There’s a tune starting at 5:43 in this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4F3R_VgTUw&t=397s
They’re playing in A(on a D melodeon??) and I reckon I’ve played this one at some point, possibly in a different key and/or maybe as a hornpipe /fling rather than a reel. Does someone have a name for it?
The rest of the clip is such wonderful music and the production job is superb.
I just realised the tune after is in F#min, so is he playing an E melodeon?
The first part is shared with The Tinker’s Stick: https://thesession.org/tunes/1881
…then it goes a bit Cork‘n’Kerry.
I’ve heard that reel played by Máirtín O’Connor under the name “RTE reel”. The second tune is the “Ashplant reel” in F#m. The key of the melodeon? D, most likely. It definitely looks like A fingerings, and the second tune in F#m is really a gapped scale (e.g. no G# from what I can hear).
I just tried playing the Ashplant in F#m on my D 1 row and its possible but bloody hard! All the bellows pushes and pulls are really awkward [I’m used to playing it in Em] but then I’m not Johnny Og……………………
It seems to me that he is playing the first in G and the second in Em (i.e. using B/C fingering) but obviously it’s coming out a whole tone higher because it’s a D box (not C). And what’s more, there is no F# required in either tune (i.e. in G or Em), so the need to cross to another row is obviated.
Both tunes are not only playable in A and F#m respectively - I’d even suggest that they’re rather easy in those keys. (Especially considering the gapped scale element of both tunes.)
I think the first tune _is_ an A tune, and the second has been played in F#m ever since Dervish recorded it.
Thanks all for the comments. The reason I thought he might be playing an E melodeon is that it sounds and looks so‘’normal‘’. Whatever the key, it’s so wonderful to hear him carry on the tradition his father created in such a commanding manner.
‘’then it goes a bit Cork‘n’Kerry.‘’. Have’nt heard that one before, I’ll keep that one in the kit bag for future use!!
Many thanks……..
One last comment - he’s effectively doing what any whistle player is doing to tackle a tune with a gapped scale. That the whistle (and the melodeon) “is in D” doesn’t mean that the door is shut to other keys.
