The Stone In The Field reel

Paddy Carty (flute) recorded a beautiful, and very elegant, version of this tune - the album is entitled "Paddy Carty - Traditional Irish Music".

Wow, a friend just gave this tune to me and I can’t stop playing it!

And of course Tommy Reck recorded it on his album of the same title "The Stone In The Field"

I’m recording this song at the moment as a slow reel, it really works. I’ll tell ye when I’ve put it up on my myspace - www.myspace.com/dominichenderson

It’s a tune

Another setting:

X: 1
T: Stone In The Field, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Ador
EAAG A2 Bd|e~a3 gedB|cBAc B~G3|AcBA GEDG|
EAAG A2 Bd|e~a3 gedB|cBcd e~g3|1 dBGB A2 GD:|2 dBGB A2 B/c/d||
eabg a2 ab|gabg aged|cBAc BGGB|AcBA GE D2|
e~a3 b~g3|agef ~g3a|bgaf gedB|1 AcBG ABcd:|2 AcBG ABAG||

The tune in Danu’s album ‘Up in the air’ is a jig.

I am learning this tune from Paddy Carty’s recording, and I swear I hear a high-c-nat at the beginning of the second bar of the B-part… …even allowing for the fact that the entire recording itself is about 1/4 to 1/2 step sharp.

I’ve been working through this recording for a while now (with my flute’s tuning slide pushed all the way in, and an overly "sharp embouchure"), and I absolutely *LOVE* this tune, so I’d like to nail it.

If so, what is the best technique for hitting this note cleanly at-speed on flute?

You’re quite correct, "browndog". I seem to remember this reel is in Breandan Breathnach’s 1st volume of "Ceol Rince na hEirreann" with a high c-nat, and maybe also in one of the "Bulmer & Sharpley" books. I’ve always layed it as such, using the c-nat key, but I don’t know if you have that particular option.

Thank you for your reply, Kenny.

Soooo… a c-nat key, huh? Ahhhh… my keyed flute has been in the making for quite a while tho’, so I’m still on keyless.

Given that, the only way that I’m able to hit that note when playing along with Paddy Carty’s recording is by half-holing… and since that’s the left-hand index finger (my weakest, control-wise), I only have about a 10% success rate of hitting the pitch accurately, and no way can I keep it in time. I guess I have a *LOT* of practicing to do! 🙂 (…including short-rolls on high-b, too…)

On Danu’s album "Up in the Air", "The Stone in the Field" is in fact "The Maid In The Meadow", a jig.

Did he use his Radcliff flute for that recording, would make all the c a little more easy to be intune, not that intune matters a ton, i just needs to sound right

Here’s Gavin Whelan playing this tune very nicely

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zjj62gjtzbg

play video

It recently occured to me that this tune is an A dorian version of the Shaskeen Reel: https://thesession.org/tunes/615

I don’t play flute but I am wondering, is it a c natural in place of the high b?

Source: Fintan Vallely
Transcription: Gian Marco Pietrasanta

This sounds an awful lot like The Congress reel. Wonder if they are related?

Track 3 on James Keane’s That’s the Spirit album, played with the Steeplechase & The Culfodda