They are rather fond of Dinky’s Reel at our session. Must be easy on the fiddle. I find it very hard on the flute.
Is it hard on the flute because I’m a beginner and someday tunes like this will be easy? Or is there a special way to play a tune like this on the flute that makes it easier?
You could transpose it to say D mixolydian, which should make those octave jumps much easier.
X: 1
T: Dinkey's
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K:Dmix
|:AG|F2E2 DEFG|AcBc AGEG|cEEE cEdE|cEEE cBAG|
FGEF DEFG|AcBc AGEG|cBcG ABAG|F2E2 D2:|
|:Ac|dDDD dDeD|dDDD dcAB|cEEE cEdE|cEEE cBAc|
dDDD dDeD|dDDD dcAB|cBcG ABAG|FGEF D2:|
Cute reel though…
I don’t think the point is to make it easier. The point is to play it in her session, with the other musicians, in the key that they use.
Altan plays it with two sharps and if it’s good enough for Altan…
It’s one of those tunes that’s easy to learn but hard to play. But the return is huge. Big octave jumps, followed by rolls on the B. Simple melody but demanding technique.
It’s good for your chops, Diane. Just slow down and enjoy it for yourself. Soon enough you’ll be playing it in the session.
I usually play this one on banjo. I’d probably just take a break if it came up while I was on flute. 
I’ve never seen the other flute player play it. But at the last session he did say there was an easier way to play some other tune (don’t remember which one it was or what he showed me though), so I wondered if there was an easier way to play this one.
Some tunes sound nice in two keys, or one can change the key the second time through.
Good for the embrochure as well! 
This tune is great on Scottish pipes and fiddle but not so easy on flute.
As mentioned, the octave jumps are good embouchure exercise. Nudge your top lip out for the high note and down for the low.
Well, they’ll be easier. But mostly, yes.
Or is there a special way to play a tune like this on the flute that makes it easier?
The tough part for me is the lick at the beginning of the second part.
|aA~A2 aAbA|aA~A2 etc.
It sounds a little more clean if I tongue or glottal-stop the low A’s there, each time I drop into the bottom octave. A lip-slur up an octave sounds fine, but to my ear the bottom note needs a bit more definition.
That aAbA thing is a pain in the ass. If I’m feeling really lazy, I’ll play it
|aA~A2 aAab|aA~A2
or
|aA~A2 ab~b2|aA~A2
Really, though, all you have to do is practice the thing slowly and it will come. Just play the notes.
I’m not sure I understand what this means: |aA~A2 aAbA|aA~A2
Turns out as I was listening to some new music this morning I heard a whistle player playing dinky’s reel. He definitely does something in there that’s not the way it’s written. I’ll have to figure out what it is.
Did you see Michael Clarkson just put up a version on his Flute tunes site?
http://irishflute.podbean.com/
Just today! Seems he had be reading the boards today. 
That is ABC notation. Upper case letters are the first octave, lower case are the second octave. Duration of each letter is 1/8th so a 2 renders the preceding letter a quarter note. The tilda, ~, means a roll and the things that look like barlines… you guessed it.
Thanks. I wasn’t sure what the ~ meant.
I’m glad that without specifying what exactly I found difficult about the tune you were all able to zero in on exactly what it was! So ah-HA! It IS a difficult tune!
If it makes you feel any better, there are flute tunes that are not so fun on the fiddle either.
It’s just one of those tunes where you really have to keep at it and practice a lot to get it. It’s not my favorite tune to play on the flute, but it can sound nice when you’ve got some good fiddlers and box players to play with.
I love playing it in D on pipes…there’s a version of Joe McLaughlin playing it in D on the pipes floating around somewhere on the Internets…Always a good way to freak out your fiddle & box-playing friends…
He did a very nice job at it, too. Maybe I should leave that one for like 2 years from now. Maybe 10.
Perhaps someone can assist me in hunting for the Joe McLaughlin version…I’ve been compiling a nice little collection of his stuff.
Joe’s brother Dermot is a big one for Donegal tunes. Joe is (or was) a good fiddle player too, big on the Donegal stuff I believe. Dermot can also play the pipes. The two used to switch off sometimes…
This may be one of those situations where it’s easier to adapt a fiddle tune if you have at least a working knowledge and ability on the fiddle and vice versa…it worked for Joe, Robbie Hannan, and Sean Og Potts. Some tunes are easier to adapt than others, but having the ability to play one in it’s original form goes a long way to understanding how to adapt it well to a different instrument or key and make it work…it can be more complicated than it seems at first blush.
Someone told me once that in Ireland if a flute player was to try playing a real fiddle-centric tune, some of the “geezers” would say “now, that wouldn’t be a fluit chune would it?”
Two years will go by in a snap.
I have found Mr. Clarkson’s site quite a valuable resource.
IMHO he has a strong tradtional regional sound.
It has a driving “huffy-puffy” manner to it.
Does anyone recall what region that is?
I’d say Sligo-esque…Sadly, regional styles are becoming a thing of the past.
That is a tough one, very much a fiddle tune. I haven’t listened to Mr. Clarkson’s version yet (though I have no doubts it’s brilliant), but if you can simplify the A & B rolls into “slow” or “triplet” rolls (aAcutAtapA or gBcutBtapB (using your left index finger for the B cut), here’s a cheat that might work on the B part:
a~AAA a~AAA a2bg agef|g~BBB g~BBB g2af gfeg|
a~AAA a~AAA a2bg agef|~g3e f2 ed|cdBc A2|
Also, depending what’s going on in your session, you might be able to sneak in an e triplet roll in place of the A, or even a d in place of the B, like:
a~AAA a~eee a2bg agef|g~BBB g~ddd g2af gfeg|
a~AAA a~eee a2bg agef|~g3e f2 ed|cdBc A2|
but that’s starting to get into variations, so I would exercise caution. And of course, even if you can pass all this off underneath the general chaos, it’s definitely a cheat and might sound pretty lame by itself, so I would strongly suggest continuing to plug away at it as written as well. It really is a hard tune, so don’t feel bad.
Sorry I can’t notate better, but hopefully that gives you the idea.
Mr. C. is from Belfast. He’s also interested in Donegal music.
If you can find a copy of his “Far Set” CD, it’s a treat. Nice, FUN flute playing that never forgets the tune.