I’m Bound Away: A Shanty Great for Tam-ti
As well as being a beautiful sea shanty, it’s excellent for teaching the dotted crotchet and quaver rhythm: tam-ti.
Below I’ll give you ideas for teaching this song, preparing the rhythm with an ostinato, presenting tam-ti, working out the rhythm and finally the solfa.
A Capstan Shanty
This is a sad song about heading off to sea and leaving your loved ones behind.
Watch this video to listen to the song and find out more about it and when it was sung.
Here are the words to the song so you can join in:
Chorus:
I’m bound away my darling (x3)
I’m bound away
For the sake of you my darling
I’m bound away my darling
For the sake of you my darling
I’m bound away
(chorus)
Far across the sea my darling
I’m bound away my darling
Far across the sea my darling
I’m bound away
(chorus)
Bound to sail from Carolina
I’m bound away my darling
bound aboard an ocean liner
I’m bound away
(chorus)
Bound to sail the bitter ocean
I’m bound away my darling
No hope and all devotion
I’m bound away
(chorus)
So, dry your tears, have no more sorrow,
I’m bound away my darling
for the packet sails tomorrow
I’m bound away
(chorus)
Ostinato
As Seán Dagher described so well in his video, sailors would weigh the anchor by pushing the levers around it. To help them to push in time with each other they needed a steady beat and the sea shanties helped them to do that.
Let’s learn a body percussion ostinato and then tap it along to Seán’s video.
Now try singing these words below with the body ostinato:
Rhythm Challenges
Now let’s tap the rhythm; the way the words go!
For the sake of you me darlin’
I’m bound away me darlin’
For the sake of you me darlin’
I’m bound away
This time, sing it in your inner hearing and tap the rhythm.
What is the rhythm of our body ostinato?
Ta titi ta ta
Can we say ta titi ta ta at the same time as clapping the rhythm of the song?
Are there any rhythms in the song that match the body ostinato?
No!
Presenting tam-ti
Here is our ostinato:
Look at it as you clap the rhythm of the first phrase.
How is the rhythm of that phrase different to the ostinato?
In the phrase there is no sound at the start of the titi.
Let’s see what it looks like:
The third rhythm is another way of writing the second rhythm.
A dot adds on half of the value of the note.
The dotted crotchet has left the other quaver on its own so it has a flag instead of a beam.
You can say “tai ti ta ta”
Using “tai” gives us an extra sound to count the dotted sound: “ta-i”
Or some people use an “m” sound for the dot: “tam”. The argument for using “m” instead gets rid of the feeling of the next beat and it is felt as one long sound.
So the advantage “tai” has can also be seen as a disadvantage. Some say it makes a more mathematical sound whereas “tam” has a more musical sound.
It’s up to you to decide which you prefer and works best for you and your students!
Analysing Rhythm
We’ve already got our first:
For the sake of
How many bars have the same rhythm: tam-ti ta ta?
Let’s sing through and find out.
If you think you’ve got the answer, go through each bar and check… (don’t scroll down too far or you’ll see the answer!)
Here are the bars with the tam-ti ta ta rhythms:
Did you get the same answer?
Let’s sing it with rhythm names:
Tam ti ta ta Tam ti ta ta
I’m bound a- Tam ti ta ta
Tam ti ta ta Tam ti ta ta
I’m bound a- way
Guess what is in the other bars! Are there any other tam-ti?
Yes, but not in the same place.
See if you can write out the remaining rhythms and then scroll down to check.
Here are the remaining rhythms:
A side note, what do you say for semibreves? I don’t really mind! I don’t really use a rhythm name because unless they’re learning a Bartók Mikrokosmos where the semibreves come in at different places, I just want them to feel the whole bar. If they need to, my preference is ”ta-2-3-4” because easier to keep the count over “ta-a-a-a”.
That just leaves the two bars:
Too tam-ti
Let’s round it off by saying the rhythm to the whole song:
Tam ti ta ta Tam ti ta ta
Too tam-ti Tam ti ta ta
Tam ti ta ta. Tam ti ta ta
Too tam-ti Ta-2-3-4
Solmization
Do you think we can work out the solfa for the last note? Does it sound finished?
Yes! So we finish on our tonic. Is it a major/bright sound or a darker minor sound?
It has a bright sound and finishes on do.
Now let’s sing the last phrase:
I’m bound away
It’s definitely going down isn’t it. Is it stepping down or skipping down to do?
Try singing mi re do and then so mi do
And sing up and down the scale from do to la:
So our last phrase is mi re do!
What does the first phrase start with? Sing mi re do again to help find the note….
It’s mi!
How about the whole of the first phrase?
Hum the tune and thing about which way it goes…..
We can hear it go down a step from mi… so it’s:
Mi mi mi re mi…
And then it goes up but by how much?
Sing through the scale again using the picture above to help find it.
Let’s try the options:
Mi mi mi re mi fa fa mi…
Mi mi mi re mi so so mi…..
That sounds like it! Let’s check it definitely isn’t la:
Mi mi mi re mi la la mi
No, it definitely isn’t la!
How about the next phrase? What does it start with? The same or different to the first phrase?
Different.
Is it higher or lower?
Lower
So it starts with… re!
Think about the shape of the melody again: it goes down a step to do and then up again by a skip to…. fa
Does the second phrase go as high as the first phrase? Try repeating the phrases to check.
It doesn’t go as high. And can you notice a pattern? We have a sequence! It’s the same pattern of notes but lower.
And the third phrase is the same as….. the first phrase.
Let’s sing the whole thing in solfa:
Want more advice and ideas?
If you found this blog useful. Please comment below if you did or if there is anything you would like to say to me about it. If you’d like to find out more about teaching your students the fa and much more, including over a year’s worth of lesson plans for teaching all the important musical skills with Helen’s clear microsteps, why not try out Doremi Membership for 14 days for just £1?
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