Chadd wrote:I learned this tune by ear a few years ago after hearing it on 'At First Light'. As a musical illiterate, I can't help you with notation. But I do think it's worth mentioning that this song's appeal relies greatly upon the chord changes in the accompaniment. It doesn't work with the drones, and the melody alone lacks interest without the dissonances and resolutions created by the chords.
I don't play it myself, but I do like that album, and McSherry's playing in general. Richard, have you thought about trying to learn it by ear? The youtube video you point to has a somewhat different setting to the album, to my ear at least. You could think of it as a slow air - he probably never quite plays it the same way twice (e.g., he appeared to drop the octave in one passage towards the end, on a hard bottom E - kind of a nice effect, and maybe it was deliberate).
As Chadd remarks, it is a fairly simple tune (slow, repetitive), which means that to make it interesting you really have to work hard with chanter-colouring (Sherry uses lots of vibrato, lots of sliding, and lifts the chanter a lot). So simple = really hard, as with many things in life.
But the video is quite high-quality, and you can almost "read" the fingering off the screen. I think an hour or two spent watching it with one hand on the video controls (and the other two on the chanter
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could really help you knock out the bones, and the rest will come with practise, and repeat listening.
Good luck with it!
-F