Swinging On The Gate reel

"The Bridge Céilí Band" ~ track 6, #2 of 4 reels
Submitted & this missed on March 2nd 2007 by ceolachan.
https://thesession.org/recordings/2440

Damn, that’s sad, nobody has made any comment or contribution on this tune until now… ;-/

"Music from Ireland, Volume One"
Dave Bulmer & Neil Sharpley, 1974
ISBN: 0-9503784-02

Page 20, tune #53: "Swinging on the Gate"

K: D Major
|: FA |
d2 AF D2 EF | G2 FG FDB,D | A,DFA d2 cA | (3Bcd ed cABc |
dBAF D2 EF | GEFD EDB,D | GE (3FED EDB,G, | A,B,DE D2 :|
|: FA |
d2 de faef | dcBA F2 ED | B,E E2 GFED | B,DEF GABc |
dcde (3fga ef | dcBA F2 EF | (3GFE FD EDB,G, | A,B,DE D2 :|

Depending on the instrument or your mood this old standard has been and can be played in the keys of C, D, G & A Major…or whatever you fancy…

I’ve heard that D setting played at our session before. It’s got some nice twists in it.

Hi Mark, yeah, I love it down low like that… There are great transcriptions in the Bulmer & Sharpley collections…

K: A Major
|: e/f/g |
afec A/A/A Bc | dB c/B/A BA F2 | EAce a2 ba | gaba gefg |
afec A2 Bc | d2 cA BAFA | dBcA BA F/G/A | EAAG A2 :|
|: ce |
a2 ab c’/b/a bg | agfe c2 BA | FBBc dcBA | FB-Bc defg |
agab c’2 bg | agfe c2 Bc | dB c/B/A BAFA | EAAG A2 :|

It’s probably more commonly played in G as this is the key shown in O’Neill’s which is where I got it. Have to agree about the great settings in Bulmers & Sharpley which is where I found the great Kilfenora jigs some 20 years ago when they were definitely not to be found anywhere else.

K: G Major
|: d/e/f |
gedB G2 AB | cABG AGEG | DGBd g2 g/f/e | fgag fdef |
gedB G/G/G AB | c2 B/A/G AGEG | cABG AGEG | DGGF G2 :|
|: d2 |
gfga bagf | gfed B2 AG | E2 AB cBAG | E2 G/A/B cdef |
g2 ga bagf | g2 f/e/d ed B/c/d | c2 BG AG E/F/G | DGGF G2 :|

I’m making up for the neglect this old standard has suffered in its comments. I’m hoping some other transcriptions will appear. It has been around so long ~ Eire, Scotland, Cymru, England, France, Denmark, North America, Australia, etc… ~ there’s no way it will have been set in aspic or concrete, and I don’t just mean the half dozen or so keys it has been played in… 😉

The G setting is definitely the most popular in sessions, but that D setting is so nice. I took to transposing the D setting into G just so I could keep those twists, since top D is no problem on the concertina. Unfortunately I found that the 2 versions aren’t really compatible so I reverted to the standard setting which appears in the original submission. It’s a very common tune at our session - maybe gets played once every other session. Anyway, here’s the setting I like to play:

X: 1
T: Swinging On The Gate
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
gedB [D2G2] AB|cABG AGEG|DGBd g2fg|eaag fdef|
gedB G2AB|ceBc AGEG|(3cBA BG AGEC|DEGA ~G3f:|
|:~g3a bd’ab|gfed BdAG|EA/A/AB cBAG|EAAB cdef|
gdga bd’ab|gfed B2AB|ceBG AGEC|DEGA G2Bd:|

Key signature: G Major
Submitted on March 8th 2007 by ceolachan.
https://thesession.org/tunes/6915

These two reels have almost identical starts and it’s often difficult to get the session to join you on the one you want! I suppose it’s one of those cases where a bit of verbal communication is required with the rest of the group before launching into it (or the other one as the case may be).

hiiiiii

We known that suppose it’s one of those cases where a bit of verbal communication is required with the rest of the group before launching into it (or the other one as the case may be).

…………………….
jone

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Here are some chords for Swinging on the Gate

Might want to delete that spam link 2 comments up from 7 years ago!

As played by Celticity, about the only one I could find on Spotify… what a fun tune. Most Irish tune names don’t seem to bear much relation to the tunes themselves, but this one is definitely an exception.

This is not another setting of the melody of Swinging on the Gate. It’s a harmony that I came up with a couple of years ago. I’ve been using it in jam sessions and it seems to work pretty well - especially in a small group when both melody and harmony can be clearly heard.

Added chords

Here’s Swinging On The Gate on the mandolin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq5sxhD_bTU

play video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95AwIyC3SKA

play video