Scottish Music

Question 1

What is the ceilidh?

Answer 1

People would get together informally in the evening to share songs, music, poetry and storytelling around the fire.

Question 2

What is the most commonly used scale in Scottish music?

Answer 2

The pentatonic scale, starting on the note G would be G A B D and E.

Question 3

What are some Scottish instruments?

Answer 3

bagpipes
clarsach
fiddle
accordion
whistles
bodhrán
flute

Question 4

What are bagpipes?

Answer 4

The Highland bagpipe has three drones which produce a continuous sound and a chanter with nine holes for playing the tune.

Question 5

What is the fiddle?

Answer 5

In Scottish music, the violin is referred to as the fiddle.

Question 6

What is the accordion?

Answer 6

A musical instrument that has a keyboard and bellows and that produces tones when air is forced past metal reeds.

The accordion can be found in as part of folk groups, where it is often heard alongside the fiddle.

Question 7

What is the Clarsach?

Answer 7

The clarsach is a harp strung with gut or wire and is one of Scotland’s oldest instruments. The clarsach is often used to accompany singing.

It has a quiet sound but with the development of sound technology, the clarsach can now be amplified to blend with other instruments in the folk group.

Question 8

What is the Bodhran?

Answer 8

The bodhrán is a percussion instrument used to beat out the pulse or heartbeat of the music when accompanying other instruments.

Question 9

What are the main Scottish dances?

Answer 9

strathspey
reel
jig
waltz

Question 10

What is a Strathspey?

Answer 10

Strathspey is in simple time, has four beats in the bar and is moderate in tempo. It has a lot of dotted rhythms and usually features Scotch snap.

Question 11

What is a scotch snap?

Answer 11

A very short accented note played on the beat before a longer note.

Question 12

What is a Reel?

Answer 12

The reel is a dance that frequently follows a strathspey. A reel is fairly fast in tempo and is in simple time. The melody is usually smooth and each beat is equally divided into groups of two or four.

Question 13

What is a jig?

Answer 13

A quick, lively dance with a 6/8 time signature. It is in
compound time
– it has two beats in the bar where each beat is divided into groups of three.

Question 14

What is the Waltz?

Answer 14

A waltz is a dance with three beats in the bar and in simple time. The waltz has a fairly slow tempo and is normally danced by couples at a céilidh or social gathering.

Question 15

What is a March?

Answer 15

A march is not strictly a dance but march tunes are regularly used at céilidhs. For example you can dance the Gay Gordons
to a march.

Marches were originally composed for marching in the military. They have two or four beats to the bar and a strong steady pulse. They have a moderate tempo (so that they can be marched to).

Question 16

What is Mouth Music?

Answer 16

Songs known as mouth music (puirt-a-beul) provided accompaniment for the dancing of strathspeys, reels and jigs.

These Gaelic songs were sung by a solo voice, or by voices a cappella.

The lyrics are often meaningless. Instead the voices are used as musical instruments and the singing has a strong sense of rhythm and melody.

Question 17

What is a Gaelic psam?

Answer 17

Gaelic psalm singing can still be heard in Gaelic
Presbyterian
Church services today, in particular on the Western Isles of Scotland.

The singing is a cappella and has a similar structure to question and answer.

A leader, often referred to as the precentor, announces the slow melodic line of the hymn. The congregation then continues the melodic line. Each singer has the freedom to add their own grace notes.

Question 18

What is a Waulking Song

Answer 18

Waulking songs have a distinct style – they are sung a capella in Gaelic, strong beat and pulse and take the form of question and answer.

Question 19

What is a Scots ballad?

Answer 19

Scots ballads are Scottish songs that tell a story. Scots ballads are strophic in form which means the same melody is repeated for each verse. They are often accompanied by acoustic guitar.

Question 20

What is a Bothy Ballad?

Answer 20

Farmers in botheies would spend their leisure time, the men would sing lighthearted songs about work and life in the farming community. These songs became known as bothy ballads.

Bothy ballads were usually sung a capella. The lyrics were in Doric, the regional dialect of Aberdeenshire. They are usually in strophic form.

Question 21

What is Celtic Rock?

Answer 21

The fusion of traditional Gaelic music with rock music has become known as Celtic rock. Typical rock instruments such as electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit are combined with acoustic Scottish folk instruments.