Something that’s been bugging me a while. The difference between the two? All I can think of is… aside from the time signature, 12/8 for single jigs and 6/8 for double jigs, and as far as I know the rhythm is different, is that single jigs due to the longer bars, are called single jigs because you play each part once? Whereas on double jigs, you play each part twice… How true is that? Only logical explanation I can think of without no advice from an experienced individual on the matter. But I don’t know, cause I have recordings of Ennis playing single jigs, “double” and recordings of other individuals playing the same tunes “single”. The tunes that come to mind are Pat Ward’s and Ask My Father.
They are very different beasts. 12/8 is a whole bunch of little steps, but basically 4 beats to the bar. 6/8 has little steps, not so many of them, but is 3 beats to the bar. They feel quite different.
I always consider single jigs and slides to be more or less the same thing. They have a faster and livelier rhythm than double jigs and there is more emphasis on dotted quaver/semiquaver figures. Double jigs have more emphasis on the three-quavers-tied figure. I never did get the single/double bit and a lot of trad musicians don’t use the words much.