Friday, June 17, 2011

"Man's Life's a Vapor" in cut time

When you see a song written in cut time (two beats per measure with the half note getting the beat) you can count it in four if that helps with the rhythms.  Usually it is a bit cumbersome to count it in four once you are up to tempo.  At that point it should be easy to switch over to tapping or counting on the half note beat.  Watch Today's lesson to see and hear what I mean.  The song is a round called "Man's Life's a Vapor" which I learned from Charlite Chilton in Abingdon, Virginia.  It is notated in F major and has lots of stepwise motion with a great scale pattern at the end: sfmrdtlsltd.  You have to get some friends together to sing this round.