I have many “loose” (I don’t know if it’s well said) jigs and reels, and I’d like to make nice sets with them, because I don’t want to play them one-by-one.
But I’m quite bad to that, and I’d like that anyone help me to put them in sets. I’ll put the list of jigs and reels that I know, and if you know some of them, and you think in two or three that would fit well in a set, it’d be great that you tell me.
Jigs (including slip jigs):
-The Butterfly
-Denis Ryan’s
-Kid On The Mountain
-Morrison’s Jig
-The Swallowtail Jig
-The Monaghan’s Jig
-The Kesh Jig
-The Old Favourite
-Connaughtman’s Rambles
-I Buried My Wife
-The Cat’s Meow
-Banish Misfortune
-The Irish Washerwoman
-The Tenpenny Bit
-Calliope House
-Eddie Kelly
-Tobin’s Favourite
-The Sailor’s Wife
-Garret Barry’s
-Mooncoin (I’m learning it)
-O’Gallagher’s Frolics - AKA The Clare Jig (I’m learning it)
Reels:
-Cooley’s Reel
-The Banshee
-Gravel’s Walk
-The Bag Of Spuds
-Rolling In The Ryegrass
-The Silver Spear
-The New Copperplate
-The Ashplant
-Tamlin (The Glasgow Reel)
-The Glass Of Beer
-Saint Anne’s Reel
-Dinky Dorian’s
-The Curragh Races
-The Morning Dew
-Maid Behind The Bar
-Maid Of Monsico
-Golden Keyboard
-Toss The Feathers
Currently, I only play this sets:
-The Butterfly / Denis Ryan’s
-Banish Misfortune / Garret Barry’s
-The Old Favourite / The Kesh
-The Silver Spear / Maid Behind The Bar
-Gravel Walk / Curragh Races / (sometimes I add Bag Of Spuds)
So, if you know a nice set with those jigs and reels, I’ll be thankful of knowing it.
I can’t really address your question, but will be interested in the replies and was actually wondering if there is some scheme/rhyme/method for putting them together as I often see them that way on various CD tracks.
Trial and error. If you say you aren’t good at it, then you must not be satisfied with the results, so try something else.
Some people like to play classic sets the way they are traditionally played, like Down the Broom/Gatehouse Maid, or Tarbolton/Longford Collector/Sailor’s Bonnet (classic Michael Coleman set). But I think it’s more fun to mix things up a bit and to make up sets on the fly. I understand that you want to think some up first, in case you’re called on to start a set and a bit nervous.
Here are few suggestions:
Key changes are good. Old-fashioned players will play sets of tunes, all in the same key, but nowadays it’s more common to have nice distinct key changes between the tunes, like Amix, Em, G or G, Em, G, etc etc.
Don’t make sets out of closely related tunes or you’ll go mad. Like George White’s Favorite/Humours of Lissadell
Avoid combining different tune types in a set, until you are pretty good at it. Even then NEVER go from a reel into a jig. Jig into Reel can be exciting if you do it well (cf. Bothy Band: Rip the Callico set, where they go from Leitrim Fancy into Around the World for Sport - the same tune played first as a jig, then as a reel). Then there is the March/Strathspey/Reel thing Scots players are fond of.
Pay attention to the internal rhythms of the tune (especially reels). Some work better together than others; but change is exciting, too.
Five-part tunes can stand on their own pretty well.
When making sets on the fly, quit while you’re ahead.
Listen to lots of recordings for inspiration (duh).
Bloomfield: Your points were very helpful, there are things that I didn’t know it.
Sometimes I try to mix the tunes making sets, but I use to do it with VERY RELATED ones (i.e.: Gravel Walk / Curragh Races / and-or Bag Of Spuds, and I go mad, indeed
It sounds well because they are very similar, but I don’t like it, and I prefer the feel when you change to another key.
For example, once I heard a jig set consisted of Morrison’s / The Kesh, and it sounded very nice.
So, if there’s not a rule, I’ll just try to see which tune goes well with another, without mixing reels with jigs (I also prefer not to mix them).
Anyways, if you, people, know a good set that I can do with those tunes, let me know.
By the way.. I use to see 2 tunes sets and 3 tunes sets. What’s the rule to do that? If a tune is very short (i.e. “Rolling In The Ryegrass”) it’d be better to make a 3 tunes set with it? Or it doesn’t matter and I can put it with only one more reel and repeat each one a lot of times?
The only thing I dislike is rules about how many tunes there should be in an set or how often they should be played. I used to go to a session occasionally where each tune was to be played twice through. Not satisfying, mainly for its rigidity. At the sessions I go to most often now, the tunes get played until the musicians are done with them: sometimes three times, sometimes eight times. Nothing wrong with playing a single tune 10 times through if you keep it interesting.
Can I suggest to you another approach to this that might be just as valuable to you as constructing sets? (not that you should not also construct a few nice sets for yourself too)
Take two of your tunes and learn to play them one after the other in either order - a good drill for this is to play one once round and then jump straight into the other, play that one once round and then jump straight back into the first etc. etc.
Once you are comfortable moving both directions between them, add a third tune from your list to them and practice jumping from one to the other to the third in any order.
And so on - keep adding tunes such that you get a corps of tunes that are interchangeable as far your ability to jump into them on the fly, and mix and match them depending on what tune you feel like throwing on next, (or what tune presents itself to you) rather than being locked into sets all the time. Each tune you play will allow different directions for you to continue.
Then you can do things like sit at the kitchen table with a cup of tea and enjoy stringing tunes together as they come to you, and seeing for fun how long you can go before you run dry - Judge by how cool your tea gets.
As to moving from type to type, you can do whatever you like in your own kitchen (with a nice cup of tea), but would be rather less likely to do it in a session - perhaps more likely if (like Lunasa) you happen to be making a recording and can carefully construct and arrange sets.
By the way, hile I agree that it is tricky to do well, I wouldn’t agree that you can never go into a jig from a reel.
However, when dealing with what you are likely to play in sessions, I would get my basics right first - that is, being able to play tunes of a type together, and being able to add more tunes of the type on while playing.
bepoq: Thanks for the input!
Stan: That webpage is so helpful, very nice!!!
I’m currently trying to build the sets, in a first instance, without taking into account the key modes of each tune, and I think I’m being able to do ‘something’.
For example, I realized that this set would fit quite good: Tobin’s Favourite (Gmaj) / O’Gallagher’s Frolics (Edor) / Tenpenny Bit (Ador)
But I also realized two reels in the same key that goes well together: The New Copperplate / The Banshee (both in Gmaj). They’re both in the same key but I don’t find them very similar, it would be okay if I wanted to put them together?
This is a wonderful set for many reasons. I particularly love how they morph the B part of Elizabeth Kelly’s into the B part of Jim Ward’s, highlighting the similarities.
Good god, why are you asking mate? If they sound good together for you, play them together, for you - however, I would also (as I said) learn them with other tunes too - have another tune that you sometimes drop between them and other times don’t for example. In short, don’t get locked into one way of playing - in the small (from phrase to phrase) and the medium ([forgot the medium] - from repeat to repeat) and the large (from tune to tune).
Great thread! I wouldn’t say that I was particularly struggling with putting sets together but it is interesting to think about these things.
Anyway bothrops of the tunes that I know off of your list I’ve heard the Kesh and Connaughtman’s Rambles played together a bunch of times. In either order it works well too I think.
My credentials aren’t nearly as lengthy as others who have posted here but here’s how I generally “stumble” across sets. I tend to hear a tune and want to learn it, wind up getting a few different recordings and if I find one in a good set I will usually become enamored of the next tune in the set and immediately learn that one. It’s cheating I guess but it works. Plus the energy of that particular set is already tried and true so I can really see how to string tunes together.
After a while I learn to split them up or add other tunes. Or I’ll stumble across a tune and think “Wow this would just go great with such and such”.
My proudest achievement is the nothing special set of Denise Ryan’s + Butterfly ended with a reel, The Woman I Left Behind.
Try these: Jigs and slip jigs,
Katie come down from Limerick (G)/ The Butterfly (Em)/ Kid on the mountain (Em).
Tripping up the stairs (D)/ Donnybrook fair (G)/ Morrison’s (Em).
Kesh jig (G)/ Tenpenny bit (Am)/ Blackthorn stick (G).
Willies trip to Toronto (A)/ I buried my wife and I danced on her grave (D)/ Out on the ocean (A).
The Irish washerwoman (G)/ The musical Priest (Am).
(This is a set I made up about 10 years ago. I play The washerwoman as a jig then change it to a hornpipe for a nice change of a tune that has had the ‘Danny boy’ cringe effect for years!)
Green fields of Ardkiernan (Bm)/ Clamp of turf (G)/ Eddie Kelly’s (Em).
The Banshee (G)/ Rosecommon reel (Em)/ New copperplate (G).
Rolling in the ryegrass / The glass of beer/ The humours of Tulla.
The silver spear (D)/ Tie the bonnet/ Crowley’s No1.
The teetotaller/ Silver spear (D)/ Sligo maid (Am).
Bonnie Kate (D)/ Silver spear (D)/ High reel (A).
Maid behind the bar (D)/ Reel of Rio (D)
**Maid behind the bar (**D)/ Toss the feathers (Em) The tap room (Em).
These are just a few suggestions that come to mind straight away and are not set in stone. I have added the key for each tune where I can remember it. The silver spear is a fairly popular and versatile session tune that goes well with lots of others. Three tunes together are called sets, and although two tunes together are still a set, they are more often refered to as a medley.
So just play around with tunes that you think sound good together and work on getting the transition from one to another as smooth as possible.
The transition between tunes can make or break them. You wil know when it is right when people listening ‘whoop’ or ‘hup’ as you switch from one tune into another.
I’m still new at this as well, so I end up putting tunes together that I’ve heard played together on CD’s I have, sets that easily make sense to me and I can pull off (thus, I don’t try a Chieftains mixed set because usually they have transition bits between the reel to jig or jig to reel, e.g. Toss the Feathers=>cool tranisition bit by Matt Molloy=>Paddy picks up on pipes and freaks me out by changing from reel time to jig time on Lilting Banshee==not doable in a session, mate).
Sets I like so far:
Fig for a Kiss (slip jig Edor)/Contentment is Wealth (jig, Edor)
St. Annes (reel D)/Flowers of Edinburgh (reel G)
Slieve Russell (jig Ador)/Jimmy Ward’s (jig, G) from Matt Molloy’s Heathery Breeze
Still not up to adding that 3rd tune, maybe on the fly, we’ll see…
