Hey, well the title says it all. I absolutely love this jig and just curious to know what grade it is?
Thanks
PSL

Do you mean this one?

Morrison's Jig

(that's a great website for folk tunes, by the way!)


I've never seen it before - just printed it out and sightread it at 132 bpm with a little ornamentation (slides, a trill or two, and some double-stopping)...


I reckon (like any folk music) that it depends on a few things:
- The speed you're playing it at: faster makes it harder
- The amount of ornamentation you add (most folk music tends to be spiced up with a few turns, trills, slides and mordents from time to time): more makes it harder


It's always difficult to tell grade standards even with most classical pieces, let alone folk tunes. There are certainly harder tunes around...

Are you looking to play this on the violin?

Sorry - didn't really answer your question!
Maybe Grade 4ish, played at a decent speed and with confidence, after practice?

I don't really know what I'm talking about!


EDIT - Violinia's right - ignore me!

I think more like Grade 2-3, seeing as Drowsy Maggie was set at Grade 2 at a fair whack tempo...

Hmm - I'm intrigued as to the "fair whack tempo"...
Was that with ornamentation?

No ornamentation but at about 100-120. Not easy for a Grade 2er I wouldn't have thought, but it was definitely set. I can't remember if it was AB or TG, could also have been Guildhall just before they merged with Trinity. The source was the Edward Huws Jones version (Jigs Reels and Hornpipes/Fiddler Playalong Collection). The backing track from the Fiddler Playalong book is somewhere between 100 and 120 from what I can remember.

Fiddly.


The old Folk Thread appears to have died.... any new tunes to recommend?
As always, www.thesession.org is brilliant...

Actually, if you wanted some tunes to play with Morrison's Jig, you could try:

Waterson's
The Trip to Sligo
A Fig For a Kiss
Drowsy Maggie
The Man of the House
The Wise Fool

Ohh thank you
I was actually going to ask for some nice fiddle tunes.
I thought it was around grade 3. I love Scottish/Irish music, so would be great to actually be able to play some.
Thanks

do try the website...
no, I'm not promoting it! I just love it! good forums too.

I've got a list of around 50 that I know off by heart (and about 30 up to busking standard at the moment) if you want any recommendations for types of tune/maj & min etc...

can you get sheet music for these online? any links would be interesting thanks

Depends on how you play it - if you play just what's on the score, then at the right speed (around 130BPM for this jig) you're probably at grade 2/3, if you play it as it would be played by a good trad player with rolls, cuts, stuttering bows, trebles, regular variation of the melody and a certain amount of double stopping, you're probably around grade 6/7 ish, I would think.

For drowsy maggie - as written, about 2 ish I think - but it's very dull like that!



You can get them at www.thesession.org but to be honest you'd be better learning them by ear from good recordings of decent fiddle players, because what they will play will be nothing like what's on the score.

Enjoy!

Allan

Have a shot at 'The Brilliancy Medley and Cherokee Shuffle', from the Fairport Convention songbook. I'm working on this one at present and it's sensational. No speed indicated, suggest maximum warp!
Come to think of it, take a look at Fairport playing this on youtube. Awesome.

[quote name='lottie' date='Apr 15 2008, 09:47 AM' post='689014']
The old Folk Thread appears to have died.... any new tunes to recommend?
As always, www.thesession.org is brilliant...

Actually, if you wanted some tunes to play with Morrison's Jig, you could try:

Waterson's
The Trip to Sligo
A Fig For a Kiss
Drowsy Maggie
The Man of the House
The Wise Fool
[/quote]


can you get sheet music for these online? any links would be interesting thanks
[/quote]


All the ones listed above can be found on www.thesession.org - you can set up an online tunebook, submit tunes, print anything out/listen to it for free, and enter folky dicussions

There are some books by Pete Cooper you might like to look at. I have English Fiddle Tunes which has some good (and some mediocre!) tunes.

There's an Irish one in the same series.

They come with CDs so you can hear how fast Pete Cooper plays them and really depress yourself...

Huws Jones Jigs, Reels and Hornpipes is excellent value for money. I have a few large collections of Irish music that I only fraction of, but all of Huws Jones is useful, and he also includes an easy violin accompaniment

Those books are good, as long as you remember that they're effectively easy classical versions of Trad tunes and not at all how they would be played properly, in the style.

Like I said, drowsy maggie was set as a grade 2 piece but as played by a decent Trad fiddler, it's more likely around grade 7 and some versions would require skills beyond grade 8 - it's all down to the player, but one thing's for sure, you can't play it as written on the score in a real session - it would attract looks of incredulity and stop the music stone dead! (same holds for all the pieces in the Huws Jones books).

If you're interested in learning to fiddle properly, you need to take lessons with a decent Trad fiddle player, master the ornamentation and style, the rythmic devices and the subtle variations - you'll also need to learn by ear rather than from scores.

If, on the other hand, you're a classical player who is interested in playing some very (read : extremely) simplified versions of trad tunes for fun - then those books are perfect.