Pipe tune chords help

[Craig_Murray]

Hello,

I am looking to put chords to this tune.

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Jolly Beggarman bagpipe sheet music. Learn to play the bagpipe tune Jolly Beggarman with sheet music and audio. Join The Highland Bagpipe Academy for the video lesson of the tune.

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I can’t seem to settle on the right A chord.

Can anyone help me figure this out Please?

 

[micahcowan]

Looks to me like it'll be quite a lot of A minor chords, interspersed with some G major chords or E minors (probably your choice between those two, most of the time that it's not an A minor). Might be a D minor or two in there.

 

[Craig_Murray]

Hey Micahcoean,

Thank you for responding.

I think I missed out some key information. I will be playing this tune along with a set of small pipes. This then means that in this particular tube there are a few sharps I have to work with.

For example in the first few bars I want to play Am but there’s a C# in there that clashes. I’m a little lost to be honest. lol.

Thank you for the time to think about this and reply!

 

[Siegmund]

Bagpipes have only C# and F#, not C natural and F natural -- but because they have no choice which to play, their music is written without key signature. (And be aware that their A is unlikely to be anything close to 440 unless your piper has an instrument specifically built to play with others.)

 

[Craig_Murray]

Yeah those are the sharps I play when I am playing with small pipes.

From your reply about the small pipes A being nowhere near 440 the message I am getting is - ‘play whatever chords you want it’s all going to be out of tune anyway’

I don’t normally have trouble putting chords to pipe tunes but this one had me stumped.

Cheers

Craig

 

[Pipemajor]

Bagpipes have only C# and F#, not C natural and F natural -- but because they have no choice which to play, their music is written without key signature. (And be aware that their A is unlikely to be anything close to 440 unless your piper has an instrument specifically built to play with others.)

As Craig is talking about Scottish Small Pipes, that is not necessarily true.
All Scottish bagpipes, GHB or smallpipes have a "normal" scale with the exception of a flattened 7th.
GHB music is written in A but with no time signature , the flattened G being taken for granted.
Smallpipes, on the other hand can be in virtually any key.and are usually near enough A=440 (ish)
I have Smallpipes in D and A, but also Blair Vpipes which can play in about 6 or so different keys and also has
Ulliean pipes .
Sorry this doesn't answer your original query, but it would help to know what key the Smallpipes are in to start with

 

[Pipemajor]

Found this among my collection
In the key of D and a pretty poor version of the tune but the chords may help

 

[micahcowan]

It's in the key of A mixolydian (A major, but with the 7th flatted). Even though the A, D and G chords (and the key signature) suggest a D major, the tonic center is an A. The melody is very slightly different, but it's also the same key as the one Craig posted, so he should be able to use those chords directly, for the most part. An Em chord would work just as well (perhaps better) for the first G, and also the third one past the repeats (in both those cases, the melody is outlining an Em triad, but playing a G will also work and will result in an overall Em7 sound between the two instruments).

 

[Pipemajor]

All pipe music is written in A no matter what key the pipes are in.
Non pipe music for playing with pipes is always written in D to give the flattened 7th.
Also this is quite a spirited tune and should be played at double speed on the example given to get the true tempo.
At that speed the given chords (transposed) will work just fine. No need to complicate things.

 

[Xiane]

It's in the key of A mixolydian (A major, but with the 7th flatted). Even though the A, D and G chords (and the key signature) suggest a D major, the tonic center is an A. The melody is very slightly different, but it's also the same key as the one Craig posted, so he should be able to use those chords directly, for the most part. An Em chord would work just as well (perhaps better) for the first G, and also the third one past the repeats (in both those cases, the melody is outlining an Em triad, but playing a G will also work and will result in an overall Em7 sound between the two instruments).

When I try to say things like that to my son, he hits me with drumsticks. (Usually after nodding patiently for about a minute.) After taking a theory course from a very good violinist he declared that he was a percussionist, as it would be better to beat drums than music theorists.