Scottish Music Flashcards
Drone
One note held on (or repeated in) the bass. Often called a drone bass. Sometimes there is more than one note.
The low-pitched pipes of a bagpipe which accompany a melody
Snare Drum
This instrument belongs to the percussion family and is played with sticks or brushes. It can act as two different instruments – a side drum and a snare drum.
Jig
A fast dance in compound time. Usually 2 beats in a bar, with each beat dividing into 3 quavers.
Mouth Music
Unaccompanied songs with Gaelic or nonsense words, normally sung for ceilidh dances
Pentatonic
Any five-note scale. In practice, the most common one is that on which much folk music is based, particularly Scottish and Celtic. The five notes could be C D E G A.
Scotch Snap
A very short accented note before a longer note. A feature of Strathspeys.
Scots Ballad
A Scottish song which tells a story. It is in strophic form, which means that the same music is repeated for each verse.
Strathspey
A Scottish dance with four beats in a bar, with dotted rhythms, and usually featuring the Scotch snap.
Vamp
A rhythmic accompaniment with a bass note played on the beat and a chord off the beat. Usually played on piano or guitar.
Bodhran
Bodhran, image by Hinnerk Ruemenapf
An Irish wooden drum, held in one hand and played with a wooden beater. Often used in folk music.
Clarsach
A small Scottish harp, used in folk music. Clarsach is Gaelic for harp.
Bothy Ballad
A folk song, usually with many verses, from north-east Scotland. It tells a story of rural or farming life. Usually unaccompanied, sung solo and in a dialect by a man, and sometimes a group of men will join in the chorus.
Celtic Rock
A style of music that mixes Celtic folk music and rock together.
Gaelic Psalms
Psalms (hymns) which were sung in Gaelic, unaccompanied. The minister in the church leads the congregation in the singing. Heard mostly in the Western Isles of Scotland.
Pibroch
Music for solo bagpipe, in theme and variation form, and with grace notes.
Waulking Song
Image shows an 18th century engraving of waulking
A Scottish song sung in Gaelic by women while they waulked (worked) woollen cloth to soften and shrink it. Sometimes the singing is led by a soloist with a response from the rest of the women (question and answer). The cloth was banged on a table as they worked and this created a beat for them to sing along with.
Accordion
An instrument with a keyboard played with the right hand and buttons (which play chords) pressed by the left hand. The player pushes and pulls the two sides to operate the bellows. It is also known as a squeeze box.
Acoustic Guitar
The acoustic guitar is a stringed instrument that is played by plucking or strumming the strings with fingers, or using a plectrum. It has six strings and the hollow body amplifies the sound of the vibrating strings. An acoustic guitar does not need electricity to produce the sound.
Bagpipes
A musical instrument having a flexible bag inflated either by a tube with valves or by bellows, a double-reed melody pipe, and from one to four drone pipes.
Fiddle
Another name for the violin, used in Scottish folk music.
March
Music with a strong steady pulse, with two or four beats in a bar, and at a speed that is suitable to march to.
Reel
A Scottish dance written in simple time with two or four beats in a bar. It is usually in a major key and is played at a fairly fast tempo. Each beat can be heard dividing equally into groups of two or four.
Waltz
A dance with three beats in a bar in simple time.
Folk Groups
A group of singers and instrumentalists who perform traditional music from a particular country, eg Scotland and Ireland. Scottish folk music instruments might include fiddle, whistle, guitar, accordion and pipes.
Scottish Dance Bands
A band which plays Scottish music for people to dance to. The instruments may include fiddle, accordion, piano and drums.
