The Dandy Dancer jig

I have other transcriptions to add later, but for now I’ve given a curious take in G. It is also played in A and I’ll add such a transcription in that key later, unless someone else beats me to it in the meantime… ;-)

I couldn’t find Jim Johnstone’s collection, not yet anyway, which I was sure I had here somewhere, or I’d have that to check things against for comparison’s sake…

It’s also in John Kirkpatrick’s collection "English Choice"…

I tend to and choose to play that ^F somewhere between F# and G…

X: 2
T: Dandy Dancer, The
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: GMaj
|: d2 c |\
B2 G GFG | D2 G BAG | cAA eAA | fed cBA |
BGG GFG | DGG BAG | c2 A fd/e/f | g3- :|
|: g2 f |\
gdB GBd | gfe dcB | cAA eAA | f2 d cAf |
gdB GB/c/d | gfe dcB | cAA fef | g3 :|

X: 3
T: The Dandy Dancer
C: Jim Johnstone
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: AMaj
|: e/d/ |\
c2 A AGA | E2 A cBA | d2 B f2 B | gfe dcB |
c2 A AGA | EAA cBA | dcB gfg | a3 a2 :|
|: e |\
aec A2 e | agf edc | d2 B f2 B | gfe dcB |
a2 e c2 e | agf edc | d2 B gfg | a3- a2 :|

Am I the only one that hears the ghost of Father O’Flynn here??

I’d love to hear this on the whistle - awkward with the accidentals - do let me know when it’s transposed to A - life is too short at this time to attempt it my self.
Peter.

Peter, there’s an A version already here just above your contribution, from the day previous. You can get dots if needed by cutting and pasting and feeding all that into here ~

http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html

The G version goes fine on winds - pipes, flute, whistle…

Here’s the original transcribed to A for you to give it a go ~

X: 4
T: The Dandy Dancer
C: Jim Johnstone
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: AMaj
|: a/g/fe |\
c2 A AGA | EAA cBA | dBB FBB | gfe dd/c/B |
cAA AGA | EAA cEA | dB/c/d gfg | a3 :|
|: e2 g |\
aec Ac/d/e | agf edc | dB/B/B fB/B/B | gec dBg |
aec aec | aa/g/f edc | dB/c/d gfg | a3 :|

As to accidentals, the only one in the original, that ^e ~

~ | cA/B/c f^ef | g3 :| ~ nothing wrong with playing it ~ | cA/B/c fef | g3 :|

Hi I put in the alphabety-spagetti form but got the message back informing me;
No image available — there’s probably a error in the ABC source causing the conversion to fail.

I;ve loads of tunes I could post but I can’t/won’t muck about with alphabety-spaghetti ABC as it doesn’t do anybody nor the tunes justice.
However if I get the tunes into a digital format in ‘proper’ music notation will the CONCERTINA.net transpose the notation to ABC-spaghetii for them that use it?? If so what’s the best programme to use initially??

Use the version ceolachan posted on 22/01/2012. If you copy all of it, it seems to work fine.

Proper music notation —> ABC is more complicated than the other way round, and no, the concertina.net converter won’t do that for you.

My question to you is: How can ABC not do the tunes justice, but dots can?

Peter, for it to work you have to enter everything, from X: onward… However, sometimes when you cut and paste from here, for some reason, as with Macs, things can double space and you need to remove those spaces…

As to dots and ABCs, I put the time in to learn traditional notation longhand, with pen and ink, and as a lefty, not easy feat. Where this music is concerned there’s no real difference, and both can be made a hell of a lot more complicated, though there are more choices for doing that with traditional notation. However, it doesn’t really add anything useful making a transcription more complex… In the end, you need your ears, or a lot of experience behind you to make ABCs or dots dance, in order to bring a tune to life…

ABCs are for most an easy transition, and requiring little effort or time, though it can help to have a guide, that is unless one has preconceived hangups about it. Usually the biggest block to overcome is ourselves, standing in the way of understanding and progress…

http://www.lesession.co.uk/abc/abc_notation.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABC_notation

http://abcnotation.com/

Steve Mansfield’s tutorial above < http://www.lesession.co.uk/abc/abc_notation.htm > is perhaps the best starting point for learning abcs.

Also useful is information on Chris Walshaw’s site. ceolachan linked the homepage. But, you can begin learning with this link;
http://abcnotation.com/blog/2010/01/31/how-to-understand-abc-the-basics/

Another online converter which transposes ~ http://www.folkinfo.org/songs/abcconvert.php

The Dandy Dancer
Written by Jim Johnstone for Dixy Ingram.

"Am I the only one that hears the ghost of Father O’Flynn here??"

I can hear a similarity in the 1st bar of the B-part, but not really in the tune as a whole. I’d place it in the same family as The Irish Washerwoman and The Stool of Repentance.

Ah…Dixie Ingram, a "dandy dancer" indeed. One of the stars of "The White Heather Club", who went on to be a cattle auctioneer. As far as I know, he’s still alive and living in Edinburgh.