Folk song collab anyone?

[WarpCanada]

Here's my idea for a collab.  Folk song in A natural minor.  Folksy acoustic instruments.

Lyrics and vocals after we've got the parts.   Would love the person who writes the lyrics to contribute the vocal take, cos that's Folksy.


The vibe to go for is to make it sound as old fashioned as possible.  Something that was old when the Carter Family was working, if the vibe is American Folk, but perhaps we could go even OLDER and say, the vibe is Celtic Folk.  Maybe a greensleeves-ish thing. 



I have, to hand, an acoustic mandolin that I could make a part up for.  I have a mountain dulcimer which currently doesn't hold tune but I might be able to get something wonky out of it.

Anyone else got an instrument and wanna have a go?   List your acoustic instrument if you're down for it.

Anyone want to provide the time (3/4? 4/4?), and a chord progression and structure? A chord progression would be a series of chords beginning and ending on an A chord, for the main verse of the song.   If nobody posts a chord progression, I'll post one.

We could even collaboratively write the lyrics.

Acoustic instruments only, no digital or electric stuff. 

 Anyone have a flute, a fife, a clarinet, or any acoustic woodwinds?  I have a natural wooden flute tuned to play only a five note pentatonic minor scale.  I have some orchestral sample libraries, but I'm not gonna use them on this.

[WarpCanada]

Okay here's the guide track at 70 bpm for ONE VERSE of the song. Chords in this guide track are
A minor [1 bar]
D minor [2 bars]
A minor [2 bars]
F major [1 bar]
G major [1 bar]
A minor [2 bars? tempo maybe slows at the end of each verse?]

[WarpCanada]

Okay here's a melody and a guitar line that can be added to.  The chord track may be something interesting to play over and see if you get some weird melody that counterpoints this one in interesting ways. Or you can use this melodic nylon guitar plus mandolin thing as your base...

Record your part separate and post it unmixed as a raw stem and I'll mix and add reverb and stuff.

[Ella]

Hi! And welcome to the site. This sounds beautiful. I think it would be nice with Sting-style singing. I would also like to sing it but making English lyrics is difficult to me.

[StephenM]

harmonica here and I have my grand dads old hohner accordion.... I might be able to add a little something although I don't play that well and I am not sure it would be the right key....the harmonica I could likely add something though.

[StephenM]

Okay here's a melody and a guitar line that can be added to.  The chord track may be something interesting to play over and see if you get some weird melody that counterpoints this one in interesting ways. Or you can use this melodic nylon guitar plus mandolin thing as your base...

Record your part separate and post it unmixed as a raw stem and I'll mix and add reverb and stuff.

that is lovely....nice job

[Hilary]

Hi! And welcome to the site. This sounds beautiful. I think it would be nice with Sting-style singing. I would also like to sing it but making English lyrics is difficult to me.

I think it would be lovely in Finnish but I'm happy to write some English lyrics for you to sing if you want.

[Jean Pierre]

Good idea, I propose my favorite instruments which are rather folk to make small parts.
Weissenborn guitar, Dobro guitar, Banjo, ...and also a low wisthle flute

[WarpCanada]

All of the above sounds good to me.  Finnish lyrics would be really cool.  Or we could have a verse in English, a verse in Finnish, a verse in French.  And others.

These words came to me during my walk the other day.

Love is Olde Magicke and Very Deepe
It Bringeth Joye and Maketh Weepe
It is ours to Have but not to Keepe.


(I faked the old English spelling above, my attempt at archaic spelling is really quite impressionistic and vague.)

The above lyrics, as written don't really fit into the rhythm, or the melody above.  I am merely posting them as I thought they sounded older than they are.   The idea of very old magic comes from the lineage of C.S. Lewis, and J.K.Rowling, my literary idols.  The idea of a deeper magic, and older, comes first from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe but is also a great theme in the Harry Potter stories, where the cotidian mystery of human friendship, and warm familial ties defeats the evil Lord Voldemort, in the Harry Potter books.


The idea from them (the idea of writing something that sounds OLD) is the only part I wish to contribute. Anyone wanting to write any lyrics need not include these lines exactly. I am sure that the melody that goes with the above words has not exactly come to me yet.  Imagine hearing a song that could be five hundred years old. 

[Jean Pierre]

Hello Warpcanada (what is your first name, its' more fun)
I put a few notes of Weissenborn guitar (it's an acoustic guitar, played "flat" with a Baretone, mine is an English Anderwood guitar).
it's almost improvised on the chords of your progression, just to know if the "color" would suit your idea.
 If your chord progression is too short, you should add a part that could be either a change of key to the relative major for example for Am the relative major C, or a different chord progression on a neighboring key to have a kind of alternating chorus/couplet, or other things...it's up to you...see

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

JP (Jean Pierre) alias my Idol is Jahia

PS

Imagine hearing a song that could be five hundred years old.

If you like old song, you might like this one ..it is by Toinot d'Arbeau french musician 1520- 1595, cover by me   
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dlIUUTfvfo