The Pretty Girls Of Mayo reel

Also known as Cailini Deasa Mhaigh, Pretty Girls From Mayo, The Pretty Girls From Mayo.

There are 42 recordings of this tune.
This tune has been recorded together with

The Pretty Girls Of Mayo appears in 2 other tune collections.

The Pretty Girls Of Mayo has been added to 27 tune sets.

The Pretty Girls Of Mayo has been added to 178 tunebooks.

Download ABC

Six settings

1
Sheet Music312
Sheet Music3
Sheet Music3
2
Sheet Music12
Sheet Music
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3
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4
Sheet Music12
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5
Sheet Music3
Sheet Music312
Sheet Music3
Sheet Music12
6
Sheet Music33
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Sheet Music

Fourteen comments

The Pretty Girls of Mayo (reel)

For comparison, here is the version in Henrik Norbeck’s collection (also in G):

DG~G2 A2de|fd~d2 fdcA|DG~G2 A2de|1 fdcA BGAF:|2 fdcA AGBd||
g2ge fdde|fdge fdde|~g3e fdde|fdcA AG~G2|
g2ge fdde|fdge fdd^c|defg abag|fdcA BGAF||

Trevor

Catherine & John McEvoy

I just learnt this tune from their CD The Kilmore Fancy. I’ve really taken a shine to this tune and I’m not sure why. I prefer playing it on flute than banjo and maybe it just happens to sit very well on this instrument.

This tune goes well with Down the Broom. Not sure if the two tunes are related, but they share some similar phrases.

Why are there two files? The second sounds better, I think.

2-for-1 ~ 😉

Look at the sheetmusic, there are two seperate transcriptions given, each a single reel of 16 measures…

Relatives

Seems to me That Pretty Girls of Mayo is very similiar to Sean Reids ( at least to varients of Sean Reids that fon’t feature the F-nat in their B Part ) eg: Mary Bergin, ditto with Doonagore.

These three are cousins if not the same tune.

Pat

Large family of tunes

This tune is essentially the same as tune #153, Sweet Biddy of Ballyvournie, which also appears under a number of further titles.

Another Name?

Ennis played something very similar to the second tune which he called The Music of the Forge.

Re: The Pretty Girls Of Mayo

I have been practising this tune like mad recently and, I don’t know why, but I just find it impossible to play. I don’t seem to be getting any better at it. There’s something about the phrasing and the string crossing that makes it a right bugger to find a bowing that works. Every time I play it I end up bowing everything really awkwardly and tripping over myself. I’ve had such problems occasionally before on other tunes but always managed to solve them with a bit of practice. Not this one. Aaaaaargh.

The Pretty Girls Of Mayo, X:6

A nice session standard, taken from ‘A Fine Selection of Over 200 Irish Traditional Tunes for Sessions’, compiled by David Speers with a Forward by Matt Cranitch. This has a step up in the first phrase and a couple of other differences so I’ve added it to the list.