Wee Michael’s march

OK, you’ll probably realise that this isn’t a mazurka but a very popular John McCusker tune.

I’ve transcribed it roughly as I play it without having checked the music (which you’re not supposed to do anyway, of course 🙂 ) so it won’t be entirely accurate. However, it’s a very close and playable version. If you want to listen to John’s recording of the tune on the Yellow Hoose or the Battlefield album "Rain, Hail, or Shine", you’ll soon get the feel of how it should sound.

I think this tune is one of those tunes that is a lot easier to learn from ear than from the dots or abc. But a great tune - clever guy that McCusker.

I tried writing this tune out a few years ago and it truly was easier to learn it than to transcribe it. Anyway, here’s what I finally settled on:

T:Wee Micheal
R:march
M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=150
K:Amix
A2d2e2|{e}f6 a2| g2 f2 eG3| d4 AG3| A6 f2|gf3 e4|!
e2A2 d2e2|f6 a2|g2f2 eG3| d4 AG3| A6 f2|e3 d d4-|d2:||!
A2 d2ef|g6 f2|ga3 f3 e|d2 dB3 A2|gf3 e4-|e2 A2 d2 ef|!
g6 f2|ga3 f3e|d2 dA3 A2|f2e3 dd2-|d2:||

Hi Bill,
I agree that it’s a lot easier to to learn by ear. It’s one of the hardest ones I’ve tried to transcribe. I’ll check out yours and if I can manage a "wee sneak" at the actual music sometime(It’s in his book), I’ll update my ABC accordingly.

At last, I’ve got around to amending the ABC. It should be correct now.

Perhaps, Jeremy could now add the sheet music?

As Johnny Jay, Donough and Bill have all said, it is difficult to transcribe, and (without looking at the music), here’s the reason, I think: the basic time sig is 3/4 (not 4/4), BUT in the second half of the tune there are several 2/4 bars. As Donough says, you just feel the rhythm, but when you start to count it out or analyse it……! And I think that’s what gives this tune its real stand-out quality.
My interpretation is that from the first bar of line 4 in the dots score it goes 3/4, 3/4, 2/4, 3/4, then the same again twice more before going back to a regular 3/4 for the last few bars.
Unfortunately my simple scoring program won’t allow that sort of messing about in the middle of a score!

http://youtu.be/o5pXKkfsWz4

play video

Resulting from a recent discussion…………

Setting #3 is my attempt at transcribing the tune from John McCusker’s playing in the above clip. Unfortunately, the embedded abc converter sems not to allow time signature changes within the tune - bar 4 of the B-part is intentionally a beat short and should really have a ‘2/4’ at the beginning (reverting to 3/4 for the following bar).

I would have put the 2/4 bars a bar earlier (there is one on line 2 of the B part as well) to get the following:

|: A, DE/F/ | G3 F G<A | [M: 2/4] F2 ED | [M: 3/4] DB,2A, G<F |1 E3 A, DE/F/|
G3 F G<A | [M:2/4] F2 ED | [M:3/4] DA,2F E>D | D3 :||2 E3 E FG |
A2 F2 GF | G<G, D2 A,<G,| A,3 F EF/E/ | D3 ||

I have now incorporated DonaldK’s revisions into setting #3 (and I now know about the magical properties of the square bracket). Thanks DK.

It was an honour and a pleasure.