Ah See Ye Keep A Bee jig

Over the last few days, I found myself playing this tune a lot . I had actually learned it a few years ago but, for some reason, it has lain dormant within my memory until now.

Anyway, I think it is a great tune and I especially like the changes from C# to Cnat in part one and the A#’s in part two.

This tune was composed by Brian McNeill and was dedicated to the one and only Jimmy Shand. Apparently, Jimmy Shand had requested some honey for his toast in an English hotel and received the smallest portion he had ever seen. His comment to the waitress was “Ah see ye keep a bee”.

John, with a title like that, surely it should be C# to Cgnat? 🙂

When I was a boy my father, a school inspector, told me he asked the name of a boy and his mother replied “Gooey”. “Gooey? He can’t be called that! How d’you spell it?” “G-U-Y.” Impressed, I kept the story in my memory, but as an adult, upon hearing the same story from various sources, I realised that it was “one of those stories”.

The “I see you keep a bee” tale is similar; I’ve heard it attached to other musicians, most recently by Tommy Peoples in a story told him by his father. It’s a good yarn, but I suspect that it’s “one of those stories”.

My dad (from Edinburgh) told me the Gooey story many years ago. But he hasn’t told me the bee story.