-A Portland Play Along Selection-

-A Portland Play Along Selection- is a newly released, 2 CD set of contra dance tunes, recorded with minimal instrumentation and mostly at moderate tempos. It is intended as a learning tool and then a way to pass on the tradition.

The tunes are usually played in two or three tune medleys to create dances of roughly 4 minutes. There are 97 tunes contained in the 37 medleys. I gather that exactly how tunes are grouped in medleys is not part of the tradition. The tunes apparently are freely regrouped in dance play lists, although they might be commonly known and played in familiar clusters.

All of the tunes are drawn from the Portland Collection books, so the notation is available. The CDs are a companion to the books or simply a way to learn the tunes by ear. But one introduced (to the Portland Collection) by way of the recordings may find the books a companion to the CDs. That is exactly what I did. I liked the CDs so then ordered the books. There are additional recordings of more of the tunes, few if any tunes featured twice.

I am getting intimately acquainted with the new 2 CD set. In making up a play list and worksheet (to manage 97 tunes), I find that the key range is BbFCGDAE, which is exactly what the common custom chromatic autoharp would include, leaving no space for dim7 chords, and some keys definitely sounding better than others, if all 7 done on a single instrument.

I am doing the basic chord learning part with two chromatics, one CGDAEB and the other BbFCGDA. The former is pretty much a "Bluegrass" key setup, essentially a "sharps harp", and the latter is almost standard but trimmed to only 6 keys. The first has a custom bass tuning and the second is standard tuning. In this way, all the keys are good keys, well positioned over the strings and making nice sounding chords.

Eventually, I will probably refine that further down to diatonics of one sort or another. However, a few of the tunes are chromatic, especially the Quèbècois and some "Northern" or "New England". As always, if one has G, D, and A covered, following the fiddler's preference, they will catch a high percentage of any repertoire, probably a lot less in Quèbècois. I need the BbFC harp for only five (5) of the thirty seven (37) medleys on the 2 CDs.

Needing mostly a custom autoharp is a good illustration of how the factory standard autoharp does not represent how so many typically use the instrument, or would like to. In addition to a model with 3 flats, C, and 3 sharps (EbBbFCGDA), a custom shop ought to offer at least chromatics with [4 flats +CG] (AbEbBbFCG) and [CG+ w/5 sharps] (CGDAEB). The standard one in the middle would remain BbFCGDA. I am showing only 6 keys because of the assumption that they would be compatible with the 6 key limit of meantone tuning and that the 21 bar chord set would fill the extra space with 3 dim7 chords.

The bass tunings are as follows, noting that all use the standard note array in the plain strings, fully chromatic, with melody range notes remaining in familiar positions:

12C-36C all standard




The above table shows various ways to tune the chromatic autoharp in order to serve different sets of keys. The context was for meantone tuning and for the presence of three dim7 chords on a 21 chord. Therefore, only 6 keys are shown for each tuning.

The table applies only to bass strings 1-11. All the other strings (from #12 upward) are tuned standard, two complete octaves from C to C to C plus any 37th string, typically a D.

Four keys on each would be quite satisfying. The two keys in brackets would be the sweet spot keys, the instrument's strengths and the ones a player is likely to favor.

The above table may be bookmarked for future reference using the following address or using the link to actually go to the page and make bookmarking simpler:

http://www.autoharpworks.com/pages/Post/doc/cfg/ChromaticSetupsTable.htm

Chromatic Setups Table


I should note that the hybrid BbFCGDAE, common on an Orthey for example, usually gets the job done with one instrument, although pretty lame in flat keys. That bass tuning is standard except it drops 10A# and inserts 3A. An important part of the context is an instrument stout enough to withstand moving the whole string set up one position, including a 37D, and inserting a larger, nonstandard 1F string. More context is that it involves ONLY an Orthey brand string set (or equivalent specs).

I used F#7 once for B harmonic minor. I used EbMaj once in a Bb tune. I had no call for any dim7 chords, at least not for any chord-along lack of detail. One might well find some use in a melody picking arrangement. I don't hear at as being in sync with other instruments though.

Saratoga Hornpipe, key of F, Disc 1, Medley 8, Track 22 is one of the better chromatic exercises. It is part of a Bb, C, F medley. It is a tasty tune and fun to play. It uses a II7 in the A part. The B part is harmonic minor, using F, C, Dm, A7. All of these tunes move along at a pretty good clip, so it is only when one knows the melody and "gets" the chord progression that it all comes together. I am declaring the obvious, but I am just saying, the tune becomes special at some speed. It is a shape to a tune that one could certainly not experience with a diatonic instrument. I will ignore the possibility of configuring an instrument for only one tune. I know of at least three people who have done exactly that.

If anyone else is working these tunes or even has the "Collection" books, I have some lists put together in Excel. I did the Play Along CD indexes from scratch, but Susan (Songer) also shared a text file of all 639 tunes in the two book volumes, sorted by key and indexing title. I managed to convert that to a clean Excel file, one for each book volume. I plan to enter the page number for each tune once my copies of the books arrive. It would be handy to use for a play list creator, because Excel will allow sorting, column hiding, many print options, etc.

In another life, I was a database analyst, so I couldn't resist trying to hyper-organize 600 some tunes spread among a number of recording projects and two books. If you invest the work once, you then have a powerful tool for things that would not ordinarily be practical. For example you would have data to load a database that included a document object of the the PDF notation file and also a Midi file or an mp3 sample, reminding you how the tune goes. You could also link a discography to tune titles.

When you get these CDs, the booklet included shows a medley and track list and then a separate key list. I had to write in the keys so I could easily play along and especially so I could know which harp to pick up. That got messy, so I set out to create a prettier listing. If anyone would like a copy, I will eventually post it and announce a link. Let me know in the meantime, if it would be of immediate benefit to you. Either run out and buy some legal size paper or hide some of the columns. It prints in landscape spreadsheet orientation. If I am asked to send a special copy, I expect that one already owns the CDs or has a set coming. This is not idle "recipe collecting". There is a certain amount of effort involved in sending a special copy, so I would appreciate having it actually used short term. It will eventually be posted for all to access in any case.

I understand the Portland Collection website has been updated since Meryl initially alerted us to the new release. The track list is at -

A Portland Playalong Selection track list

The list of keys is not shown, but my spreadsheet includes that detail and more.

The full promo is at -

All about -A Portland Playalong Selection-

The complete investment in learning Portland Collection tunes is about $150, including two book volumes; four prior, fully arranged and up tempo recordings of some of the tunes; and the new learning CD set. The basics of the new CD set and the two book volumes would be half that. Then again, those who want or need to go it just by ear, a pencil, and a note pad will be in for about 30 bucks.

There are many references to minor keys, but only two are harmonic minor, the i-iv-V7. Most are actually Dorian, only a few Aeolian. There are many tunes with mixed mode, often a major A part and a minor B part or vice versa. A few Mixolydians are the same, few a pure modal tune all the way through. Some are just Major with a flatted 7 here and there, the signature I-bVII chord progression of Mixolydian mode. For example, D to C chords out of a key signature of D. That alone does not make it Mixolydian per se.

I expect one would find this exercise useful if wanting to learn to jam, wanting to play for dances, or just wanting a good way to learn some nice tunes that others would probably know or enjoy learning from you. It is strictly instrumental. These are not songs. It is dance music, the contra dance tradition specifically. Many of the tunes should be familiar to those who have done some jamming out and about, but there are none that I would consider trite. It's good stuff.