I’m trying to practice rolls and put them in more tunes I’m playing. Some times in a jig or slide I come up with a quarter note, eighth note, eighth note sequence all on the same note (let’s say a B) followed by some other note (usually eighth note) on a different note (let’s say an A). I could do a roll over the quarter note and first eighth note on B followed by the eighth note on B and then the next note on A (for the example above) or I could play a eighth note on B and then a roll over three eight notes on B followed by the note on A. The first senario seems truer to the written dots on the music but the second senario sounds better to my ear. (One piece I’m learning is Denny Mescall’s Slide)
Hope that’s clear - my wife seldom understands my questions like this but she’s a classically traiined muscian and we often seem worlds apart.
What do others do in this situation (with the rolls, not the wife).
So I guess you are asking - can you turn the first quarter note into two 8th notes if you feel like it?
I would say - yes!
Oftentimes sheet music is just an approximation, a skeleton of how Irish musicians play a tune. Very commonly, people will change their articulation patterns as you describe. When I was at a workshop over the summer the instructor never, ever played a tune exactly the same way twice. The variations were subtle, but they were definitely there - I have MP3’s to prove it! In fact, variation is something that really good players do constantly - in order to keep tunes interesting. The trick is making the variations subtle and tasteful.
The issue is - how much can you change something and have it be “acceptable” ? The answer is - listen a whole bunch and go from there. In other words, an educated ear can sort out what works and what does not.
One thing to keep in mind - instuments must, by design, articulate notes in different ways. A tune played on a box cannot be played the same was as on a fiddle or pipes - it’s not physically possible. So there is some built-in leeway in how to interpet a tune.
EDIT: I’m learning the tune “Bunker Hill” at the moment. As an example of what I am talking about, I find it very dificult to play a certain passage in the B part. the sheetmusic I have has a cnatural followed by a triplet, also on Cnat. Because I find this impossible to articulate by successive taps with my index finger, I’m going through a number of diferent options on how to play this part of the tune. One of them involves just ditching the triplet. It still sounds OK - just a bit different from the original version.
Hope this helps, or is at least somewhat on topic.
We were just talking about this at our session Tuesday night.
I have been learning “Pigeon on the Gate” I have 2 charts and 2 or 3 recordings and none of them “match”. Some measures do more than others but - well, there you are. The written charts get ya close, listen and find your way.
Well, I wouldn’t normally roll across more than one beat. Not saying that you can’t do it, but you’d better have a rock solid rhythm before you do, and even then, it seems like you’d be in danger of losing the internal rhythm in the beat unless you really know what you are doing.
The exception to that, which might work here, is what I think of as an extra long roll – a full roll followed by a cut into another note of the same value. I do that sometimes at the start of “Shores of Lough Gowna”, which starts with a lot of Bs. But I just as often hold the note, or bend up into it.
I wouldn’t worry about splitting the B quarter note into two eighths in a double jig. I might worry about it on the downbeat in a slide, however. I’m still learning the subtleties of this stuff, but I believe a slide should have emphasis on the third eighth of the first beat of the measure and the downbeat of the second beat, if that makes any sense. I’d be afraid that mucking around with the first quarter note might throw that off.