Susan MacLean, native of Washabuck and now residing in the Sydney area of Cape Breton, comes from a deeply rooted musical background. She has performed at various events and has taught Cape Breton style piano accompaniment since the mid-90’s at St. Ann’s Gaelic College | Colaisde na Gàidhlig – impacting hundreds of students. She has recorded 30 online instructional videos with the Gaelic College which they see via their Online Learning programming. Susan has taught piano accompaniment at the Acadia Festival of Traditional Music & Dance in Maine, USA in 2024 and 2025. She is a board member of the Cape Breton Fiddlers’ Association, plays fiddle and composes music. Susan is a founding committee member of the Treasures of Youth | Stóras na h-Òigridh committee set up by the Nova Scotia Highland Village Museum. Susan’s enthusiasm for Cape Breton style piano comes from influences within her own extended family including her late grandfather Michael Anthony MacLean, late uncles Carl and Hector MacKenzie, cousins the Barra MacNeils and Gordon MacLean, as well as great aunt Theresa Morrison and great uncle Joe W. MacLean.
Susan is a notable presence at events like Celtic Colours International Festival and Kitchen Fest. She is renowned for her piano talents and has been featured on several recordings over the past number of years.
To form a chord, you typically need to select three notes from a scale and play them simultaneously. The most common type of chord is a triad which consists of three notes: the root, the third, and the fifth notes from the scale of the key you are in. The position of the triad chord would be played with the thumb, the middle finger and the pinky of your right hand. The root note is the foundation of your chord and determines its name. For example, to form a C major chord the root is C. The third note would be an E. To find the fifth note, you count up the natural scale from the C to the G note. There are more complex chords that add additional notes to the triad, such as seventh chords, or that alter the triad to make diminished chords or suspended chords. However, we will mainly focus on the basic chords.
Familiarity with songs or tunes helps when chording. Developing a repertoire of melodies so that they stick in your head over time can greatly enhance your ability to play by ear and improvise chords effectively. Exposure and practice to different tunes can gradually build this listening repertoire. For example, many folks may be familiar with the following children’s songs: Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Farmer in the Dell, or Are You Sleeping. These are one chord tunes. These melodies can be chorded to by playing the same chord throughout. Give it a try! Many Cape Breton tunes have predictable chording patterns. A chord chart is a chart that can be used by the accompaniment to outline the chords that will be used for a tune or song. It is very important to listen to traditional Cape Breton fiddle tunes whenever possible to enrich and expand your personal repertoire. The familiarity makes trying to chord to such tunes that much easier.
Typically a fiddle tune has at least two parts and each of those parts are likely to be in the same key. That is not always the case. For example, Miss Susan Cooper by Ronnie Cooper is in the key of D Major in the first part of the tune then it switched to Bm for the majority of the second part (relative minor). Some tunes may have 3, 4, or 5+) parts to them. Some tunes have unexpected chord changes, unusual rhythmic patterns, unconventional melodies, or unique harmonic progressions. These irregularities can add interest, complexity, and character to the music, challenging musicians to adapt and respond creatively. These tunes often require extra practice to master and require more attention to commit to memory. When a tune does not follow a common pattern, you may have to try to chord in a related key. For example, if you are in A minor, you may try its relative major chord, C major, or vice versa. You can also try going to the right or left a degree on the Circle of Fifths. Alternatively, a tune could be in G major and then the same tune could be played by shifting it completely up a whole step to the key of A major. Folks frequently do this shift with the traditional reel Far From Home. It adds interest to the performance.
Chording on an accompaniment instrument such as piano or guitar implies you are playing multiple notes simultaneously. Safe notes are notes less likely to class harmonically with other notes in a chord or melody. The safe notes are the root (the one), the third and the fifth note of the scale. For example, when playing the C chord on the piano, you would play C-E-G in the right hand. As these three notes are played at the same time, the left hand (bass hand) can play these three notes as they are complimentary to the C chord. The bass hand, when chording, typically plays octaves (eight-note spread using your stretched pinky and thumb), with the pinky finger and thumb: C-C, E-E, or G-G. Again, these are safe notes and often can substitute for the C-C octave as they are harmonically complimentary. The Octaves in the left hand are either played as a solid (E.g., pinky and thumb together at the same time with the chord) or as a broken octave (pinky and thumb in the left hand with the chord together). The pinky generally plays on the down beat (which is the main pulse of the tune or when you feel the urge to clap your hands or tap your foot).
Playing by ear is a valuable skill that allows musicians to learn and perform music without relying on sheet music or written notation. This skill requires a keen ear as well as an understanding of musical concepts such as melody, harmony, rhythm, and form. The best way to learn this is to listen repeatedly to a melody until it is internalized. Literally singing the tune really helps. Practice and experience are key to developing proficiency in playing by ear. Having a built-up listening repertoire gives you an advantage.
Chord inversions involve rearranging the order of the notes within a chord. The changes the position of the chord’s root note, creating a different sound sound while maintaining the same harmonic function. When playing a chord in the root position, for example for a C chord you will play C-E-G. If you take the C note (previously played with the thumb) and move it to the top of the sequence shifting your fingers so that your thumb plays E and your pinky, the C, you would play the first inversion of the C chord in this sequence E-G-C (the E and G being now below the C). The chord has the same notes, just in a different sequence. For the second inversion, shift your fingers so that the C would be played with your idle finger. The chord sequence now looks like G-C-E. Each inversion has a unique sound and can be used to create smooth chord progressions or interesting harmonic textures in music. These inversions add extra colour to your playing, and you are free to choose which one suits you and the tune best. It is my suggestion that you practice chord inversions for several chords to hear the different qualities of each one.
Determining the key of a tune involves finding the tonal center or home note. First, you need to listen for the overall “feel” of the tune. Major keys often sound brighter and happier, while minor keys tend to sound darker or more somber. The most common keys to troubleshoot first in the Cape Breton tradition would be the keys of A, D, and G in the major keys and A minor and E minor in the minor keys. Once you have exhausted exploring those keys, keep trying other keys. A good way to explore these different keys is to play the scales, arpeggios and chords in each key, listening to hear if they sound bright and happy or dark and somber, and to become more familiar with the different qualities of each of these keys. When all else fails, asking the soloist the key is okay, looking for the sheet music is okay, or waiting to match the resolution notes works sometimes as well.
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