bling blang (1947)
Woody Guthrie. folk/country, Oklahoma USA.
performed by Elizabeth Mitchell
key: C major
mode: C D E F G A B C
melody: S L T d r m s l
form: verse-chorus
meter: duple
English function names: tonic dominant
Tagg (modified): home counterpoise (away)
Riemann: T D7
Scale degrees: I V7
Chords: C G7verse:
C
|/ / / / |/ / / / |
C
|/ / / / |/ / / / |
chorus:
C G7 C
|/ / / / |/ / / / |
C G7 C
|/ / / / |/ / / / |The lines between folk, country, and western styles in the USA — particularly for a New Englander, like myself — can be a bit tricky to discern. I think the unspoken rule I grew up with was if the singer sings with a twang, it's country or western; if not, it's folk. John Denver kind of ruins that rule, however. These days, it seems like if it has that very (dare I say over-) produced Nashville slickness, it's country, and otherwise, it's "Americana." Oh, labels. So problematic.
Being that kind of leftist, overeducated, queer, New Englander expat means I didn't learn this song as a kid from hearing Woody Guthrie. I heard it as an adult from Elizabeth Mitchell. I'm picking her recording over his for two reasons: First, E major requires barre chords on the ukulele; if I were teaching guitar, I might use Guthrie's recording instead. Second, Guthrie has a low voice and it's hard for tiny people to match.1
One of the things I learned as a music education major is that matching pitch is something that is learned. Kids' vocal range is higher, running from C4-C5-ish. Even C4 can be too low for the wee ones. Like all things, some learn to match pitch earlier and some learn later. Particularly with pre-school kids, if they learn it early, we say they are "talented" because we haven't really observed the learning process. If someone learns something without seemingly having been taught by someone more experienced, they are talented. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. A lot goes into learning and so much is behind the scenes, as it were. In The Listening Book W. A. Mathieu describes beautifully how people of all ages learn how to match pitch by being matched first by others in the chapter "Tone-Deaf Choir." So if you're an adult music learner reading this and you've been told you have no talent, maybe it's simply that you need more experience being matched.
Because people are not singing as much in casual social gatherings, people are less in touch with their voices and their vocal apparatus doesn't get a real workout. I hear this a lot in elementary and pre-school teachers, who, despite being female by-and-large, sing in a low chest voice centered around A3 or so, because of a lifetime of being too scared to sing out and find out what their voices can do. This means two things: the teachers can't hit a low sol (if the tonic is A3, that puts low sol at E3), because it's too low for them; their tiny students can't match the pitches because it's too low for them. The teachers' lack of experience singing and not learning anything about children's voices in their pedagogy classes means that the students miss out on opportunities to hear songs that they can actually match.
Guthrie's key of E major is actually a good one for very small kids, but many of them can't match octaves yet (again, another skill higher up in the hierarchy of learning music), so having the Elizabeth Mitchell recording is handy (eary?) for something kids can match. Does that mean we should ditch the Guthrie recording until the kids are older? Of course, not. We need the variety. We need the original style. Just know that the tiny kids in your life may not be able to sing along with Woody right away and that Elizabeth is here to help.
More complications: You may notice, as I have, that Mitchell starts with the verse, Guthrie starts with the chorus. You may notice, as I have, that Mitchell's version sounds like there are no chord changes at all. The chords I put above are actually based on Guthrie's recording. Naughty me. The melody is pentatonic and if you have any experience in Orff Schulwerk, you'll know from experience how nicely the pentatonic set works with a drone. You may also notice that Guthrie eschews even phrases. This is one of Guthrie's primary charms — if he feels like holding out a note, he does; if he feels like playing guitar for a little bit before singing again, he does, timing be damned. Mitchell is far more regular. More complications, but also more reasons to become familiar with both performances, and the ones below.
other recordings:
Arlo Guthrie and Family, Woody's 20 Grow Big Songs, Rising Son Records. D major.
Woody Guthrie, Songs to Grow on for Mother and Child, Smithsonian Folkways. E major.
Arlo Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie, Rising Son Records. G major.
The Funky Mamas, The Funky Mamas, self-released. Bb major.
Third, there's a bit of a cult around Guthrie that turns me off, but I have come around to his charms.