Sing, Move, Play Like a Pirate in Music Class (2024)

FAQs

What makes music sound like pirate music? ›

One of the most distinctive features of pirate music is its use of simple, repetitive chord progressions. These progressions often consist of just a few chords that are repeated over and over again, with the lyrics fitting into the chord changes.

Pirate music, also known as sea shanties, are a traditional form of maritime folk song that were sung by sailors and pirates during the golden age of piracy in the 18th and 19th centuries.

It wasn't all singing: fiddles, flutes or fifes, banjos, and the concertina (similar to an accordion) were commonly found aboard ships. During their heyday, sea chanteys were not sung ashore, as they were the work songs of the sailor and held special meaning just to them.

Pirate sea shanties may be familiar to you. Ask yourself, “What would you do with a drunken sailor?” and you're halfway to belting out your own version of a centuries-old, traditional song. The history of sea shanties stretches back to the Golden Age of Piracy and has continued in various forms.

What is music piracy? Piracy is defined as "unauthorized duplication on a commercial scale of copyrighted work with the intention to defraud the rights holder".

Making unauthorized copies of copyrighted music recordings is against the law and may subject you to civil and criminal liability. A civil lawsuit could hold you responsible for thousands of dollars in damages.

CHANTEY, shan' te, a traditional sailors' song, particularly the cadenced work songs of English and American sailors. “Forecastle songs,” in contrast to chanteys (or shanties), were sung simply for entertainment and are often nautical variants of old English, Irish, and Scots ballads.

Shanties are songs that were sung by sailors and pirates as they sailed the seven seas, intended to keep the men both entertained and motivated during their long spells at sea. The word shanty is sometimes spelled “chanty” as it is derived from the French word “chanter,” which means to sing.

On the open sea, shanties helped facilitate the timing and pace of labor, not to mention the songs provided a distraction from the arduous tasks at hand. - Typically at moments when sailors needed to synchronize their labor to furl or unfurl sails, they needed to work in unison.

The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin (or Nyckelharpa) bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin.

What is the pirate accordion called? ›

Despite the pop-culture association of the concertina with the Golden Age of Piracy, the concertina was invented nearly 100 years after the heyday of piracy in North America.

A sea shanty, shanty, chantey, or chanty (/ˈʃæntiː/) is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels.

Sailors and pirates tended to be very superstitious - that is, they had a fear of the unknown and used it to explain misfortune (bad things that happened). Living and working on a ship in the middle of the seven seas was a very dangerous job.

Instead of a simple “hello,” ye be sayin' “Ahoy!” or “Avast!” And when it comes to “goodbye,” swap it with a hearty “Fair winds!” or “May yer anchor be ever tight!” Arr, it's all about the seafaring flair, ye see. Example: Pirate 1: “Ahoy there, matey! How be ye doin' today?” Pirate 2: “Avast, I be well!

The shanty genre was typified by flexible lyrical forms, which in practice provided for much improvisation and the ability to lengthen or shorten a song to match the circ*mstances. Its hallmark was call and response, performed between a soloist and the rest of the workers in chorus.

Their accent was part of the West Country English which was in the poorer parts of the country - ship builders and young men with little to lose. Blackbeard was presumed to have been born in Bristol. Francis Drake was born in Tavistock. These locations are both firmly in the West Country English dialect.

The Packet Rats of the Western Ocean Packets were almost one hundred per cent Irish… and as these seamen were responsible for many of our finest shanties it was only natural for them to choose tunes and words from Irish sources when they made up these songs.