Arrangement Competition 2016 - win a guitar by Colin Symonds

Scraping in before the deadline, here's my competition entry!



The video was filmed with a Nokia 925 attached to the handlebars of a 2010 Brompton M3L as I rode it along Wightman Road, London N4/N8, in August 2016 at the time of the railway bridge replacement works which required permeable filtering arrangements to be put in place along the full length of the road. Wightman Road is normally horrible to cycle along as its geography makes it a de facto bypass for nearby Green Lanes, but it's been lovely recently and being enjoyed by many other cyclists as seen in the video (including one sporty chap who had the temerity to overtake me up one of the hills).

Being played by me is a Brook Creedy parlour guitar, strung with Newtones, recorded on a Zoom H4n while on holiday in the tiny hamlet of Langlade in the Perigord region of France. (The Creedy is my usual choice to take on holiday as its compact size makes it easier to fit in the car boot.)

I thought this was a very cleverly challenging competition particularly for guitarists - Bert Jansch's arrangement of Blackwaterside is so iconic, it's hard to avoid plagiarising it in some form. It also presents challenges rhythmically (there is no definitive version and many versions including Jansch's seem to vary the time signature to fit the lyrics during the song) and melodically (for both guitarists and vocalists the wide range of pitches make it hard to stay in the same register throughout). My main strategy to approach these problems was to put the guitar into a tuning that I've never used before - CGDGCD aka Csus2. I also moved the register up an octave for the second part in order to keep the melody on the treble strings. I'm not quite sure what time signature I used but it's quite tripletty - I'll see if I can work it out when I produce the tablature.

While fiddling around trying to develop variations of the arrangement, I found a serendipitous similarity to the jazz standard How High the Moon ("Somewhere there's Music, ..."). I failed to develop any useful variations at all of my Blackwaterside arrangement despite several month's of trying, but was quite pleased with how Csus2 lends itself to both the harmonic and melodic components of How High the Moon. My composition is therefore a set of two tunes - Blackwaterside played several times through, sandwiched between my arrangement of the jazz standard.

Ok, then. Just squeezing in the door as last orders have been called, I'm having a beer with you guys (albeit a flat, warm, watered-down lager).

Here is my 'attempt' at an arrangement of Blackwaterside. I say 'attempt' as I have limited experience with arranging things myself, normally doing variations of someone else's well thought out version of a tune.
Well, this time, I'm having a go

I have ignored almost everything that has been posted so far in an effort to avoid taking ideas from others, as I'm sure many entrants have done, so if my recording is anything like anyone else's (highly unlikely ) then I apologise.

To the tune - I tried to stay away from the Jansch version as it's too influential. Similarly, I avoided Anne Brigg's version, and did not like the Liam Clancy version very much. That left me with the Sandy Denny version, which is excellent, so I based my melody and phrasing somewhat on that (not really, but it was my baseline).

I also thought, 'how can I compete with the guys on this forum?' The level of skill, technique and imagination on here is (mostly) fantastic. Not being in the same league ability-wise, I reasoned I had to do something different. Not fingerpicking, not flatpicking and strumming is too simple and boring. So what?

Banjo? No. The rules stated solo guitar and voice only, so it had to be guitar.

Why not banjo style on the guitar?

So, my version was decided as a frailing/clawhammer guitar arrangement. The words were a bit depressing, and not at all contemporary. As everyone knows, I'm a huge girl-power advocate , so it has been altered slightly towards the perspective of a modern woman, and is now a tale of betrayal and revenge

I wrote the lyrics and came up with the main rhythm months ago, but it ahs taken me until the very last minute to record it. Why? Too busy with other things, and also, I couldn't play it very well
And it was difficult to sing it to a reasonable standard too. The timing seemed odd, so that had to be worked on for a while.

It's by no means perfect, and could have done with a lot more work, but I ran out of time, so here it is - Blackwaterside, A Tale of Revenge.

Guitar : Seagull Walnut Dreadnought
Strings : D'Addario EXP 12-53
Capo : Shubb at 2nd fret
Tuning : DADGBD
Style : Clawhammer

https%3A//soundcloud.com/martin-robertson-16/blackwaterside-a-tale-of-revenge

One evening fair, I took the air
Down by Blackwaterside
'Twas gazing all around me
When the Irish lad I spied

All through the first part of that night
We did lie in sport and play
When this young man arose, and he gathered his clothes
Saying "Fare thee well today".

"Now just hold on a minute there!"
I said to the cheeky swine
You promised to take me to Gretna Green
And said that ring was mine!

"There's no rush, just calm down love!
Don't panic, I'll give you a phone."
"But not tonight, I'm off down the pub
And I won't be going home alone!"

"Enjoy your pint!", I told the cad
As he sauntered up the hill.
"I know where you live, and the car you drive
And I wasn't on the pill!"

A fine choice indeed. FIFO! Well done, Leo!

Brilliant - good decision.

Well done Leo!!




( leoroberts - time to check in and and be v smug, mate!)

I'm one of them that fainted colins! Currently getting in touch with my inner warrior at the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds (I don't have an inner warrior), ocarolan messaged me to check the forum. I assumed there was a technical issue...

In many ways there is: the three of you have lost your bloody minds! But it's too late now - no retractions or reversals.

I am chuffed to bits, pleased, delighted, exacting, gobsmacked and delirious all at the same time.

I would like to thank the 3 judges for their exquisite taste, colins for his generosity and luthiery skill, all the other entrants whose versions were so much better than mine, davewhite for introducing colins to the forum, my wife for being my rock and for sewing all these sequins on my dress.

Never has my flabber been quite so gasted!

Congrats Leo it couldn't happen to a nicer guy and the arrangement isn't bad either