Working on a recording the other day I was reminded that not everyone around here can play a rhythm part for a slip jig. It is in my nature to assume that if I can do something anyone can. It is apparently in the nature of the universe to remind me that it’s not necessarily true.
(If you’re asking yourself ‘What’s a slip jig?’, it’s like this–if you think of a normal, garden-variety jig as having two main beats, then a slip jig has three of those main beats. No big deal. So a single bar of a standard jig rhythm goes ‘bicycle, bicycle’, but a single bar of a slip jig goes ‘bicycle, bicycle, bicycle’. Easy enough.)
Never really thought of it before, but I guess I’ve been playing slip jigs for years. There’s something about having three strong beats in a phrase that I find really compelling. So I love playing it. I actually recorded one a while back.
the song –>Rattlin’ Roarin’ Willie–from the CD ‘letters from home’, 1997 (NHC 401)
The tune is one of my favourite slip jigs. Not because I wrote it, I just really enjoy playing it, both the melody and the rhythm. And it’s nice how well the tune fit with the song by Robbie Burns. It’s probably worth me pointing out that both the tune and the verses of the song are in a slip jig rhythm (call it 9/8 time if you count things that way), but the other sections of the piece are in normal jig rhythm (that’d be 6/8 in that same counting method). As a matter of fact in places the arrangement flows pretty freely back and forth between the two. I don’t know why I did that, really. I think I enjoy the way the slip jig moves things along with that rolling, pushing ahead feeling. While the normal jig feels a little more like marking time, waiting for the next flight (which is useful in its own way).
I think I like the song, too, because the guy gets to keep his fiddle and enjoys the company of some good people. I’m a sucker for a happy ending. And like all the best songs, it’s apparently a true story. Go figure.