I don’t know if this was talked through allready, therefor I appologize if it was, but how could I know right?
Recently I’ve been playing tunes in my head, in my mind, originally known as reels - but for some reason, my brain wanted to squeeze them into jigs.
And I must say, it works most of the time - playing with the same authentic feel and ornaments, just skipping a few notes and changing the overall pressure points of the melody.
I even had this done vice versa…
The question is if anyone had done this before - if it’s a big no - and if I need to come shield-protected to a session if I introduce it by chance…
Yup, it’s been done. A local sessioneer is pretty good at it in fact. He’s one of those intuitively natural musicians and can do weird stuff like convert reels to 7/8 time on the fly.
It happens to a hornpipe i murder.Because i now know it better im doing stuff with it and i always end up playing it fast jig style. i have to chop it here n there.i like it .On a similiar theme i seem to have a default mode or way i want a tune to sound and if im not careful everything i play seems to lean that way which can’t be good.
Time is such a wonderful thing. 6/8 tunes in 3/4, jigs as reels (I’ve never tried reel-to-jig, but it sound fun), but my fave is doing jigs in 11/8. It has a really neat lift by shortenning the last tripelet, and is easier than it sounds. 5/8 is nice, too, but it’s hard to hold together at high tempos.
Playing with a creative and competent percussionist is a real joy!
I’ve done the same. I’ve also found that a lot of reels sound interesting as hornpipes, give it a bit of a swing and it livens up the tune in a whole new way.
I have a friend here in North Carolina who is a fantastic clawhammer banjo player. (Donald Zepp of Zepp Country Music, in Wendell). He has proven to me that ANY tune can be what he calls “jigularized”. I’ve heard him play reels as jigs, waltzes as jigs, marches as jigs, hornpipes as jigs… (You get the idea). He considers it a challenge, and I haven’t heard him miss yet.
I think Chieftains did sometime a tune called “lots of drops of brandy” and remember they did it at least with different jig versions (slip jig, slide etc.). Not sure however as I don’t have the recording myself.
“Lot’s of Drops Of Brandy”, that’s the first track from the “Water From The Well” album. I don’t think they changed the tune from a slip jig but they did modify “The Drops of Brandy”. If I recall correctly, I think they added an extra bar to the A and B parts of the tune. There is a solo part on the pipes where it’s played the traditional way but the bulk of the tune is a modified arranged version.
This actually happens many times when I play a reel - I’m somehow attracted to hornipipes ;/ Gives it a nice story for a dub rythm too…
Thing with a jig, is that certains notes will have to go out - not necesserily each 4th in a beat - it gets quiet interesting to go about it and keeping the melody base almost the same You get to add new embelishments…
Making those 11/8 or 5/8 sounds interesting as well - haven’t tried and I wonder it’ll work for the most part… im a sucker for non conventional rythm signatures
Too bad you’ve only mentioned one tune recording, though it’s still something.
In our session, we often play a jig version of Tam Lin or the Glasgow Reel… don’t know if it’s been recorded before or whether the fiddler who introduced it ‘invented’ it himself.
It was even taught at a ‘boombal TLS’. The ABC file is available for download here: http://www.boombaltunes.be/tunes/abc/jg-glasgow_jig.abc ( from http://www.boombaltunes.be/ )
We also often start playing Brenda Stubbert’s reel as a hornpipe and then followed as a reel, gives a very nice lift imvho.
