Walnuts Too

Walnuts Too (mp3) (pdf)

You have to watch your step this time of year when you are walking on the local trails. Slippery leaves, round things on the path and walnuts still falling from the trees are all part of the equation. Definitely one of my favorite times of the year.

Today's tune is pretty straightforward and shouldn't provide too many obstacles to your playing or listening pleasure. It's another glass-half-full kind of tune with a big, bright G major chord at the end.

On the other hand, fiddle tunes are nothing if not flexible and you could reverse the A and B sections so that the tune ends on the E minor chord at the end of the A section. That can make the tune slightly darker if that is more to your taste today.

One of my favorite quotes from the fabled 1960s comes from the brilliant Sylvester Stewart (better known as Sly Stone) and his song "Everyday People": "different strokes for different folks." I suspect that there is music already extant that somehow fits nearly every person and the situation she or he is in at any time but I am still compelled to add my own little bits to the stew.

When I reach for a "new" tune it's partly because it is often easier for me to write something of my own than to search my aging memory for a suitable existing piece of music. Just as important is the pleasure I take in opening the door to see what music is waiting for me to bring in off the porch.

I would do this even if no one else was listening. I've been doing this constantly since I was around 14 or 15. I really enjoy when someone else hears what I've played or composed and finds it pleasurable or meaningful but my impulse is primarily self-centered.

This newfangled technology makes it possible to share music much more easily than I could in the 1970s or 1980s and I know that it's a mixed blessing. So many tunes, so little time. Thanks, though, for listening to this one.