“The Wedding Dress Song” in Aeolian Mode

“The Wedding Dress Song” truly sounds like it just came out of somewhere deep in the Appalachian Mountains. It is melancholy, sad and mysterious. Plus, the melody is rhythmic and the lyrics rhyme but they seem somewhat nonsensical. The song is played in the Aeolian mode, a minor sounding mode which gives the haunting melody. It certainly doesn’t sound like a joyous, celebration of a wedding. Peggy Seeger, folksinger from the 1960s era, is one of the musicians who recorded this song. Peggy plays a fingerpicking-style, 5-string banjo to accompany her singing on “The Wedding Dress Song.” Her powerful voice turns this song into a beautiful but mournful ballad. With some research, I found several ways to tune the dulcimer to play in the Aeolian mode. For folks who enjoy music theory, I have provided information on the Aeolian mode for the dulcimer. Otherwise, just skip to the bottom of the post and the tune. It is possible to make tablature arrangements for each of my five dulcimer Aeolian tunings. The DAC tuning is my favorite one and I share my arrangement for this Aeolian mode tuning.

Folk Music of the 50’s and 60’s

Although I certainly sang much of the folk music from the 1950s and 1960s, I really didn’t know much about the musicians behind the songs. The 2024 movie, “A Complete Unknown,” helped me understand alot of the back story of Bob Dylan. That was new information for me!

Pete Seeger was also featured in this movie as a mentor to Bob Dylan. (And one of Pete Seeger’s idols was Arlo Guthrie.) I admit that I didn’t know much abut Pete Seeger; but now realize that many of the folk songs of that era are associated with him. Many of his songs are related to social justice issues and the “protest movements” of these decades. He is known for, “If I Had a Hammer”, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”, “Turn, Turn, Turn”, “We Shall Overcome”, “Little Boxes”, “John Henry”, “This Land is Your Land” and “Guantanamera.” As part of The Weavers, a folk group from 1948 until the 1952, the group is known for “Wimoweh”, “Kisses Sweeter than Wine”, “Rock Island Line”, “The Midnight Special”, “Follow the Drinking Gourd”, and On top of Old Smokey”, “Sloop John B,”and “Goodnight Irene.”

If Pete Seeger didn’t write the song, he at least popularized it. I can remember singing all these songs, back in the day of folk music and coffee houses!

Peggy Seeger is the half-sibling of Pete Seeger in this talented family of musicians and social activists. Peggy lived much of her adult life in England and is not as well known as her brother in America. Although she plays guitar, five-string banjo, autoharp, Appalachian dulcimer and English concertina, she mainly sees herself as a singer. For many years, she toured England with her husband, playing folk music across the country.

About “The Wedding Dress Song”

Peggy Seeger, Penny and Barbara Seeger recorded “The Wedding Dress Song” in 1957 on the album, “American Folk Songs,” by Folkways. Peggy plays the 5-string banjo to accompanying her singing voice. Even though Peggy hails from New York City, she can really sing this ballad in an authentic Appalachian mountain style. I love the “staccato” fingerpicked banjo accompaniment and know there must be a way you can do this on the dulcimer — hey, dulcijo!

Peggy Seeger also selected “The Wedding Dress Song” to be included her Smithsonian Folkways Recordings album, “Songs of Love and Politics” released in 1992.

I used Peggy Seeger’s song as the basis for my version. “The Wedding Dress Song” is also found in Neal Hellman’s “Dulcimer Songbook” and in a self-published book by Katie Waldern.

Not much is known about the origins of “The Wedding Dress Song.” The notes to the “American Folk Songs” album simply says, “from Tennessee.” Other sources say Pete Seeger learned it from Aunt Molly Jackson (1880 – 1960). Aunt Molly Jackson was one of 15 children and was from Clay County, Kentucky. She was married at the age of 14 years. She learned folks songs from her grandmother and was a coal mine unionizer — after several family members perished in coal mining accidents. Eventually in the 1930s, she traveled to New York City where she was “discovered” by folks singers such as Woodie Guthrie, Pete Seeger and folk song collector Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress. She stayed in New York for much of that decade and was a part of the Greenwich Village folk revival.

The “Wedding Dress Song” has a number of verses regarding the stitching of various colors of trim onto a wedding dress. Presumedly, the young lady is “sewing all day and all night.” When asked one time about the symbolism of the colors of trim, Peggy Seeger responded that the song was short, she just needed additional verses that rhymed! And so, there apparently is not alot of meaning to behind the verses in this song. However, the Aeolian mode gives this song a mounful, ballad-like feeling. Perhaps, the young lady was not looking forward to her wedding day. Create your own explanation.

Modes and Musical Scales

Back to modes and musical scales. To summarize, our Western music is built around a 12-note scale — all the white and black keys on a piano. These are the notes which our ears are “trained” to hear in music. This is a chromatic scale.

The dulcimer fretboard, however, only has 7 notes which correspond to the “white keys” on a piano. It is called a diatonic scale.

The unequal placement of frets on the dulcimer fretboard corresponds to the “whole” steps (natural note and sharp note) and “half” steps (natural notes which are missing a sharp note) of this scale. Notice that there are only two “half” steps in the scale. See where they are located.

This pattern of whole and half notes makes up the “major” scale — also called the “Ionian” mode. There are only found on two places on the dulcimer fretboard where this pattern is found: “0” fret to “7” fret and “3” fret to “10” fret.

Aeolian Mode

If you begin to play a scale on any other fret on the dulcimer fretboard, then there is a different pattern “whole” and “half” notes. Some of the notes seem “flat” or “mournful.” And that’s what identifies these “modes” and the “minor” sound that we hear.

The Aeolian Mode is one of these “mournful” mode patterns. It is the most common “minor” pattern that we are used to hearing. Playing only the white keys on a piano keyboard, the Aeolian mode begins with the “A” note and goes up the keyboard. As you can see, it has a different pattern of “whole” and “half” steps compared to the “Ionian” mode. Both of the two “half” steps have moved positions in placement on the scale pattern compared to the Ionian mode.

Playing in the Aeolian Mode on a Dulcimer

There are several ways to play a song in the Aeolian mode (and keeping this pattern of whole and half notes) on the dulcimer depending on how the dulcimer is tuned. For example, you can play songs in A-Aeolian, or D-Aeolian or E-Aeolian.

A-Aeolian tuning does not have any sharp or flat notes. However, other Aeolian scales (such as D-Aeolian and E-Aeolian) will have some flats or sharps to compensate for the pattern of whole and half steps.

The Aeolian mode is almost identical to the Dorian mode. On the dulcimer, for example, the Aeolian mode uses the “6” fret and the Dorian mode uses the “6-1/2” fret. Some songs don’t use this fret at all, I guess the mode depends on harmonizing notes or the “feel” of the song as to the mode.

Here are several dulcimer tunings for playing songs in the Aeolian mode (I have provided a PDF file at the end of this post of all of these tunings which you can download.):

1. A-Aeolian tuning — tune to DAD, and the scale goes from the 4th to the 11th fret using the 8-1/2 fret. This is not a common way to play tunes in the Aeolian mode. For example, you need an 8-1/2 fret to play it.

2. A-Aeolian tuning — tune to DGD and capo 1 at the first fret. The scale begins on the middle string. This tuning also is not used alot but is certainly should be considered. I think of “Cluck Old Hen” in this tuning.

3. D-Aeolian tuning — tune to DAC. The scale begins at the 1st fret and goes to the 8th fret, using the 6 fret and not the 6-1/2 fret. With this tuning, it is easy to see how similiar the Aeolian and Dorian tuning are. (The Dorian tuning uses the 6-1/2 fret.) I like this tuning because you still have the open pitch (the “0” fret) available to play. Not having to cross to the middle string can make a huge difference in the tones of a song.

4. D-Aeolian tuning — tune to DAG. The scale begins at the 4th fret and goes to the 11th fret. It also uses the 8-1/2 fret. This tuning is not used much; but I love it. It provides a clean, balanced sound on most dulcimers. It doesn’t use a capo and has lots of notes below the “key note” so the song can usually be played entirely on the melody string. (It the song you are playing doesn’t contain the Bb note, then it doesn’t matter if you have the 8-1/2 fret — and many folksongs don’t contain this scale note.) Remember, if you are retuning a dulcimer from DAD to DAG, remember to tune the melody string down and not up to get to “G”.

5. E-Aeolian tuning – tune to DAD and capo “1” fret. This tuning is for folks who don’t like to retune their dulcimers. Just add on a capo! However, you may have to cross to the middle string, if the song goes below the “key note” and this gives a different “feel” to the music.

Dulcimer Tablature for “The Wedding Dress Song”

I am providing tablature for the DAC tuning arrangement of “The Wedding Dress Song.” This tuning is D – Aeolian. You can also play this song in each of the different Aeolian tunings shown above. Each arrangement has a different “vibe.” (Message me if you are interested in these arrangements.)

Peggy Seeger fingerpicked her banjo and sang (rather than playing the song’s melody on the banjo). I have included an assortment of chords above the standard music staff to fingerpick and use as backup. These are simply suggestions for chords. Since the song only has two chords, it is easy to mix and match the different chord fingerings to change things up.

I have given suggestions for hammer-on’s for grace notes in measures #6 and #7. My tablature also includes several slides and pull-off’s. I like to use these “ornaments,” but these are entirely optional. Measures #4 and #8 have alternate tablature. I omit the eighth notes in these measures when playing the tablature arrangement to make the strum on the first beat stronger; but technically these notes should be included in the melody.

I love this song and could play it for hours! According to You Tube, any number of contemporary artists have covered this song. They all have given their own “take” to the song and some of these arrangements go in completely different directions.

Enjoy “The Wedding Dress Song.” It’s a great modal Appalachian mountain song for the dulcimer. And, quite easy to play, I might add.

A PDF file is included after this image so you can print it out and share with friends. I just ask that you don’t publish it or up-load it to public internet sites. After the song, I provide a PDF file of a summary of all of these Aeolian tunings.