Miss Johnstone’s slip jig

This appears on Dervish’s At The End Of The Day and is their own development of a Paddy O’Brien composition called Youghal Quay https://thesession.org/tunes/2628. On the album they follow the mazurka with the reel, and because the reel is misidentified as an older tune called Miss Johnstone’s https://thesession.org/tunes/2411, the mazurka version has also acquired that title. The mazurka is played with swing, but for simplicity’s sake arrow signs have not been included in the transcription.

Obviously those who did this ‘deed’ are more familiar with slip jigs than mazurkas. I would first say, learn a few and get intimate with them, to the point of understanding, before attempting to turn someone else’s tune into one, but as a slip jig it ain’t half bad. As a mazurka ~ (I’ve deleted that bit…)

T: Miss Johnstone’s Slip
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
R: slip jig
K: G Major
|: B2 d c2 A GAG | D2 G B2 A G2 g | f2 d c2 A G2 D | F2 G A2 B cBA :|
|: B2 d c2 e d2 | B2 d g2 a bag |1 Bcd c2 e d2 f | a3 f2 a gfe :|
2 b2 g agf g2 e | d2 A F2 A cBA ||

Of course there’d be an ‘oops’, bar one of part-B:

|: Bcd c2 e d2 c | ~ the last beat, I forgot to fill it out, which could also be a simple d3…

I’ll meet you halfway, ‘c’. I’ve changed the abc. It’s only got half the bars it needs to be a mazurka, and all phrasing’s wrong, right? So in that case the problem is not the tune itself, and not the fact that they changed P O’B’s composition, but that they called it a mazurka in the liner notes, when in fact it’s a hop jig. It is a hop jig isn’t it?

Hey I just did it in time too. Jeremy converted the abc into sheetmusic only seconds after I edited it 🙂

Here are some more tunes that might go well in a set with this one:

The Boys Of Ballisodare https://thesession.org/tunes/1340
Another Jig Will Do https://thesession.org/tunes/276
The Butterfly https://thesession.org/tunes/10
The Dusty Miller https://thesession.org/tunes/4323
The Dusty Miller https://thesession.org/tunes/28
The Rocky Road To Dublin https://thesession.org/tunes/593
The Snowy Path https://thesession.org/tunes/104

Yeah, it’s a hop jig, you can tell by the few triplet combinations and the preponderance of ‘N2 N’ beats throughout…the ‘Hump-ty Dump-ty“ of it… 😉 damn you’re quick…

Wow! Did I say quick? Where’d all those links to hoppitys come from. Damn, it is the miracle of Tao…

You know, it probably isn’t Dervish’s fault, knowing and acknowledging their talents. They probably had some record producer do the liner notes… All is forgiven…

Given the second ending I gave it, I’d finish it by adding this as an extra bar, a fremata on the G3. How do you add a fermata in ABC’s anyway?

|| Bcd c2 A G3 ||

reel: Miss Johnson / Miss Johnson’s / Miss Johnston /
Miss Johnstone / Miss Johnstone’s
Submitted on January 19th 2004 by Kenny.
https://thesession.org/tunes/2411

& hay what, a version of this slip is there in the comments, though why it is given as 3/4, well, it wouldn’t be the first time. I’ve seen 4/4 barndances written out as 12/8 too…go figure…

Just looking at the other hop jigs there, it seems that hop jigs don’t need a 2nd ending to make them hop jigs, but (like flings) they do sound nice with one just to round off the tune and bring you smoothly back into the A-part. So here goes, here’s my effort:

…2 b2g a2f g2e|d2c A2B cBA||
…2 a2f g2e d2B|A2G A2B cBA||
…2 a2c’ f2a g2a|b2g a2g fed|| or a2c’ f2a g2a|b2g f2d cBA||
…2 a3 a2g f2g|a2b a2g fed|| or a3 a2g f2g|a2g f2d cBA||

I like the long start of the alternate takes on a second ending, that a3, nice, but I went too far on one take off from it:

…2 a3 a2 g f2 c’ | bag fed cBA ||

NOTE: Yeah, I know, as you know, that “Miss Johnson” with all her aliases is not the same tune as “Youghal Quay”, but the other notation for this slip is in the comments for that lady rather than than this spit of sea…

A last comment on ‘second endings’, they help the dancer(s), serve as a guide, whether for group or solo dancing. They also give something to create around, for those better dancers ~ those who do more than hammering it out as loudly as possible, those fond of ‘showing off’ , but instead as inspiration and guidance for those with a greater empathy with the music and the musician(s), those who have an honest understanding, respect and consideration of the music, as evidenced in a want to ‘accompany’ it rather than beat it to death underfoot….

Whoa! ~ I must have recently had something that disagreed with me. Maybe I need a nap…

What is this thing called a “dancer”? 😉

LOL!

For anyone still not bored with our ramblings about the mazurka/hop jig distinction, check out this previous submission from our very own ‘c’ https://thesession.org/tunes/5685.

The Devil made you do that…

LOL I knew you’d enjoy it 🙂