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tunes in minor keys

Are there any Cajun tunes in minor keys?

Re: tunes in minor keys

Mardi Gras song is most well known, in either A minor or D minor on a C accordion. Chere Joues Rose is another A minor on a C. Probably a few others, I love songs in minor keys.

Re: tunes in minor keys

Yeah..I love minor keyed songs..Cajun and Zydeco..as well as a lot of other genres. It doesn't have to be a sad song to be in a minor key...a long way from it in fact..look at the Mardi Gras song that Bryan commented on.
I bought an Am Lee Oskar Harmonica in Nashville when we visited..it sounds great for bluesy stuff particularly.

Zydeco minor key material is really catchy..well, it is to me anyway. Some new age Zydeco like Holla@me by Leon Chavis springs to mind...but there are heaps of others.
Yellow Moon by Aaron Neville, Under My Thumb by the Stones...there are heaps of melody/song options to adapt Cajun Accordion to...or perhaps " borrow ' the melody line from.

Re: tunes in minor keys

there are also alot of minor melodies played over major chords. E.g. Parlez-nous à boire, valse de bambocheur or jogue au plumbeau, etc

Re: tunes in minor keys

- Cristian, that's interesting; i never realized that !

- Bryan, Chere Joues Rouges i know as fiddle song/walz, but it's verse part is A modal, with clearly a C# in the melody and with an E at the end, and the "chorus" or turn part is in C, again E7 chord at the end (V-chord in the scale of A) before switching to the verse. To me it doesn't sound like minor, and i would find it hard to "fake" the melody on a Cajun accordion, except maybe the verse on a D accordion since it has a G note. - Nout

the corner post baby please don;t go

the corner post

baby please don;t go

midnight playboy special [ i think ]

mardi gras song
2 keys it;s commonly done in
A minor
E minor

wle

Re: tunes in minor keys

Though I don't really know what minor over major means, I always wondered about those songs because they had a kind of minor sound, but not completely.

What about La Valse De Balfa?

Re: tunes in minor keys

Bryan, Valse Balfa is a proper minor song, but sometimes with an augmented 4th when the melody moves up. I think the Balfas played it in Gm, we play it in Dm, and it's not a modal scale.

In Gm key: a true minor scale for the melody, but with an augmented 4th, here C note, when the melody moves upwards. This is so with Valse Balfa, and means #C instead of C before it moves up to the fifth note of the key, in this case D. maybe Peer knows what's that type scale is called officially. I always call this a Gypsy scale, but that's an easy way out.

Some Irish tunes like Paddy Fahey's Jig are real "master" pieces of that shape-shifting scale. A masterly played rendition here below, key of G minor with a fourth (=C) shifting between C on the downhill to C# on the uphill route. The fiddler here uses that "trick" sparcely here though, not always ..... It's one of my most favorite "minor" tunes:



Both tunes you simply can't play on a one row Deutsche harmonica, melodeon or Cajun accordion alas without loosing some of that melodic finesse. - Nout

Re: tunes in minor keys

That's a beautiful version of Paddy Fahey's jig, but as an example.. I don't know. As far as I can hear, this version is 100 % minor.
The version you mean,on the record "Paddy in the Smoke", also in Gm (by Martin Byrnes?) has lots more major notes (B's in this case, alternated with minors (Bb's)than this one.
This switching between major and minor thirds seems to be called "inversion". You hear that a lot in blues music too. Gives a nice tension to the music.
Something we accordion players can't do! But we can play in major and sing along in minor. Works too!

Re: tunes in minor keys

Tit' Yeux Noir goes from C to Em! Michael

just has that one trick chord

actually it 'tits yeux noirs' has a unique trick chord

it goes from C major to E major, right out of the gate

of course there is no Gsharp note on a C accordion, so you have to depend on the guitar [or something] to get to E major

it;s not in a minor key though, the song
it;s in C
it just has that one trick chord


wle

Re: just has that one trick chord

Actually that song works both ways. I prefer it with the Em, and usually want the band to do it that way, but if there is a steel guitar player there that struggles with minors, or anyone else for that matter, I'll just go with the E major. It works both ways on the accordion because at that part of the melody you actually pulling a B note which is the 5th of both the E major and the E minor.

I believe, though, that in Lawrence Walker's version, the band doesn't ever make a chord change there. They stay in C for two measures, then go to F. Someone else may be able to verify that.

Re: just has that one trick chord

a matter of tase i guess but the progression goes c e f g a very nice and simple way to move up the scale in the key of C since Eminor is the relative minor of G.. but E major has nothing to do with the key of C and if you stick it in there the progression cefg makes less sense and I just played it on the guitar.. the emajor derails what the song is meant to do... in my maybe not humble enough opinion.

Re: tunes in minor keys

Peer
... this version is 100 % minor ....
Well, i'd say maybe listen a little closer, she improvises a lot, and does the same trick on the 7th too ...

Re: tunes in minor keys

Ha Nout,

Maybe it's the age, but I didn't hear any or many major thirds(in this case a B), and not one single "gypsy" note (F#), so for me this version is still minor to me.
Of course I had heard all those major and minor sevenths (F's and F#'s),and the switching between them. Fortunately, I'm not completely deaf yet! Very subtle and beautiful indeed!
But IMHO this version of Paddy Fahey's is in Gm, Dorian Scale, with occasional major 7ths.
But, how OT can we get? : Fiddle, not accordion, Irish, and not Cajun, and a lot of notes which are not even doable on a CA! (I tried to play it on my C box (in Dm, the only possible way), but I lack the low A, so it didn't work)
But still, a lovely piece of music. Thanks for posting!
See you monday hopefully around 9 at Tom's. (I have a gig first) so we can discuss this futher if you want!

oops

I was wrong. She plays an Aeolian note too -Eb- and the very last double stop she plays is a G major chord.

oops 2

And, of course, lots and lots of F#s, alternated with F's.

Re: tunes in minor keys

1755, that's another one in a minor key. Sounds similar to the mardi gras song in certain parts too.

Re: tunes in minor keys

Pauline, or Donnez-moi Pauline.



Jamey Hall's most excellent Cajun Accordion Music Theory

Brett's all new Cajun Accordion Music Theory for all keys!

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