A Mel Bay Publications, Inc. Webzine
June 2008 · Bimonthly
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In this issue: Fun with Arranging for Mountain Dulcimer: Locating a Tune on the Fret Board (Article 1) | Ballads on the Mountain Dulcimer | Hammered Dulcimer Arrangement "Happy Dog Bossa" | Hammered Dulcimer Arrangement Cooley's Reel
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Ballads on the Mountain Dulcimerby Betty N. Smith I do love traditional ballads. I love the way they tell a story - with a language all their own. I like to think of them as "a literature of the mind." They have enriched my life in many ways. My grandmother's baby-rocking song was "Barbry Allen" and my dad sang such ballads as "Little Mohee" and "The Dying Cowboy," as well as shape note hymns. I like to sing ballads unaccompanied, but if I feel the need for some accompaniment the mountain dulcimer and psaltery do very well. They do not overpower the story. I like to introduce ballads to folks who may not know them, so for quite a few years I have done "Ballads on the Dulcimer" workshops at Western Carolina University Mountain Dulcimer Week and the ASU Dulcimer Workshop. "The False Night in the Road"This tune comes from Mrs. Jane Gentry of Hot Springs, North Carolina, who sang more songs for the English ballad collector Cecil Sharp than any other singer he met in this country. He met Jane Gentry in 1916 and she sang about 70 songs fo rhim - many of them traditional ballads from the British Isles. (Jane Hicks Gentry: A Singer Among Singers by Betty N. Smith, University Press of Kentucky). Jane Gentry was born on Beech Mountain in North Carolina during the Civil War. She grew up in a family of singers and storytellers and was the first to have her oral materials collected. Singing and storytelling became a part of every facet of her life. Her children said they always knew where their mother was because she sang all the time. The text comes from Mrs. Maud Long, daughter of Jane Gentry. Mrs. Gentry's text was not as complete as the one Mrs. Long recorded for the Library of Congress. Since Mrs. Long said that he learned the songs from her mother I prefer to use the more complete text. Some of the oldest of the ballads are riddle ballads. This is a riddle ballad, the story of a mortal outwitting the supernatural being by the quickness of his wit and the magic power of the word of God. If this school boy answers all of the questions correctly he belongs to God; if not, he belongs to the devil. Through oral tradition, ballads were sung unaccompanied, with the singer seldom singing the tune the same with each verse. When they were written down the collector had to listen and determine how the singer generally sang the tune. Only the first verse follows the note pattern, so the singer must make the other verses fit the shape of the tune. Get the shape of the tune in your head and learn the words. Then throw the paper away. Keep your accompaniment simple. You may not be singing the tune as precisely as it was written down, but that is all right and in keeping with oral tradition. Listen to Betty Smith sing and play "The False Knight in the Road." "Where are you going?" said the knight in the road. "What do you study there?" said the knight in the road. "What are you eating there?" said the knight in the road. "Oh, won't you give me some?" said the knight in the road. "I wish you were in the sea," said the knight in the road. "I wish you were in the sand," said the knight in the road. "I wish you were in a well," said the knight in the road. The following tablature is arranged in DAA Ionian tuning, or you can play the melody notes on the middle string of DAd tuning. 
About the Author Betty N. Smith has performed, taught, and shared the traditional music of the South for over forty years in classrooms, concert halls, workshops, and festivals. She has taught mountain dulcimer skills and the traditions of the dulcimer at John C. Campbell Folk School, Western Carolina University Mountain Dulcimer Week, WCU Winter Weekend, ASU Dulcimer Workshop, Augusta Heritage Center, the Swannanoa Gathering, Hindman Settlement School, and Pine Mountain. The recipient of numerous ballad and dulcimer awards, in 1982 Betty was awarded the Bascom Lamar Lunsford Award for significant contributions to the folk traditions of the Southern Mountains. She was honored by the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival with the "Minstrel of Appalachia" Award for a lifetime of performing and preserving mountain music. The North Carolina Folklore Society presented Betty Smith with the Brown-Hudson Award for contribution s to the study and appreciation of folklife in North Carolina. She has been honored by the California Traditional Music Society, the Memphis Dulccimer Festival, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with its Alumni Distinguished Service Award. The Appalachian Writers Association presented her with the 1999 award for Contributions to Appalachian Literature. She received awards fromt he North Carolina Society of Historians for her book Jane Hicks Gentry: A Singer Among Singers, and her play, "A Mountain Riddle." Betty Smith's children's music curriculum materials have been published by Open Court and Children's Music Workshop. She has been recorded by Folk Legacy Records, June Appal Records, Bluff Mountain Music, and Children's Music Workshop. Betty can be reached through her website, http://www.bettysmithballads.com/bettysmithballads Her books and recordings available at this website are: Books by Betty N. Smith: Recordings by Betty N. Smith: [ top ]
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