WHAT MAKES JIGS & REELS & AIRS DIFFERENT???

[FJohnSharp]

I doubt that anyone is confusing reels and jigs. But there are several reels that share the names of jigs, and vice versa. That gets confusing.

Actually, in the wider world of trad music, it's not that uncommon to mix-up the tune types. The example that comes to mind is "Farewell's Reel", which is a jig by Emile Benoit, but I'm pretty sure there are quite a few similar examples out there.

I stand corrected. I also remember that there are hornpipes that are played with a lilt and those that are played straight, like a rell. This is confusing too.

The bottom line is, there is no guideline or roadmap or shortcut mnemonic. It takes years to learn it, one wonderful tune at a time.

[amar]

if you can hear a rhythm going :
1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4..etc, then it's a reel.
if you can hear a rhythm going:
JigedyJigedyJigedy...well, then it's a Jig.

[Nanohedron]

Edited to add that reels are not necessarily played very fast; in fact, the slow reel is a valid form in itself.

True, but even a "slow" reel moves along at a pretty decent moderato. I think a lot of the relaxed feel of a slow reel has as much to do with the way you feel it and play it as with the actual tempo.

--James

Pace make the reel fast or slow. Not wanting to nitpick, but take, for example, L. Nugent's playing of The Windy Gap (which is also known as Far from Home) followed by Lady Anne Montgomery (track 9 on his 3rd album The Windy Gap). I don't know if that's moderato or not, but, to credit your point, it's WAY relaxed for sure! Slow, even. Same thing with track 4 on the same album, Cuz Tehan's/The Old Grand Spey. On the other hand, Marcas Ó Murchú also played Fir an Ghuail (The Coal Miners) as a slow reel on his album Ó Bhéal go Béal, but at a slightly faster clip than the abovementioned, and the feel was more deliberate and even jaunty despite the pace. I don't know from moderato. Maybe these reels are such. In any case, they're slow to me.

[colomon]

As for 4/4 or 2/2 for reels, it's all in the playing. You can play a reel "one two THREE four", too, which is something I like to do because the flute allows it. Varying the emphases in the course of playing a tune isn't out of the question, which is perhaps why the 4/4 designation serves well.

2/2 versus 4/4 doesn't really have anything to do with emphasis; it's about where the pulse of the music is. Heck, it's pretty common for Sligo flute players to play "one AND two AND" -- but I guarantee you if you counted out "one two three four" to start a reel, they'd think you just counted two measures of music. Reels have two beats to a measure, it's as simple as that.

(Okay, being the picky basmati that I am, I feel obliged to point out that there are occasional exceptions -- there's a great Emile Benoit reel whose B part is in 3/2, for instance, and some nice French-Canadian tunes that drop a beat.)

[Nanohedron]

Heck, it's pretty common for Sligo flute players to play "one AND two AND" -- but I guarantee you if you counted out "one two three four" to start a reel, they'd think you just counted two measures of music. Reels have two beats to a measure, it's as simple as that.

Only for those grounded in standard Western music theory. I'm not. See, if you're thinking "one-and-two-and", what you're saying makes sense especially since you specified that angle of thinking. Without that, any number of people might have misunderstood. It's not something that's self-evident; not all musicians have theory. It doesn't make them lesser ones for it, just not on the same page when it comes to talking shop. For me, every note's a beat. It's for me to emphasise it or not. Every now and then I have to remember to think differently when I'm dealing with formally trained musicians for communication's sake. The job gets done all the same, in any case.

[StevieJ]

It's pretty common for Sligo flute players to play "one AND two AND" -- but I guarantee you if you counted out "one two three four" to start a reel, they'd think you just counted two measures of music.

Just flute players from Sligo?

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 bar's worth.

[Redwolf]

I doubt that anyone is confusing reels and jigs. But there are several reels that share the names of jigs, and vice versa. That gets confusing.

You'd be surprised. I don't 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 "jig"!). The Mel Bay books are notorious for messing such things up (don't even get me started on their translations of the Irish titles!).

Redwolf

[Sandy Jasper]

Well put Peeplj!

S.J.

[s1m0n]

Nothing. They're all the same.

From time to time we start on different notes for variety's sake.

[buddhu]

if you can hear a rhythm going :
1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4..etc, then it's a reel.
if you can hear a rhythm going:
JigedyJigedyJigedy...well, then it's a Jig.

Three jigedys? Wouldn't that be a slip jig?

My own way of explaining it is that if it goes did-dl-ey did-dl-ey, did-dl-ey did-dl-ey it's a jig.

If it goes diddle diddle, diddle diddle it's a reel.

Jigs and reels are very easy to tell apart, and if you listen to one after the other then you'll 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 it's done air style (not as in air-guitar though), particularly the Dubliners instrumental version you'd probably never guess what the time sig was supposed to be.

[Redwolf]

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 can't remember who came up with this mnemonic, but it's stood me in good stead:

A reel: "watermelon, watermelon"

A double jig: "jiggedy, jiggedy"

A hornpipe: "upsy-daisy, upsy-daisy"

Redwolf

[Jennie]

A reel: "watermelon, watermelon"
A hornpipe: "upsy-daisy, upsy-daisy"

I think I feel a tune coming on... with these great titles, somebody ought to have written them by now:

Watermelon Reel and Upsy-Daisy Hornpipe

Or should we really confuse them and write the Upsy-Daisy Jig and the Jiggedy Reel...

Jennie

[Jerry Freeman]

And which kind of jig goes with "paradimethylaminobenzaldehyde"?

Best wishes,
Jerry

[Redwolf]

And which kind of jig goes with "paradimethylaminobenzaldehyde"?

Best wishes,
Jerry

Double jigs. Just try singing it to the tune of "Irish Washerwoman"

Redwolf