The Silver Spear reel

I learned this version directly from Kevin Burke years ago in Portland. When I quizzed him on the bowing, he played it once using an up-bow to slur three notes and then a down-bow on the accents. Then he changed where the accents fell but kept the three up, one down. Then he played each note in a separate bow stroke, and then slurred long phrases (whole bars) on one bow. He did all this with a casual efficiency while recovering on the sofa from a late gig the night before, and the tune sounded terrific—smooth but with that clear Burke danceable beat throughout—regardless of how he bowed it. The lesson was clear—don’t rely on any one bowing pattern. Experiment. Do whatever you need to do to get the rhythm where you want it. And learn to do it with and without slurs. It helps to do this on a fairly simple, reptitive tune such as Silver Spear—I’ve probably played this reel more than any other in my repertoire, and I still enjoy it.

You know, The Sliver Spear has always struck me as being like a reel version of The Connaughtman’s Rambles (or vise-versa). Try playing the tunes one after the other and you’ll see what I mean - each reel phrase has a corresponding, similar jig phrase.

I’ve come across this kind of relationship before, the most obvious example being The Swallowtail jig and The Swallow’s Tail reel.

There is a tune called ‘The New Mown Meadow’ which, in Scotland, is often played on Bagpipes as a set with ‘The Silver Spear’, collectively known as ‘The Silver Spear Reels’. It is a great tune and does bear some resemblance to ‘The Silver Spear’. I’ll submit it sometime soon, if somebody else doesn’t first.

Anyone know where I can find the backing guitar chords for The Silver Spear?

In your head. Listen and you should find that they’re there already.

Play along with a recording of it and experiment with the chords that would usually fit
in with the key of D ( D, Em, F#m, G, A, Bm, C#m ,D)

Focus on the rhythm maybe around the D Chord, changing a note or two that would imply
chord changes rather than a complete chord change.

Experimanet with a bass line in the tune (using the notes of the key)
Eg going from G to D use base notes G-> F# ->E ->D on 6th string (drop D tuning)

Thanks lads!
Ye see, Normally I can figure anything out fairly quickly…but I don’t play DADGAD or Drop D, and I’m not sure how to go about it…so I reckoned if I got the chords from somewhere, once I learned them, I was on the path to learning…..desparate I know…

You don’t have to play DADGAD - stick to standard if you want. A lot of people do. Unless you want the DAGDAD sound of course…

There’s lots of imaginative "voicings" for chords in standard tuning too.
Playing chords in the "right key" is a great start. It’s amazing how many would be backers even fail to manage that. 🙂

Taken from a Desi Wilkinson album. I tried to post this as a seperate tune, which, in my opinion, it is, but without success. Anyways, I now post it here as a variation, albeit an extreme one.

eAAG A2(3B=cd|eaaf gedg|ea~a2 ba~a2|ded=c BG(3B=cd|
eAAG A2(3B=cd|eaaf gedg|e~a3 g3z|1ded=c BG(3B=cd:|2ded=c BGG2||
a2fa ba~a2|abag fddf|a2fa bafe|dfed BA~A2|
a2fa ba~a2|abag fdef|g3e f3z|efed BAA2:|

This is already here under it’s more common title of "The New Mown Meadows". I agree it is a separate tune, and that’s why I posted it.

Was listening to this on the "Grianan" recording tonight. Their version is in "A".
Try this :

CE E2 FECE | cABA FAED | CE E2 FECE | cABA F2 ED |
CE E2 FECE | cABA FABc | dFBd cEAc | BAFE FA A2 :|
ce e2 df f2 | ecAc BcAB | ce e2 df f2 | ecAc B2 AB |
ce e2 df f2 | ecAc BEAc | dFBd cEAc | BAFE FA A2 :|

Is it true that you should only play the 2nd half of this tune once? Somebody told me it’s just one of those weird things that you only play it once before going back and doing the first part twice.

Not in any session I’ve been to.

Listen to Mick O’Brien and Kevin O’Reilly’s great pipes and fiddle duet playing of this: http://www.myspace.com/kittylieover

I’m new here, so maybe this is just a convention I don’t know about, but the notes shown as triplets in the music (and played as triplets in the MIDI file) aren’t really supposed to be triplets, are they? It seems like two sixteenths and an eighth would make more sense.

The midi triplets don’t work, plain and simple - you should definitely avoid using the midi player. Go and get yourself some Tommy Peoples (the iTunes music store and eMusic both have High Part of the Road). Then you can hear what those triplets are supposed to sound like. Basically it’s three notes played in the space of two eighth notes - which makes those three notes not quite sixteenth notes, but since it’s a bow ornament, you really have to hear it and practice it over and over, and maybe be shown it, and then relearn it since you were doing it wrong before, until you come up with some weird but cool invention of your own like Tommy Peoples….

Interesting, thanks. I guess it’s mostly a difference of definition. What I’m used to calling a triplet is exactly what the MIDI player plays — a quarter interval evenly divided into three.

It’s often called a bow triplet, which is probably a better name since it’s its own animal. If you’re interested in learning more about them, you could go to discussions and search for bow triplets - they’ve been the topic of many threads here.

This was one of the first reels I learned and I just can’t get tired of playing it.

In case anybody is still reading this thread, does anyone know what is the name of the reel that is played after silver spear in the album "Piper’s Dance" from Ballycastle? It’s track number 7 and they call it only the Silver Spear but I really enjoy the reel that is played together with it.

Thanks!

I first heard this tune in A on Dean Warner’s CD ‘Northern Box’ . I played it in a session and it really caught everybody out!

Am I alone in seeing some kind of (remote) resemblamce between the Silver Spear and the 3rd and 4th parts of the (London)Derry Hornpipe?

Hi everyone,

I have the Silver Spear in my repertoire and love the tune. I recently was listening to a set of reels played by Kinnon Beaton, a Cape Breton fiddler, and he put the Silver Spear with a few other tunes. I am learning the CB style and would like to figure out the names of the tunes he uses, but can’t recognize them.

http://capebretonlive.com/shows/show47.htm

This is a link to the show in which he plays them. If anyone recognizes the tunes, I’d be grateful to know their names.

Thanks a bunch!

Slainte,
Daniel

The reel after the Silver Spear is an Irish reel called Jackie Coleman’s: https://thesession.org/tunes/50

Sorry, the reels after that sound familiar, but I’m not sure about their titles. Hope others will help you on them.

Speaking of Dean Warner, I recently got his PA album. He’s from Leeds, West Yorkshire, where I stayed a year as a student. For some reason, this tune was played in A major quite often there, and I was always embarrassed to hear it in the key as a mediocre flute player.

Anyway, I’ve just found the clip of Dean Warner play this reel in Amajor: http://comhaltas.ie/music/detail/comhaltaslive_199_3_echoes_of_erin_dean_warner

Woe to the snobs who slag off PA players and think the Silver Spear isn’t complicated enough to play in sessions.

<<The Sliver Spear has always struck me as being like a reel version of The Connaughtman’s Rambles (or vise-versa). >>
Is this why I like it so much? The similarity was there all the time and I never noticed it!
<<I’ve probably played this reel more than any other in my repertoire, and I still enjoy it>> Yep! Just like the Connaughtman’s rambles! Happy days!

These three reels are structurally very close (they even share whole bars and beats):
The Green Mountain https://thesession.org/tunes/166
The Maid Behind the Bar https://thesession.org/tunes/64
The Tinker’s Daughter https://thesession.org/tunes/353
They are all very popular, often played and, I assume, rarely confused with one another: I wonder how many musicians have realised how similar they are ‘on paper’?
See also: The Silver Spear https://thesession.org/tunes/182

Dave Bulmer & Neil Sharpley, 1974
ISBN: 0-9503784-02
Page 1, tune #2

X: 4
T: Silver Spear, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: DMaj
AG |:\
FA ~A2 BAFA | dfed BcdA | FA ~A2 BAFA | dfed ~B3 A |
FA ~A2 BAFA | dfed Bdef | ~g3 e ~f3 e |[1 dfed ~B2 A2 :|[2 dfed Bcde ||
|: f2 af bfaf | gfed Bcde | f2 af bfaf | gfed ~B2 A2 |
f2 af bfaf | gfed Bdef | ~g3 e ~f3 e |[1 dfed ~B2 A2 :|[2 dfed ~B2 |]

I like this tune alot. Goes well on the bagpipes.

Is this tune really in Dmaj? It seems like Amix for at least setting X1,2,3

Here’s a really nice approach for the A section lifted from the incomparable John Carty (Last Night’s Fun album):


FA (3AAA BAFA | dfed Bd{d}dB | FAAd BAFA| DBAF EFDE |
FAAd B3 c| (3dcB (3cBA Bdef | {f}g2 bg ef ~f2 |gfed BcdB:|

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmcsI0lH45A

play video

This sounds so nice in C. I think I prefer it!

^ Here in Bristol we only play it in C by the way, in fact it was how I first learned it

Silver seems like a poor choice of metal for a spear.

This is the version that I play, mostly based on the version that my uilleann piping friend Evan Kenepp plays.
Enjoy!

Kevin Burke :
https://youtu.be/tXbbnan7_7c

play video

Bass and Chords For B/C Box
Upper case - Bass button / Lower case - Chord button

Hello! Im wokring on a big project with recording all tunes I know in slow tempo togehter
with som tools and flute exercises for anyone to use and learn and practice along with.
Hope you find good use of it!

TUNE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JefHTgtpLBQ

play video

BODHRÁN METRONOME PLAYLIST:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeBSuVJgG93QKA8HBk0mJVjAmi50G52T7

DRONES PLAYLIST:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeBSuVJgG93QgET4g19H-QkC49uOA77wv

Irish Flute Course | 10 Essential Exercises:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOyp6L0urhw

play video

Website:
https://jonantonsson.wixsite.com/tunes

I recall reading somewhere that the tune, "Silver Spear" refers to a legendary spear used by an Irish hero. I cannot now find the source. Anyone know this legend?

FWIW, the Traditional Tune Archive says this about the name.

Brendan Breathnach’s translation of the title into Irish suggests the title refers to a mountain. “New Mown Meadows” is a related melody. Piper Willie Clancy played the tune under the title “White Mountain.” https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Silver_Spear_(The)

Maybe others will chime in with confirmation on the "Irish hero’s spear" origin, but that sounds a bit Celtic-romantic to me, possibly not authentic. There are plenty of tune names in Irish trad based on geographic features.

Chords!