# AI Wiki - Music - Folk Music ## Overview "Folk music" covers two related things: - **Traditional folk music**: songs and tunes passed on by oral tradition, usually with no known composer. Ballads (narrative songs), work songs, dance tunes and children's songs. Francis James Child's late-19th-century collection of more than 300 English and Scottish ballads (the "Child ballads") is a standard reference for that repertoire. - **Contemporary folk**: newly composed songs with known authors, written in or near the traditional styles, which came out of the 20th-century folk revival. In the 1930s American folk music became tied to social and political movements during the Great Depression (Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly). After the Second World War, folk revivals in the United States and Britain produced contemporary folk; the American revival peaked in the 1960s (Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary). In Britain and Ireland, the revival brought Ewan MacColl, Martin Carthy, Bert Jansch, Fairport Convention, the Clancy Brothers, the Dubliners and the Chieftains. Later, "folk" came to also mean the acoustic singer-songwriter. For the player, folk is the most direct route to playing and singing songs: acoustic guitar (or piano) accompaniment, open chords, a capo, simple strumming and fingerpicking patterns, and melodies that often use modes or the pentatonic scale. ## Forms - **Strophic form**: the same music for every verse, with new words each time. Most ballads work this way; some add a short refrain line. - **Verse–refrain**: verses alternate with a repeated refrain (chorus). This form, from [[AI Wiki - Music - Blues Music|blues]] and folk, became common in pop and [[AI Wiki - Music - Rock Music|rock]] from the mid-1960s. - **AABB (binary) tunes**: instrumental dance tunes (reels, jigs, hornpipes, fiddle tunes) usually have an A part and a B part, each played twice. - **Time signatures**: 4/4 and 3/4 for songs, 6/8 for jigs and many ballads, 2/4 for polkas and marches. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Rhythm and Time Signatures]]. ## Harmony Folk harmony is usually simple: many songs use two or three chords (I, IV, V), and older ballads were often sung unaccompanied or over a drone, so chords were added later by revival performers. Common patterns: - **I – IV – V** in G, C, D or A (Woody Guthrie, early Dylan). See [[AI Wiki - Music - Common Chord Progressions]]. - **I – vi – IV – V** and **i – ♭VII** (minor key with the major chord a whole step below: Em – D, Am – G). - **Minor-key ballads** with the V major (E in A minor) from the harmonic minor, as in "The House of the Rising Sun". See [[AI Wiki - Music - Minor Scales]]. - **Drones**: an open string or a repeated bass note under [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Chord Transitions|changing chords]], common in DADGAD and Celtic accompaniment. ```chords {title: The House of the Rising Sun (traditional; the Animals' 1964 chords)} {key: Am} {time: 6/8} | [Am] | [C] | [D] | [F] | | [Am] | [C] | [E] | [E] | | [Am] | [C] | [D] | [F] | | [Am] | [E] | [Am] | [E] | {comment: Arpeggiate each chord: bass, then the upper strings, six eighth notes per bar.} ``` The D major chord in A minor is borrowed from A Dorian, and the E major chord is the harmonic-minor V. That mix of modal and minor colours is typical of folk arrangements. ## Modes and Scales Many traditional melodies, especially from the British Isles and Appalachia, are **modal** rather than major or minor (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Modes]]): - **Dorian** (natural minor with a major 6th): "Scarborough Fair" and many Irish and Appalachian tunes. In E Dorian the C♯ replaces the C of E minor, which makes A major (IV) the characteristic chord: Em – A or Em – D. - **Mixolydian** (major with a ♭7): "Old Joe Clark", "She Moved Through the Fair", and much Highland bagpipe music. In A Mixolydian the G replaces G♯, giving the chord progression A – G – D. - **Major and minor pentatonic** melodies (five notes, no half steps) appear in folk traditions worldwide. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Pentatonic Scale]]. ```fretboard labels: intervals --- title: E Dorian vs E natural minor (6th is C#) scale: E dorian compare: natural minor frets: 0-4 --- title: A Mixolydian (b7 is G) scale: A mixolydian frets: 0-4 ``` On piano, D Dorian uses only white keys (D to D), which makes it the easiest mode to hear: ```keyboard D dorian range: C4-B5 labels: degrees ``` ## Guitar Techniques - **Open chords and a capo**: most folk accompaniment uses G, C, D, Em, Am, A, E shapes, with a capo to fit the singer's key. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Open Chords]] and [[AI Wiki - Music - Capo and Transposition]]. - **Strumming**: a steady down-up eighth-note pattern, often "D – D U – U D U" in 4/4 or "D – – D U U" style patterns in 6/8. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Strumming Patterns]]. - **Bass-strum (boom-chick)** and **Carter Family picking**: melody or bass on the low strings with brushes on the treble strings in between. - **Travis picking**: the thumb alternates bass notes on two strings while the fingers add notes on the treble strings in between. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Fingerpicking]], and [[AI Wiki - Music - Travis Picking]] for a step-by-step build-up. - **Flatpicking**: fast single-note fiddle tunes on guitar with a pick (Doc Watson, Clarence White, Tony Rice). - **Alternate tunings**: drop D, DADGAD (credited to Davy Graham in the 1960s and adopted in Celtic guitar), open G and open D. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Alternate Tunings]]. A basic Travis pattern on C: the thumb alternates the A string (C, the root) and the D string (E), and the fingers play the B and G strings on the "and"s. ``` 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & e|----------------| B|--1-------1-----| G|------0-------0-| D|----2-------2---| A|3-------3-------| E|----------------| ``` Play the thumb notes (A and D strings) with the thumb on the beats; the B string with the middle finger and the G string with the index on the offbeats. When this is steady, let the thumb alternate A – D – low E (move the third finger to the 3rd fret of the low E string for the G bass) – D. In DADGAD, the open strings already form a Dsus4 chord, so the drone sound comes for free: ```chord symbol: Dsus4 frets: 000000 tuning: DADGAD title: Dsus4 (DADGAD, open) --- C x32010 x32010 --- Em 022000 023000 --- Am x02210 x02310 ``` ## Piano in Folk The piano is less central to traditional folk than guitar, fiddle, concertina or accordion, but it works well for singer-songwriter folk: - Left hand: root and fifth (an open fifth, which works as a drone) or root octaves on beat 1, or an alternating-bass pattern. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Left-Hand Accompaniment Patterns]]. - Right hand: broken chords ([[AI Wiki - Music - Arpeggios|arpeggios]]) in 6/8 or 3/4, or simple block chords on each beat; keep voicings close with inversions (see [[AI Wiki - Music - Piano Chord Inversions]]). - For modal tunes, keep the left hand on the tonic drone and let the right hand move through the chords above it. ## Songs and Artists to Study - **Traditional – "Scarborough Fair"** (Simon & Garfunkel's arrangement, 1966): Dorian melody, fingerpicking. - **Traditional – "The House of the Rising Sun"** (the Animals, 1964): 6/8 arpeggiated minor ballad. - **Woody Guthrie – "This Land Is Your Land"** (1944 recording): three chords, I–IV–V. - **Pete Seeger – "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"**: strophic song. - **Bob Dylan – "Blowin' in the Wind"** (1963): I–IV–V, harmonica rack, strumming. - **Bob Dylan – "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right"** (1963): Travis picking. - **Simon & Garfunkel – "The Boxer"** (1969): Travis picking. - **Bert Jansch – "Blackwaterside"**: British fingerstyle in an alternate tuning. - **The Carter Family – "Wildwood Flower"**: Carter scratch; shared with [[AI Wiki - Music - Country Music]]. ## How to Practise 1. Learn three songs with open chords and a steady strum; sing while you play. 2. Play "The House of the Rising Sun" arpeggiated in 6/8 (Am, C, D, F, E). 3. Learn the basic Travis pattern on C, then on G (thumb on low E and D strings) and Am. 4. Play E Dorian over an Em – A vamp, and A Mixolydian over A – G; hear the characteristic note. 5. Try DADGAD and play a simple drone accompaniment in D. ## Key Points - Traditional folk: oral tradition, ballads, dance tunes, no known composer. Contemporary folk: 20th-century revival songwriters. - Forms: strophic verse, verse–refrain, AABB tunes. - Harmony: I–IV–V, minor ballads, modal chords (Dorian IV, Mixolydian ♭VII), drones. - Melody: modes (Dorian, Mixolydian) and pentatonic scales. - Guitar: open chords, capo, strumming, Carter picking, Travis picking, flatpicking, DADGAD. ## Open Questions - Which exact key and capo does Paul Simon use on "Scarborough Fair" and "The Boxer"? Check a reliable [[AI Wiki - Music - Transcription and Playing by Ear|transcription]]. - How are Irish and Scottish session tunes accompanied on guitar in DADGAD (chord vocabulary, rhythm)? - **Answered** ([[AI Wiki - Music - Sixteenth-Note Rhythms|Sixteenth-Note Rhythms]]): What is the minimal set of 6/8 strumming patterns that covers most folk ballads? Three cover most: six downstrokes accented on 1 and 4, the same with an upstroke before each strong beat (D d du D d du), and a bass note on 1 with a full strum on 4; add an arpeggio pattern for fingerpicked songs. ## References - Wikipedia, "Folk music": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk_music - Wikipedia, "Travis picking": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_picking - Wikipedia, "Mixolydian mode": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixolydian_mode - Wikipedia, "Verse–chorus form": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verse%E2%80%93chorus_form ## Related - [[AI Wiki - Music - Country Music]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Fingerpicking]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Alternate Tunings]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Open Chords]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Capo and Transposition]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Strumming Patterns]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Modes]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Minor Scales]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Pentatonic Scale]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Common Chord Progressions]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Left-Hand Accompaniment Patterns]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Piano Chord Inversions]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Pop Music]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Chord Progression Recognition]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Circle of Fifths]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Diatonic Chords and Roman Numerals]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Major Scale]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Suspended and Added-Tone Chords]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Travis Picking]]