The Brexit reel

Well this is in F# minor and mostly pentatonic. There’s a few d notes in the A part which give a nice "semitonal grate" in this case. A tune I wrote today (day after the referendum) a bit sad, a bit angry and a bit rueful with a hint of trepidation.

Thanks for sharing!

Nice tune! Might make a nice set with Repeal of the Union…

Hmmm. Your tune sounds pretty jolly to my ears. How putting it with Home Ruler or No More Cages? Music and politics: ice cream and vinegar.

Nice tune… I think the attitude of it works.

Thanks for the comments and feedback. I’m happy that you’re willing to give it a whirl, however you approach it. 🙂

Great tune. F#minor is so cool. A pity about the politics that inspired it!

Well thesession member "Thing" (https://thesession.org/members/90638) decided to add his alternative title "Nigel’s Delight". I’m mentioning it here as a comment as I’d like to disassociate my tune from this vile man and remove that alternative title. "Thing" can still have his little "joke" in the comment here.

Well done, Steve. We played it at my local session in Alabama last night!

@Thomaston - Fantastic. I’m chuffed :D

Great tune, thanks very much for sharing. I’ve just uploaded a ukulele/guitar version of it to my Youtube channel, I hope you’ll like even if it’s a bit different to what you had in mind?
https://youtu.be/ZdXl9CsmF1I

play video

Cheers,
Jon

Hi Jon,

You’re right about what I had in mind, but I loved hearing your take on it. Very cool.

Thanks!

I was amused to find a tune called "The Brexit", didn’t know it existed. Gonna give it try now given the recent turn of events. Thanks for sharing!

What’s interesting is that the tune doesn’t resolve.

@Phantom Button - Maybe I was subconsciously hoping that Brexit wouldn’t either ;)

I had thought that a simple harmony could be against a repeating two bar sequence throughout.
||:F#m |A Bm :|| This would resolve to a final F#m chord.

There are many other possibilities though…

Jon Lewis playing sounds great!

You should get a bit sad, a bit angry and a bit rueful with a hint of trepidation, more often. This is a fantastic tune. Thanks for sharing it.

🙂 Thanks for the feedback everyone. It’s my pleasure to know it’s being played.

I’ve been playing this tune quite a bit across the pond the past couple days…

Very nice tune I hope to be able to compose like you one day!!! 🙂

Cheers Rob! Thanks for commenting. I appreciate it.

Thanks Kellie. Actually I don’t compose by intention. Sometimes a tune just comes out - mostly they’re unremarkable, but rarely something special happens. You’ll know when it does. After thirty or so years of playing, I can count on one hand those ‘special’ tunes!

Well, looks like you have another one of those "special tunes" with this excellent composition added to the list 🙂

Great tune, Steve, thanks for sharing it. I really like it but made a few changes. The A part is magnificent, and the B part reflects it well, but I feel as though the two endings leave the tune in limbo. The last measure before the 1st ending, with the change to the high B signals an end to the tune, and it makes it feel a bit repetitive when you then head back to the beginning of the B part again. If you changed the B part to the following, it might help the direction.

|: af ~f2 fecA | ABcA Bcef | af ~f2 fecA | ABcA B2 ef |
|1 af ~f2 fecA | ABcA BcAB | cF (3FFF dFcF | ABcA B2ef :|
|2 af ~f2 fecA | ABcA Bcef | bfaf eAAF | ABcA B2AB |]

Thanks for your comments and input Thady! It hadn’t occurred to me to phrase the B part as you’ve done. It’s interesting, but personally I feel that the |cF (3FFF dFcF| phrase has been done enough by that point in the tune. If it suits you like this though, then that’s great 🙂

Cheers!

I like it. It reminds of Old Maids of Galway in the A part quite alot

Thanks Denise 🙂

Good tune, but sadly it doesn’t make up for being sold out by a bunch of spivs and charlatans. I have printed it out and I’ll take it along to my next session

@Thady Quill: I quite like the feeling of it ending in ‘Limbo’ - seems appropriate, somehow… kind of like what happens when you don’t make a f***ing plan to deal with something and it all ends in the proverbial.

Thanks supermollusc 🙂 You’re right. It doesn’t, but it allowed me to work out some frustration!

Matt - Yes! Thanks for ‘getting it’ 🙂

Great tune! Just one comment. I know you didn’t add a single g# but to show it as F#m I think you should change its key to Amaj (3#’s) rather than Dmaj.

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks javivr. I had thought a lot about that when I submitted the tune. In the end I decided that as the K: field had to be abused either way, I’d go for fitting with the modal (rather than classical) system of keys used on this site even though it’s not in a ‘standard’ mode and used the first comment to point out the key. This had an additional bonus of showing that it can be played diatonically on a D instrument.

Cheers!

Recording of me playing this lovely reel, Great job Steve!!! 🙂

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d8njrx6zyh96hey/Vocaroo_s0LJi04N69UB.mp3?dl=0

Sorry for the bad audio quality I had to use my laptops camera audio to record.

Thanks Kellie! It makes me happy that you liked it enough to learn it and then record yourself playing 🙂

Cheers!

I might show it to the people at my session this weekend I think they’d like it, and I know I’ve said this a million times and it’s probably getting old but seriously great job!!! 🙂

Here’s a lovely take on it by The Killdeer String Band, who took the trouble to seek out my email and were kind enough to send me a copy of their CD from the US to UK. Listen out for the Black Sabbath musical quotes too!
https://killdeerstringband.bandcamp.com/track/the-brexit

This is a wonderful tune, simply put! Well done. I prefer the title "Farewell to Europe" though, bit more poetic than the millenial jargon of "Brexit"!

Thanks pianoter! "Farewell to Europe" was in fact the first title I thought of.

By the way, a facebook live video was taken a few days ago, when I was out busking with Irish dancer Tom Conroy. Just done on a phone. It was a bit windy, so there’s some noise from that and a bit got cut out somehow. Anyway : https://www.facebook.com/tomconroydancer/videos/1374921912628993/

To make a ‘political set’, it goes quite well like this:
F**k The Tories (John Spiers)-Repeal The Poll Tax (Sandy Mathers)-Farewell To Europe (Steve Owen) 😉

Nice reel but I haven’t got the heart to play it this morning.
🙁