Six comments
John MacDonald’s Exercise
This is the second tune of the initial set "Gie’s a Drink" in Deaf Shepherd’s wonderful "Ae Spark O Nature’s Fire". I transposed it from Bbmaj. In the recording, it follows "Give Us a Drink of Water", a slip jig; the set then continues with reels. I’d like to make a set with these two jigs, followed by another one or two; any suggestions are welcome.
Really nice tune, thanks for posting it. The original key, of course, is explained by it being played on Highland pipes (keyed in Bb). It might be nice to have a version of the tune in A Mixolydian as well - this would be a more usual transposition, as it corresponds to how the original pipe setting is laid out also. It makes it easier to get us smallpipe players playing with fiddles etc also!
Couldn’t reply to Goccia’s personal email to me… The key signature is correct as it stands, but the tune should start on C# (something like CEE AEE, excuse my poor ABC) to correspond with the pipe setting.
As far as tunes to add on in a set, one of my current favourites is The Panda (search on this site for a version). I think that might go rather nicely after this.
Amix version
Hello niallanderson, there you are the AMix version:
X: 1
T:John MacDonald’s Exercise (AMix version)
M:6/8
L:1/8
R:jig
K:Amix
%
|:cee Aee|cee a2e|cee Aee|a2e fee|
cee Aee|cee a2e|faf Afe|fcc dBB:|
|:cee aee|faa f2e|cee a2e|fa=g fee|
cee aee|faa f2e|faf Afe|fcc dBB:|
|:efc efA|ceA efc|faf Aff|aee fcc|
efc efA|ceA efc|faf Afe |fcc dBB:|
|:~c3 caa|dff cee|~c3 caa|dff fed|
~c3 caa|dff cee|faf Afe|fcc dBB:|
Kindly transposed by abc2abc. Later, Goccia
nice tune, i prefer it in bmin the deaf shepard recorded it though.
Gordon Duncan, a great Highland piper, composed "The Panda" and other great tunes. One of my favorite tunes by Gordon is a hornpipe, "Zito the Bubbleman."
If the piper played the A mix setting on the Scottish smallpipes in D, the tune was come out an octave above the D setting posted originally if it was played on the fiddle.
If the piper played the A mix setting on the SSP in A, then the tune would come out an octave below the fiddler playing the A mix setting. If, however, the piper played the same setting on the Border or Lowland pipes (pitched in A, not Bb), the pipes and fiddle would be playing the tune in the same octave.