As a person new to celtic music, can anyone enlighten me on the differences between the different types of tunes? What is a reel? How does it differ from a jig? What are other types of tunes???
OK…here goes:
A jig is always in 6/8, 9/8 or 12/8 time. A jig in 9/8 is also called a “slip jig” (and sometimes 12/8 jigs are called “slides”).
If the prevailing note pattern is eighth note/quarter note, it’s a single jig. If the prevailing note pattern is repeating groups of eighth notes, it’s a double jig.
Some common examples: “I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In” is a single jig, “The Irish Washerwoman” is a double jig, O Keefe’s Slide is, well, a slide, and “The Rocky Road to Dublin” is a slip jig.
Reels are written in 4/4 time, but played with two beats to the bar. They tend to be played rather fast. There’s also a slower type of reel from Scotland called a “Strathspey.”
Hornpipes are similar to reels, but they are generally played slower, with a stronger accent, and they generally have longer A and B sections.
An air is basically a song-like tune (in fact, many of them have words, and can be sung). Airs are generally much slower than the dance tunes, with a considerably less rigid structure, and with much opportunity for ornamentation. One common example of an air that immediately springs to mind is Londonderry Air (“Danny Boy”).
Redwolf
[ This Message was edited by: Redwolf on 2002-12-31 11:24 ]
Also, here’s a site you’ll find useful:
Clips](http://www.tinwhistletunes.com/clipssnip/%22%3EClips) ‘n’ Snips. It has tunes from every category, so you can get a feel for what’s what.
Welcome, by the way! What part of NC are you from? I lived in Durham for nearly 10 years before returning to California, and I loved it very much 
Redwolf
Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Waltzes, are all tunes for dances. Aire are usually the melodies from songs. Songs have lyrics and are sung.
Most of the tunes are have two 8 measure parts (A and B) each part is usually made up of two 4 measure phrases. When played the each part (A or B) is played twice: AABB (32 measures). The AABB complete tune is usually played 3 times. Often tunes are played in sets that include 2-4 tunes with simular tempo, for example 3 jigs, 3 reels.
The length of a measure corresponds to the time signatures mentioned in the above post. A jig in 6/8 would have 6 beats to a measure with and 8th note getting one beat. A reel in 4/4 would hav 4 beats to the measure with the quarter note getting one beat. Additionally accents generally fall on consistent beats within each measure, for example, reels tend to have accented 1st beats in each measure (Dah, da, da, da) or the 1st and 3rd (Daahh, da, Dah, da). Often this pattern holds true for most of the measures in the tune, with variations tending to occure on the last measure of a phrase (4th/8th measures) or part (8th measure).
All of this is usually. But that gives you an Idea of the structural common characteristics of the music.
Chris Smith wrote a book Celtic Back-up for instrumentalist that has a lot of good stuff in regarding the differences between jigs, reels, etc. It also includes 99 tracks on a CD that demonstrate the various things he mentions in his book. Some of the information is available in text format at his website: Coyote](http://www.geocities.com/coyotebanjo/instruction/%3ECoyote) Banjo
Another source is Standing](http://www.standingstones.com/tmirel.html%3EStanding) Stones: Topic in Traditional Irish Music
Also check the C&F board topic: <a href=http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?topic=332&forum=1>Jigs Reels, etc … What Makes Them So?
Or search, or post the question to the <a href=http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewforum.php?forum=8&1357>C&F: Irish Traditional Music Forum
Hope this helps you identify with the tunes so you can more fully …
Enjoy Your Music,
Lee Marsh
[ This Message was edited by: LeeMarsh on 2002-12-31 12:16 ]
well…a common way to decipher reels is that they are usually played at the end of a concert to get people to clap. If you feel like clapping, it’s usually a reel. At least, that’s how you can look at it without counting the beats. The others you have to count. Airs are slow and song-like, like the good people above me stated.
You get to where you can identify a jig pretty quickly, I think…the meter is so distinctive (that driving ONE-two-three, FOUR-five-six)…particularly with double jigs. There’s a real lilt to a jig that’s easy to pick up on, once you’ve heard a few.
Redwolf
As Laura Lengnick, a fiddler around here, explained how to tell while listening:
Each syllable represents an eighth note:
One bar of a jig = “jiggedy jiggedy”
One bar of a reel = “watermelon watermelon”
Sorry–the tap-your-foot test doesn’t work for me. I tap on everything (with some confusion on slip jigs, though, if I’m trying to tap down-up (down-up-down, up-down-up)).
M
Marguerite
Gettysburg
[ This Message was edited by: mvhplank on 2002-12-31 12:50 ]
So would each bar of a hornpipe be “Upsy Daisy?” 
I like that method.
Redwolf
Where in NC are you located, hwebbjr?
Or, jigs are “Rashers-and-sausages, rashers-and-sausages”…
I like that one better!
Deirdre
On 2002-12-31 15:05, fluter_d wrote:
Or, jigs are “Rashers-and-sausages, rashers-and-sausages”…
I like that one better!
Deirdre
I bet the entertainment quotient in saying “rashers-and-sausages” over and over goes up after a couple of Guinesses, eh?
(Have some for me!)
M
Well… doesn’t everything get better?
Actually, I can’t stand the stuff - will substitutions work ok?
Deirdre
Thanks to all! I certainly have a lot to learn!
Nobody else does “paradimethylaminobenzaldehyde” for a
jig??
I need to spread the mnemonic around a bit!
Bravo for the concise, precise description, Redwolf. I wish I’d read this kind of digests some time ago. What a shortcut!
May I just submit the just title for aka “Danny boy” may be, in just temperament, just this – Derry Air ?
An Air is from Eire
On 2002-12-31 18:57, Zubivka wrote:
Bravo for the concise, precise description, Redwolf. I wish I’d read this kind of digests some time ago. What a shortcut! >May I just submit the just title for aka “Danny boy” may be, in just temperament, just this – Derry Air ?
An Air is from Eire
My daughter gets the giggles whenever I play that tune, ever since I told her the name of it. She’s in that fourth grade “potty humor” stage, and the one and only word she knows in French is “derriere”! Now it’s “mom’s playing the butt song! Mom’s playing the butt song!”
Redwolf
My daughter gets the giggles whenever I play that tune, ever since I told her the name of it. She’s in that fourth grade “potty humor” stage, and the one and only word she knows in French is “derriere”! Now it’s “mom’s playing the butt song! Mom’s playing the butt song!” >
Redwolf
Heh, the butt song! So, er, when am I supposed to grow out of that sort of humour again? He he he, the butt song! (collases in fits of Homer Simpson-like giggles)
Here, “derrière” is a cute word, not a no-no; only translation I’d agree with would be “fanny”. How old is she?
Oh, fanny boy… [smoked-through half-octave-span 2nd tenor]
On 2003-01-02 13:11, Zubivka wrote:
Here, “derrière” is a cute word, not a no-no; only translation I’d agree with would be “fanny”. How old is she?Oh, fanny boy… [smoked-through half-octave-span 2nd tenor]
“Oh fanny boy…” Oh dear! Now I’M going to get the giggles!
Johanna’s nine (10 in February), and is at the point where everything pertaining to the…er, fanny…is funny. I’ve tried to train her to use less vulgar terms ("Johanna! Can’t you think of a word other than “butt”???), but fourth graders seem to like to use the “shockiest” words they think they can get away with. Of course, it doesn’t help that I inadvertantly encouraged her…the first time she asked the name of that tune, I said “It’s the Londonderry Air” (why, oh why didn’t I say “Danny Boy”?) and she said, in that innocent, deadpan voice “I didn’t know cities HAD butts!” and I, of course, spewed wine halfway across the room…all the encouragement an almost-10-year-old needs, I’m afraid!
Redwolf
On 2002-12-31 15:05, fluter_d wrote:
Or, jigs are “Rashers-and-sausages, rashers-and-sausages”…
I like that one better!
Deirdre
What is it with greasy breakfast and ITM? Does anyone else recall the opening chapter of Ciaran Carson’s Last Night’s Fun? It states, slightly simplified, that unless on the morning after last night’s fun you eat potatos, bacon, sausages, and the like all mixed and fried in copious amounts of lard in a bar you can’t find ever again while smoking cigarettes and looking whistfully at your instrument cases, you haven’t understood Irish Traditional Music.
It certainly explains my failure…
/bloomfield
[ This Message was edited by: Bloomfield on 2003-01-02 15:48 ]