What's the hardest reel to learn/play?

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:39 am

You know, reading the above, I scoffed at the notion that the Mountain Road was hard. Pulled out my whistle to give it a whirl, and damned if I can't remember how the B part goes anymore. Actually, I can still sort of hear it in my head, but when I try to play, the B part to Peter Horan's "Maid in the Cherry Tree" comes out instead.

Sigh.

glauber · Post by **glauber** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:43 am

Code: Select all

X:78
T:The Mountain Road
R:reel
S:Scoiltrad (Conal O'Grada) - as The Wise Maid
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:D
~F2 AF BFAF | ~F2 AF EFDE | ~F2 AF BFAF | GBFG EDBA |
~F2 AF BFAF | ~F2 AF EFDE | F ~A3 BAFB | ABde fd d2 :|
dfdB ADFA | dcde ~f3 e | dfdB AFDF | (3GFE (3GED EDBA | 
dfdB ADFA | dcde fafe | de (3fed BAFA | (3GAG FG EDBA :|

vomitbunny · Post by **vomitbunny** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:48 am

Hey, Dinky's is catchy! Thanks for mentioning it.
I thought it might sound, you know, dinky.
Mountain road ain't bad either.
I thought it might sound.......Mountainy.....or roady.....or something.

KDMARTINKY · Post by **KDMARTINKY** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:49 am

If only I could get my fingers to go as fast as my brain instructs....I haven't seen an easy reel/jig yet. You tell me if you find one in 4/4 time

dubhlinn · Post by **dubhlinn** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 10:57 am

The Sunshine Hornpipe/Mountain Road as played by the Dubliners was one of the reasons I got into playing fiddle many moons ago.
T he Mountain Road is a simple tune to play but a hard one to get swinging. I still find it difficult to play on a whistle but love playing it on fiddle,it seems to be a fiddle tune moreso than a whistle tune.
Anyone trying to develop the "swagger"(for want of a better word) in this tune could do worse than check out the Dubliners version. It crops up all over the place in Dubliners complimations though the original can be found on "Finnegan Wakes" a live recording of the Dubs from the late sixties.
It is one of those tunes that I cannot imagine being called anything else but the Mountain Road in spite of the fact that the names of the tunes in ITM are there for identification and rarely ,if ever ,have a descriptive aspect.
Being a life long Dubs fan I have a copy of the track concealed about my person should anybody want it...(for research purposes only..ahem.)

Slan,
D.

Ro3b · Post by **Ro3b** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 11:35 am

Hey, Dinky's is catchy! Thanks for mentioning it.
I thought it might sound, you know, dinky.

I have it in my head (no doubt from some liner note or other) that the title refers to someone named Dinky Doran, possibly a Donegal fiddler...? I imagine him as a very angry little man, always going around yelling "My name is Maurice, goddammit!"

colomon · Post by **colomon** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 12:41 pm

glauber wrote:dfdB ADFA

Ah, no wonder, the cool variation on the B part of the Peter Horan tune (in Trip to Sligo) starts exactly the same as the B part of Mountain Road. Thanks, I've got them both now.

moxy · Post by **moxy** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 12:55 pm

Caj wrote:As I mentioned before, the Ebb Tide is OK on the Concertina, but a pain on the fiddle/mandolin.

I've just figured out that you have a concertina coming out of your avatar's mouth...

TomB · Post by **TomB** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 2:00 pm

moxy wrote:
Caj wrote:As I mentioned before, the Ebb Tide is OK on the Concertina, but a pain on the fiddle/mandolin.
I've just figured out that you have a concertina coming out of your avatar's mouth...

Hmm, and all this time I thought it was a chocolate chip cookie. :roll:

Oh well, All the Best,

Tom

Jens_Hoppe · Post by **Jens_Hoppe** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 1:40 am

colomon wrote:Actually, I can still sort of hear it in my head, but when I try to play, the B part to Peter Horan's "Maid in the Cherry Tree" comes out instead.

I forget the B parts of tunes all the time (especially if it's been a while since I've played a tune)... My (personal) theory is that many B parts are somehow less distinctive than the A parts and therefore easier to mix up in your head (exceptions abound, of course). Or maybe I am just getting senile.

Speaking of technically hard tunes, one that springs to mind is Richard Dwyer's, an Ador tune which I believe is on one of Mary Bergin's CDs. Lots of nasty unexpected (at least when you are learning it) jumps in that one. I've also found the Reel of Mullinavat hard to play.

Jens

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 3:06 am

I think the hardest reel to play is the one you are currently learning.

For a while, when I first started playing Irish music, I neglected reels for two reasons. Firist, they did seem harder than other tunes. Second, so many if them seemed to me to be merely dance fodder; ie, utterly undistinguished tunes whose main purpose is not to be listened to or played for enjoyment. I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with dance fodder—dozens of blues shuffles are just that but are fine in a bar played by a blues band—but since I wasn't playing for dancers I didn't see why I shouldn't learn to play with appealing tunes which were mainly airs, jigs, slides and hornpipes. I then noticed at one stage that several tunes I'd been playing and had learnt by ear where in fact reels. I now play quite a lot of reels and enjoy them a lot. I'm no longer sure about the dance-fodder charge. There is, of course, nothing wrong with music whose primary function is rhythmic and getting in the reel 'groove' is a lot of the fun.

What is (relatively) hard and what isn't depends on the particular instrument. There are some tunes that are easy on whistle but killers on concertina and vice versa. Of course, I agree entirely with those who say that all reels ar hard to play well.

tuaz · Post by **tuaz** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 3:12 am

All reels at the moment are hard for me if I want to ornament it.

I think I can keep a steady tempo, and the bounce of a reel, if I play the tune straight save for some simple cuts. But putting ornaments in reels, still doesn't come naturally for me. For jigs, at least I more or less know where they go.

I still need to listen to a lot more reels played properly, and work out for myself on my whistle what was done and at which points of the tune. I think the trouble was that there seemed to be a whole lot more jigs than reels in the music I was listening to previously. That shows as well, in the fact that I know more jigs than reels at the moment

Until I can understand reels a little better, my motto is keep it simple.

meemtp · Post by **meemtp** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 8:30 am

There's nothing wrong with playing those reels with less ornamentation tuaz. Fairly unornamented playing can sound quite good actually as long as you have a nice touch with the rhythm. Some players get a little too focused on ornamentation. The chune and the rhythm are what's most important, so go ahead a play those reels!

Ro3b · Post by **Ro3b** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 9:46 am

It's kind of hard to get the swing happening with reels that have a lot of rolls in them. The first reel I usually teach is Pigtown Fling, which is a great tune that works just fine with no rolls at all. Plus it's got about three basic little chunks of melody in it so it's dead easy to learn.

T:Pigtown Fling
R:reel
M:C|
L:1/8
K:G
GBge d2ed|Bdge dBAB|G2ge d2ed|1 B2Ac BEEF:|2 B2Ac BEE2:|!
|:Beed efge|dfaf gfed|Beed efge|1 dfaf g3d:|2 dfaf gfed||!

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 9:52 am

Intersting take but (sorry :roll: about the quibble) wouldn't you think Pigtown Fling is actually a...Fling and not a Reel?