'Cluck Old Hen' - It's Only Natural

Before I came down with the dreaded pneumonia, I was fortunate enough to pass my lesson on 'Old Molly Hare' after one extra week of practice. Finally, we could move on to the minor tune that my teacher had been promising.

The extent of my music theory education has been sketchy at best with whatever I learned in grade school added to here and there along the way, so I was quite surprised that such a thing as a 'natural minor' scale existed. This version of 'Cluck Old Hen' is based on just such a thing - also known as the 'Aeolian' scale. Sounds pretty cool, huh? Basically, this scale starts on the 6th note of a major scale, in this case - A, the 6th note of the C Major scale. It progresses from A to A with no flats, just natural notes, but because of the starting position it has this wonderful melancholy sound to it. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

My teacher also tells me that using a few longer bow strokes for 'Cluck Old Hen' works particularly well, so I have indicated on the notation my current bowings. However, if something else works better for you, by all means, do whatever works! I have found that sometimes one little change can make all the difference in the world. I ended up reversing my bowing directions for 'Old Molly Hare' and that simple change made the entire tune so much easier to execute. Go figure!