Molly Bán reel

I could sing this version in my head before I got it under my fingers at a session in Baltimore, since it is the last reel on Track 6 of Old Hag You Have Killed Me. However, all the versions I could find on the internet were in Ador, Gmix etc. So I transposed to Em, & with a lot of help from Will Harmon (who plays the tune in the same key, yay!), I’m officially posting my first tune in ABC that I learned BY EAR. Hope it doesn’t disappoint.

Here’s Will’s setting too:

|EBBA B2 AG|(3FED AD BDAF|EBBA ~B3 c|dBA=c BEED|
|EBBA B2 AG|(3FED AD BDAF|EBBA ~B3 c|dBA=c B~E3||
|e2 Be (3eee fe|d~B3 d2 Bd|e Be (3eee fe|dBA=c B~E3|
|e2 Be (3eee fe|dB (3BBB ~d3 e|~f3 e defe|dBA=c BEED||

Thank you again Will!! 🙂

This is just a great little tune, and I love the transition a la Bothy Band from Road to Lisdoonvarna (as a reel) into Molly B

Shouldn’t those be C#’s? Should I have made it Edor? This is much harder than it looks.

Always, always, always test your ABCs in some software before submitting a tune to The Session.

At the last stage of the submission process you are asked to make sure that everything is correct. Do not press confirm unless you know that everything is absolutely right.

Jeremy, for some reason, Emily couldn’t get the abcs to work with the conversion software. And when she asked me for help I missed the Em/Edor confusion, so it’s as much my fault as anyone’s. Mea culpa…and sorry for causing extra work on your end.

There’s a handy little table for determining modes at http://www.slowplayers.org/SCTLS/modes.htm
anyway we could post it here at thesession.org?

It’s true, even when I pasted Will’s setting into the convert-o-matic, it wouldn’t come up. I’m sorry.

See, but I’m looking at several reels, Cooley’s, Drowsey Maggie, Cup of Tea, Morning Dew, Pigeon on the Gate, Roscommon, Ships are Sailing, all of which state they are in Em, with 2 sharps. There are others in the same book, ie Dunmore Lasses, Fermoy Lassies, which only have one sharp & say they are also in Em.

I’m sorry. I need remedial ABC transcription… it won’t happen again. :(

In the tune submission process, on the page where you select the key signature, there’s a ’help" tab. Clicking on this will bring up a short list of common keys and the amount of sharps in each one.

So, for example, there’s a little graphic of a music stave with just the F sharp labelled “G maj”, “E min”, “D mix”, “A dor” etc. and another showing F and C sharp labelled “D maj”, “B min”, “E dor”, etc.

It’s handy for figuring out exactly what mode a tune is in. So, if you know the root note is E, but the tune is played with both F and C sharp, a look at this little chart will show “E dorian” as the most likely contender.

Actually, it wouldn’t matter that much if you chose Dmajor or Bminor or any other mode with both sharps; the sheetmusic and soundfile would still come out correctly. The ABC notation can always be changed to show the true key signature but the sheetmusic and soundfile are fixed.

Yes, I did see your cheat sheet, & still, my head was filled with tunes with 2 sharps that I had been misled to believe were in the key Eminor.

(121 Favorite Irish Session Tunes by L.E. McCullough *cough*) It will never happen again.

I’m sorry the sheetmusic & midi file are fixed, it totally totally s***ks, also b/c I worked sort of hard on this.

Aw, not to worry, Emily, it’s a great first try and look at how much you learned out of it! If it’s any comfort, it happens quite a bit, especially to us ignorant melody players, both here and out in the meat spaces. George Keith (upon whose hem I am not worthy to stitch; Brad thinks it’s cute I have a crush on the man’s playing, but hell, he’s good) in Boston is famous for yelling out keys of tunes and constantly calling out the wrong ones… 🙂

Zina

🙂 Thanks Zina. When we meet in meat space, just please don’t tease me by playing all Cnats in this tune, or I’ll be crushed.

I’m kind of thinking she must be killed.

Oh god, Em, does that mean I need to learn this tune? LOL Does anyone else go through spurts of learning tunes and then not learning tunes for a bit, and then going back to learning tunes? I’ve been trying to get out of a dry spell of no tunes with Christmas Eve, I suppose I could learn this one as well. 🙂 Suppose I’ll just have to martyr myself to it.

Hey, Cuch, at least we’re showing up at the Harmon Memorial Blowout Session. Ahem. Ahem.

zls

Well Will has been fooling about with it on whistle, & I learned it by ear for pete’s sake, it’s not exactly the Acrobat (or some other notoriously hard tune). Tell you what, give me a tune to learn to put with this one, ie Road to Lisdoonvarna (reel) & we’ll call it square, plus we’ll have a nice set to play.

PS I can vouch for cuch’s whereabouts that week at some bigass beer & cheese fest with some heavy hitter ITM peeps. If it was in my backyard, I’d stay home too.

This somehow reminds me of the Ril Gan anim reel…
too bad I can’t ABC it ;)

Search Ril Gan Ainm, I have put it as an alternate title for one tune named Timmy People’s as that is what it is.

Do you guys really know what “Ril Gan Ainm” means? I believe you do, but I’m puzzled.

I’m also wondering who “Timmy People” is 😀

or who the Timmy People *are* 😀

They’re people who support
and affirm Timmy.

It was a typos I meant Tommy. “Ril Gan Ainm,” is the second tune on the first track of Danu’s “Up in the Air” Album, it is played by Benny McCarthy and in Eb.

Slainte, I admire your faith in them 🙂

It seems you have to tune your tina in Eb to play along with the CD.

And I wonder who Tommy People is. I know a great fiddler called Tommy Peoples.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Happy now?

Molly Bawn: https://thesession.org/tunes/1637

I wouldn’t mind seeing this one stay, seeing as this is also a common key for the tune, and this setting also highlights the possible connection with that tune entitled Ed Reavy’s which Kenny posted a while back https://thesession.org/tunes/3014.

Martin Hayes plays it in GDor in Under the Moon.

I’ve never found a name for this, and haven’t heard it for a long time either… (picked up from my very first session tapes).

seems to be a (nice) variation of the Molly Ban Reel

https://thesession.org/tunes/1637

X: 1
T: Molly Ban
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Emin
EBBA B2 AG | FDDD BDAF | EBBA B2 Bc | dBAF BAGF |
EBBA B2 AG | FDAD BDAD | EBBA B2 Bc | dBAc BE E2 :|
e B3 e2fe | dA3 dcdf | e B3 e2fe | dBAF BE E2 |
e B3 e2fe | dA3 dcde | f3 e defe | dBAF BE E2 :|

2nd part = 2nd part of:
Naughton’s https://thesession.org/tunes/2622 (albeit in a different key)

Ril Gan Ainm = Reel without a name !!!!!
It’s TOMMY not Timmy PEOPLES - One of Ireland’s most reknowned fiddle players (Ex Bothy Band)

Yup, nearly the same tune as Naughton’s. Aidan Connolly’s version here: https://thesession.org/recordings/5509 splits the difference.

I got this rather distinctive version from Aidan Connolly’s “Be Off!” album. I am almost certain he got it from East Clare fiddler Paddy Canny, who recorded a similar version. I think it’s notable, though, that the version played by Martin Hayes on “Under the Moon” is not this version, but rather a G dorian setting of the more conventional E dorian version. James Kelly and Paddy O’Brien also play it this latter way. However, I think this version I have transcribed may be my favorite.

This setting (x:6) may or may not be another version of the tune given above but, if not, it seems remarkably similar. This is an untitled reel from a Mary Bergin recording (on ‘Feadoga Staín’ I think) - though she plays it with more finesse than is suggested here. Same tune? Waddya think?

It is pretty similar. Alan Ng calls it “Finbarr Dwyer’s” on his irishtune.info site. But you’re right, now that I think about it… It is remarkably similar.

Bazza - your tune is called John Naughtons: https://thesession.org/tunes/2622

The only thing that all settings have in common is the name and the B part. #1 to #4 is clearly the same tune, #5 happens to share the name but is different enough (to my ears), and #6 is the tune that Mary Bergin plays (called Naughton’s above), and should really be moved there.

This is the setting as played by Kilfenora Ceili Band or as near as I can get it.

3rd tune in this set starting at 2:16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2u0CIKzXnNc

play video

I got this G minor setting from Frances Marriott who picked it up from a Paddy Carty recording.

The Bothy Band call the tune ‘Fair-Haired Mary’ - one of the most powerful tune recordings imho

Essentially the same tune as ‘Sweet Molly’ in the old GHB collections, e.g Macdonald.

“The Bothy Band call the tune ‘Fair-Haired Mary’ ” - no they did not. It was recorded and listed on the “Old Hag” recording as “Michael Gorman’s”. I’m sitting looking at the original LP sleeve right now.