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Klezmer 101

by Seth Austen

Hello, and welcome to Klezmer 101. In case you missed the first issue of Klezmer 101 in April 2005 Mandolin Sessions, you might wish to read it for a short definition of klezmer music. In this installment, we're going to play a tune from the repertoire of Abe Schwartz, a great bandleader and violinist, who recorded this up tempo tune featuring the clarinet of Dave Tarras in 1927. The title is Lebedig un Freilach, which translates as Lively and Happy, and it's a lot of fun to play on mandolin.

One thing you'll notice when listening to klezmer music is that many melodies use different sounding scales from the major and minor scales that are so common in western music. One commonly used scale in klezmer is Misheberakh. If you were to take the harmonic minor scale, and start on the fourth degree of it, the resulting mode is 1 2 3b 4# 5 6 7b. It's similar to the dorian minor mode but with a raised fourth instead. This mode is sometimes used in Ukrainian music, and is often called "Ukranian Dorian". This scale is not only used for klezmer, you can also hear it in various other eastern-European and middle eastern music styles. We'll be playing in D misheberakh for this tune, so here's the scale with the open D string as the root note; D, E, F, G#, A, B, C, D. Play the scale for a bit to acclimate yourself to the sound of this mode before trying the tune.

Now you're ready to try Lively and Happy. Make sure to notice that although there is one sharp in the key signature, it is G#, not F# as would be conventional. While this might appear to be an unusual key signature, it best represents the scale that we're playing in. When first learning klezmer tunes, my advise is to not play ornamentation until you're comfortable playing the melody, then add it. The last section of Lively and Happy switches to G major. In this section, try playing the grace notes either using hammer ons and pull offs, and also by picking each note individually. It works both ways, and so can be used as a variation on repeats.

I hope you enjoy playing Lively and Happy!

Enjoy,

Seth Austen

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Seth Austen is a nationally acclaimed acoustic multi-instrumentalist; composing, playing and teaching diverse styles from traditional Appalachian, Celtic and bottleneck blues to eastern European Klezmer, Balkan, Scandinavian, jazz and classical. Seth plays a wide array of stringed instruments including mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, acoustic and slide guitar, fiddle, 5 string banjo and fretted dulcimer.

Seth performs concerts, coffeehouses and festivals nationwide with duo partner Beverly Woods, and is a popular workshop teacher. Seth has recorded 5 solo albums, most recently Metamorphosis and Desert Winds and has produced, engineered and played on over 30 recordings by other acoustic artists, three of which have won Indie Awards from NAIRD. Seth has composed music for PBS documentaries, written guitar and mandolin instruction books for Mel Bay Publications and numerous other musicians have performed and recorded Seth's tunes. In 1981 Seth was a triple winner at The Walnut Valley National Flatpicking Championships, Winfield, KS in fingerstyle guitar, mandolin and fretted dulcimer. Seth is currently putting the finishing touches on upcoming Mel Bay books of klezmer music for mandolin and guitar.

Visit Seth on the web at www.sethausten.com.