Turning Pop Songs into Irish jigs...(ft. Cullen Vance)

hello friends st patrick's day is around the corner of the day when every irish-american likes to pretend that we are more irish than we actually are but today i would like to play a game and this game is called will it irish and the answer is pretty much always yes we are going to turn popular songs that you hear on the radio these days into irish tunes and i have found the perfect teammate for this challenge this man is a tick-tock treasurer a multi-instrumentalist no joke the man plays over 30 instruments and he is an all-around delightful human being ladies and gentlemen colin vance hi good morning i am super excited to hear what you come up with we're both hearing the same things in our heads so yeah yeah that's gonna that's gonna be fantastic now as we work here and develop these three different tunes i wanna give you a crash course in irish music what makes something sound like irish music let's talk about the typical instrumentation that you would see in a session and a session is a gathering that occurs either at someone's house or typically a pub where everybody sits in a circle and you kind of go around and trade tunes and you play music together a lot of times an irish band gets a lot of its rhythmic sound from a guitarist sometimes a bazooky or a mandolin will add some higher frequencies in there i've been putting bouzouki in everything that's how you get these beautiful lush open cords oh a dude i want it oh no oh is that going to be my next my next one bro can i call you bro you can that's fine then you have your melodic instruments you've got the fiddle which is a violin but played with a different bow hold and different stylings the irish flute which is a mostly keyless flute made out of either wood or polymer whistles made out of either tin or plastic and the inn pipes which are the irish version of the bagpipes so instead of blowing into the bag you actually pump the air with your elbow for percussion the traditional irish instrument is the baron a bauron is made of goat skin and it's played with a tipper of which there are many different kinds and you just kind of go for it it's surprisingly hard a cajon is also a more recent addition that is a box drum with a snare inside and there's also spoons and bones which you'll see a lot those instruments are probably the most common on top of that you'll see upright bass banjo piano harmonica accordion harp cello pretty much anything that can keep up is welcome there are many different types of tunes in irish music but today from us you're gonna hear three different sort of big categories of tunes airs reels and jigs but as far as the uh driver's license go i think that's just the one two three four it's probably just an error an error cause it's nice and slow so what is an air an air is a slow song think danny boy it's what we call anything that is slow basically [Music] sing a flute loves a good air because that's when we get to just shine and do all kinds of fun expressive things fun fact vibrato on an irish flute is actually done with the finger as opposed to with the breath which is how it's done in classical music so that gives it a very sort of like sound which is very distinctively irish [Music] oh [Music] what was the other blinding lights was was one that we wanted to do potentially yeah when we were talking about this earlier you said six eight so it's got this really pushing forward kind of boom boom which really lends itself to that swing of that 68 i think so what is a jig a jig is a dance tune in six eight so one two three four five six one two three four five six within the jig category there's also slip jigs which are in nine 8 and then there are slides which are in 12 8 you'll hear one of those later yes oh my god wow that's a jig oh god a jig in three easy steps it's so like there's no cool factor in this it's just whistle we had to lose the cool because there was too much jaunty you can either be cool or jaunty you cannot be both now what does it mean to play or even sing something in an irish way there is definitely not one answer to that question but in my opinion these basic ornamentations that you'll hear in most melodic instruments are what hold the key to the irish sound you've got a cut which is playing a very quick note above the melody note you've got a tip which is the opposite playing a really quick note below the melody note and a roll which is the two of them together there's also triplets crayons slides double stops lots of different ways that you can vary up your melody in my book it's what makes irish music really really expressive [Music] i think we should do levitating by do alibaba because the only reason i think that is because of the pre-chorus which goes like that sounds like an irish tune to me oh it's like so close now you're watching me kind of sing things at him and then he's playing things back at me that's very normal in the irish tradition [Music] yeah that's fun it's fun i love that that's so good for at least the first year of me learning irish dunes i never once saw sheet music my teacher would sit across from me she would play the tune at me multiple times until i got it and that's how you learn tunes as well you walk into a pub you sit down you listen to somebody else play a tune and kind of go okay i think i got it and then you join it it's a very oral tradition but there are also different websites that have documented versions of the tunes in sheet music so that things don't get lost [Music] it's basically that is it is it a but i don't think we should we'll keep it or maybe what would it sound like in 12 [Music] 8 [Music] [Music] or maybe well what if we tried to keep it in 4 4 because if we keep it in four four it maintains a lot more of the integral like the original thing now what is a real a real is fast a lot of times irish musicians will actually put the accents on beats two and four instead of one and two that sort of da da da da da da da da i was making up something but that feel often shows up in the guitar while everyone in the room is clapping on one three one three it makes for a very dynamic rhythmic feel i think what really is that bounce that boom which is not an irish there's a name for it i forget adam neely talks about it adam i'm gonna text out and be like what the hell is that so i've heard that called the dembo rhythm d-e-m-b-o-w what we ended up making here was probably actually closer to a march which is like a slow [Music] [Applause] reel [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] but let's put all of the technical stuff aside for one second what's your process for making something sound irish oh well i don't know this is gonna sound so corny but my my first impulse is just to like go right to the heart i feel like there's something about this particular flavor of music that just is like it's like a a perfectly baked cake you know and tea and coffee celtic and irish music is like just a heart a heart hug yes i fully fully agree so that's actually where i start so mike the question i always ask myself is what can i possibly do to just get your heart to go like that colin you are wonderful and brilliant thank you so much for agreeing to do this with me and everyone go follow this man on tick tock because he the best thanks and thanks for having me on this is so so cool thank you immensely to my patrons who make my videos and my music possible if you would like to join my online community and get lots of really cool rewards and like online concerts and stuff from me then you can join my patreon family down below be sure you're following both colin and i on all of the social medias i will see you guys soon bye happy st patrick's day

Channel: MALINDA

Views: 1,213,871

Keywords: st patricks day, malinda, reese, malinda kathleen reese, irish, folk music, tiktok, cullen vance, ireland, dua lipa, levitating, blinding lights, the weekend, drivers license, olivia rodrigo, grammys, folk, jig, reel, march, aire, danny boy

Id: riSy-gDBs8A

Length: 10min 37sec (637 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 16 2021