 2 1 0 2 0
1 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 2 1 3 0
1 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 2 0 2 1 0 2 0
1 2 0 2 0 0 1 0 2 1 3 0
And then open. So, […]
(15:53) Little variation there. […]
[…]3 1 0 2 1 3 4
(16:09) And then, if we want to, as nice variations as we can add. So that’s our melody. That’s our A part and our B part. We play two As, two Bs, and […] you’ve got the song […].
(16:32) Second A […].
(16:43) B part […].
(16:53) Second B […].
(17:05) Alright, so now if we want to add a couple more variations. I think it’s nice to play each of those parts in the other octave. So, if we’re gonna play the A part in the lower octave, […] we’re starting on our 4th finger, instead of our 3rd finger up here. And I’m just gonna play it through for you slowly.
(17:31) You should by this point be starting to get the melody in your head, but I’m gonna just play it slowly in the lower octave so you can watch it. […]
(18:33) Now we’ll go into the higher octave for the B part. […] Repeat. […]
(19:27) Alright, now I’m going to—before we go—play through the A part and the B part, and I’ll play it in both octaves, at a medium pace to give you something to play along with. So here we go. “49 Cats in a Rainbarrel”.
[…] Medium-Pace Play-Along
(22:54) So that last time through when I moved from the low octave A part into the higher octave B part, I kind of made some stuff up, cause I was thinking about how am I gonna make this transition. So, you know it wasn’t exactly what I expected, but it worked okay. But don’t be afraid of it. Just let that melody ruminate in you, chew on it, enjoy it, have fun with it. This is a fiddle tune. I don’t want you play it like me, I want you to play it like you 8.
That was “49 Cats in a Rainbarrel”, for mytalentforge.com and iFiddle Magazine. I hope you’ve enjoyed it, and I’ll see you next time.
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