Rothbury Road by Kathryn Tickell

[Forest Dweller]

Another tune from the "Folk Tunes From Women" book that I bought recently. This one falls surprisingly well under the fingers and is probably the most fun to play piece I've done for ages. It was originally written for the Northumbrian Pipes, on which Kathryn is a virtuoso. Like almost all pipe tunes it is fairly relentless with a constant stream of notes, and the pedal notes that are a feature of pipe music suits the guitar very well.

I have done my arrangement in the style of my favourite guitar player, Soig Siberil, from Brittany. I have long been fascinated by his left hand technique where many of the notes are articulated solely with the use of that hand via hammer ons (often without articulating the note first) and pull offs. It is certainly a workout for the little finger of the left hand.

The tuning is CGDGAD. I did think about dadgad, but it seemed to sit better in this tuning. The original is in A minor, so I stuck a capo at fret 2. I love the B section where it suddenly goes to the Major (well A mixolydain really). I had the door open so you can hear constant birdsong in the background.

[Glennwillow]

Well done, Robbie! What a very cool arrangement! You put in a lot of work to put this together! It sounds lovely!

- Glenn

[Basil]

Excellent arrangement and playing!

[Forest Dweller]

Originally Posted by Glennwillow

Well done, Robbie! What a very cool arrangement! You put in a lot of work to put this together! It sounds lovely!

- Glenn

Thank you for that lovely comment Glenn- yes a lot of work but it is also very rewarding and fun to play. Kathryn Tickell, who I have seen live several times now, is also such a consumate musician.

Originally Posted by Basil

Excellent arrangement and playing!

Thank you for that lovely comment Basil

[mikliv]

Really enjoyed that. I hadn't heard this tune previously (despite living within 20 miles of Rothbury) but you've captured the flow of a pipe tune perfectly.

[ScottNL]

Lovely piece! A very fluid, flowing composition, so nice. It's played so fluidly, too. I believe I'll be making a new playlist on youtube, of performances from this forum. What a place!

[stringman5]

Nice! Well executed! I really enjoyed that!

Nate

[Forest Dweller]

Originally Posted by mikliv

Really enjoyed that. I hadn't heard this tune previously (despite living within 20 miles of Rothbury) but you've captured the flow of a pipe tune perfectly.

You live in a very lovely part of the world then . Thank you for making such a nice comment. I think pipe tunes make great candidates for guitar arrangements. There are lots of very good arrangements of Gordon Duncan pipe tunes for example.

Originally Posted by ScottNL

Lovely piece! A very fluid, flowing composition, so nice. It's played so fluidly, too. I believe I'll be making a new playlist on youtube, of performances from this forum. What a place!

I'm so glad the fluidity came across as this was something I wanted to capture. There certainly is some very good stuff on here

Originally Posted by stringman5

Nice! Well executed! I really enjoyed that!

Nate

Thank you Nate, its always very humbling when people take the time to listen and then comment, so thank you

[rémy64]

Beautiful interpretation, finely played, congratulations