The Blue jig

First time I heard the Midi play, I thought, "Hey what th—" but by the time it got to the B part, I was laughing out loud at it. Ice hot, one for the tunebook if only for that one moment someone says, "Know any new tunes? …"

"As a matter of fact yes … but, it’s a little blue …"

On uillean pipes you cannot play much more blue, at least without keys!

An interesting one…

Anyone know any recordings of this, or who was the composer?

I’ve been trying to do some digging around to find the composer, and it looks like maybe this version is a bastardisation of the John Chambers tune with a similar feel and a practically identical B part. The notation is found here http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/Contra/jig/0142 - any thoughts?

This was written by Joel Mabus in 1994. The second setting above was found by following a link on the abcnotation web site. The tune can also be found in The Portland Collection Vol. 2.

Cheers,
Ron

The key is not really A minor. "K:Am" just indicates a key signature(no sharps no flats). The key is A with a major feel, lots of 7ths in the chords, and flatted 3rds in the melody. The tune does not appear to fit any of the usual Irish modes.

Ron

Ron—
This has a minor sound or feel to me.
Maybe the reaction of major feel comes from the B part.
There are A major chords.
To me the B part modulates to D major and the A chords are the 5 chord in D.
Then, the tune resolves back to A minor at the end.
Does this logic hold for you?

Elan

Thanks Ron, I’ll now credit Joel Mabus. Its darn difficult to find composers to some tunes! On another note, does anyone have any tips on what chords to use, whether to just stick to regular A major chords or to put some slightly jazzier ones in? I’m not a guitarist, and am generally very boring with chords!

Elan
I agree that the first 2 measures give a minor feel because of the c natural.
I don’t think it changes key in the second part. The second part starts on the IV chord(D); this is a common occurence in music of this nature.
The "home note" is A. Whether the key is minor or major is ambiguous.
The setting above (X:2) was copied from:
http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=roaringjelly.org/music/abc/RJ_AllSets%20%281%29/0311
Chords…
are a personal thing - suggestions really. I can see that some might prefer "Am7" at the beginning of the first two lines, or you could play the chord without the third (A E G).
I personally think that using 7th chords adds to the "blues feel".
I’m sure that "jazzier chords" would work very well.