The Fairy Jig slip jig

This is a great tune - courtesy of my Irish Ensemble teacher. I usually play this with Con Cassidy’s jig preceding it. Have fun!

I think what you’re after here is a slip jig (in 9/8):
X: 1
T: Fairy Jig, The
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
K: D mixolydian
|: A2 G Add Add | ABA AFA fAg | A2 G Add Add | cAG cAG FED :||
|: ~a3 fab afd | ~a3 faa baf | ~a3 baf afd | cAG cAG FED :||

The sheet version is the one we hear played. There was a version that Mairead Mooney and Frankie Kennedy played that was all the rage at sessions in Carrick (Oct. bank holiday weekend) 20 years ago but it’s not so easy to find someone who plays it this way now. This is a dredged up version because it’s been so long but I think it’s OK.

X: 1
T: Fairy Jig, The
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
K: D mixolydian
|: A2 G Add Add | A2G Add f3 | A2 G Add Add | cAG A2G FED :||
| a2f add add | a2f add baf | a2f add add | cAG A2G FED|
| a2f add add | a2f add baf | a3 bag a2g | fed cAG FED ||

Jim

Wow. I guess I was misinformed. But thanks for straightening it out. Interesting….

Misinformed? How so? Did your teacher write the tune out for you in 6/8, or simply call it a “jig?” Slip jigs are jigs, and some people drop the ‘slip’ part when talking about them, assuming the 9/8 meter is self-evident.

Ok, maybe “misinformed” was the wrong word. Perhaps “misheard” is slightly better. Either way, I learned the tune by rote. Usually I’m good about catching on to the different meter of a slip jig. Oh well.

It mentions this tune on the Danu album ‘The Road Less Travelled’. On the Album the tune is called the Fairy Reel and is, of course, a reel and not a slip jig.

This slip jig was a tune Mickey Doherty, elder brother of Johnny Doherty, apparently learned from the Fairies. It’s still played in Donegal. A recording of this tune is to be found on “The Gravel Walks: The Fiddle Music of Mickey Doherty”. The tune is played somewhat furiously. And he repeated it so many times that the recording engineer apparently just switched off the machine before he was finished playing. Sadly this set of two tapes has not yet made its way to CD. Mickey Doherty’s style had a more swung rhythm than his younger brother John, and was apparently more like the playing of their father Michael, which is typical of the Rosses style. John Doherty’s playing was more clearly influenced by the records of James Scott Skinner, especially in his playing of reels.

I like to play this tune at a moderate pace following The Rolling Waves, although some do roll their eyes at a slip jig following a jig. I first heard this tune played by the fiddler Sam Amidon on an album called Strangest Dream. The version is slightly different than this one; I came across the popcorn behavior version elsewhere online, too, so it must be a variation. I also was surprised to learn this tune was a slip jig, even though I had learned it by ear. I heard the first two notes as a separate, introductory measure and then the next group of six notes as the first measure of a 6/8 tune, although it did weird things rhythmically (of course since it really IS a slip jig), but I liked that.

As played by Mairéad and Frankie.

I’ve been reading over the comments of Amsrie on “The Fairy”, an all-time favorite slipjig of mine. Ann Marie was in the Irish Ensemble class I taught the spring of 2004 at FSU. I’m including my setting as I taught it. (I taught a tune by ear to this ensemble class and only included notation of the tunes I taught at the end of a semester. Though I’d give the students a notated sheet of what I called “jumpstarts” for all the tunes taught - first phrase of each part of a tune - before our final concert.) I learned “The Fairy Jig” (slipjig) from fiddler Ciaran O’Maonaigh’s class at the ’03-’04 Frankie Kennedy Winter School but most probably used Paddy Glackin’s setting as heard on his recording IN FULL SPATE. It’s referred to as “The Fairy Jig” on this recording thus might have been confusing to those who missed it as actually being a slipjig. I preceded it with Ciaran’s setting of Con Cassidy’s Slipjig (aka The Cock & the Hen). The Donegal fiddlers have long been my favorite Irish fiddlers having been tutored by fiddler Ed Keeney RIP originally from Ardara. We currently include this medley of slipjigs at our 4th Sunday regular Irish sessions at Finnegan’s Wake in Tallahassee, Fl. Contact:
www.gordonsstringmusic.com

T: Con Cassidy’s Slipjig (The Cock & the Hen)
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
K: G
S: Ciaran O’Maonaigh class & Roche’s II p. 24
P:1
|:BAB BAB ~g3|BAB B2e dBG|BAB BAB g2e|faf efe dBG:||!
P:2
|:f2d def g2e|fed dgf e^cA|f2d def g2e|1fed edB efg:||2fed edB dBG||!

T: The Fairy Jig (slipjig)
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
K: D Mixolydian
S: Ciaran O’Maonaigh’s class & Paddy Glackin’s IN FULL SPATE
P:1
|:A2G Add Add|ABA AFA fAg|A2G Add ded|cAG A/2A/2AG FDD:||!
P:2
|:~a3 fab afd|afd dfa baf|afa baf afd|cAG A/2A/2AG FDD:||!