Actually I think the counting might depend on how fast you play the reels. I spent a lot of time listening to and watching a well-known fiddler in sessions in London years ago. When the reels began to come to the boil he would start tapping his foot in double-time, heel and toe - four to a bar. This was a sure sign that the excitement level was about to head into the stratosphere.
In more than one band I have played in I or another musician would count a whispered 1-2-3-4 as a lead in to fast reels, and that was one barâs worth.
Youâd be surprised. I donât know about websites, but I have a couple of books that have jigs listed as reels and vice versa (and one that even has a hornpipe listed as a âjigâ!). The Mel Bay books are notorious for messing such things up (donât even get me started on their translations of the Irish titles!).
My own way of explaining it is that if it goes did-dl-ey did-dl-ey, did-dl-ey did-dl-ey itâs a jig.
If it goes diddle diddle, diddle diddle itâs a reel.
Jigs and reels are very easy to tell apart, and if you listen to one after the other then youâll probably never confuse them. What can sometimes baffle a beginner is telling the difference between reels and hornpipes.
Airs tend to be slower, and tend to be done in a much looser kind of time. For example, Boolavogue is often written down in waltz time, but if you listen to many recorded versions where itâs done air style (not as in air-guitar though), particularly the Dubliners instrumental version youâd probably never guess what the time sig was supposed to be.
I think the bottom line with airs is that they are song tunes. Some move along quite briskly, some are very slow, some are highly ornamented a la sean nos singing, etc.
I canât remember who came up with this mnemonic, but itâs stood me in good stead:
