Tripping Up The Stairs jig

This an almost universally popular jig that has stood the test of time.

There’s a lot of room for variation on the melody. I sometimes play the opening bar with the F and G notes long and the A and B notes short: F2A G2B instead of FAA GBB.

The change into B minor for the second part sounds great if you can turn those Bs into triplets.

Try varying the way you play the C note. It can be played as CBC or as one long C, perhaps rolled.

I find this tune sounds good after Donnybrook fair.

Someone has this listed as The Eavesdropper but that’s a different tune.

A few moments ago, someone posted this as its own tune, he claimed it was the version found on Glackin/Keenan’s Doublin’. I haven’t yet dug out my copy to check it, but since I thought it’d be quickly deleted I grabbed the ABC before it disappeared.

M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
FAA GBB|FAd fed|cBc ABc|dfe dAG|
FAA GBB|FAd fed|cBc ABc|dfe dAG|
FAA GBB|FAd fed|cBc ABc|dfe dAG|
FAA GBB|FAd fed|cBc ABc|dfe dec|
dBB fBB|fgf fed|cAe cAc|efe edc|
dBB fBB|fgf fed|cBc ABc|dfe dec|
dBB fBB|fgf fed|cAA ecA|a2a ecB|
dBB fBB|fgf fed|cBc ABc|dfe d3|

I play this one with the gravel walk and some other tunes on the GHB…but in the session band we have with some othe garry owen and some other tunes

I play a more angular form on later repeats:

X: 1
T: Tripping Up The Stairs
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmaj
|:FAF GBG|FAd fed|cBc ABc|dfe dAG|
FAF GBG|FAd fed|cBc ABc|dfe d2A:|
dBB fBB|fgf fed|cAA eAA|efe edc|
dBB fBB|fgf fed|cBc ABc|dfe dag:|

And sometimes toss in this on the "B" part:

dBB fBB|f/2g/2ag fed|cAA eAA|f/2g/2ag fec|
dBB fBB|f/2g/2ag fed|cBc ABc|dfe dag:|

I think I got that from "Gillian’s Apples" in O’Neil;s but put it in a different spot in the tune.

I like hearing at the beginning of the B part a c natural like this :
|B=cB fBB| instead of |dBB fBB|
Of course , all the other c’s remain sharp.

HI
The Irish Ceili band do this as Roscabury with another tune following it. I was able to find Tripping up the stairs on Norbeck’s site to lead me here, but I can’t place the following tune

GBG FAF E2B BAB
GBG FAF DFA AFD
GBG FAF E2B BAB
G2d dBG …. …….

those are f# but I’m not certain it is in G or D, sounds a little minor

you can hear it if you google Irish Ceili band and Roscabury and ..gulp .. wal-mart

thanks very much for any assistance on the name of the second tune

thanks for the ideas above for ornaments!!!!

Mick

That tune is "The Leitrim"

justjim’s version is the one we play at the pub.

A lovely version of this tune I got from Dicky Deegan, with some of my own variations.

Version 4 seems to be a version of My Darling Asleep.

https://thesession.org/tunes/76

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvdpV1PBwqc

play video

ACKB: as Mikal said, that’s a different tune. Better to remove that setting here and add it over there, and then add "Tripping Up The Stairs" as an alternate name on "My Darling Asleep" (if that’s what you know it as).

Having the name of one well-known and much-recorded tune as an alternative name for another well-known and much-recorded tune wrecks the functionality of the links to recordings and the search function.

Here in France it is also known as Jig de Tony Hall, named after the wonderful Norfolk box player and singer Tony Hall. He used to play it on an old Hohner and played while at St Chartier so I suppose that is why they named it after him.

B is very similar to part A of the Swallowtail Jig