The Belles Of Tipperary reel

Got his one from the demo mp3’s posted on the Ask My Father site, It’s got a different chord structure than most other tunes & lot’s of tricky turns. Nice tune

Good god, Brad. What the HELL were you doing there and how the hell did you find out about the website already? I was hoping to hide those mp3s from you and everyone else…eek!

This tune is also known as The New Policeman. The setting is Shannon Heaton’s.

Zina

Zina

The girl so nice, they named her twice. sorry about that.

zls

Well you posted the URL, I found a tune - I never heard & liked it. So I grabbed my fiddle & learned it. Figured I’d share it with everyone. I liked the AMF mp3’s, it wasn’t too over-produced - which is good for a demo. It is impressive that Dirk has only been at the UP’s for two or so years. I’ve heard Colorado’s dry climate & altitude make the pipes difficult to play there. Surely he played whistle or something before hand, right? Good job yourself zina, it seems like you already have a lot of tunes in your arsenal. Good luck with the band & have fun w/ it.

Toodles

ps Is this how you play it or did I flub some notes?

Well, if you’ll all pardon me for a moment, I’m going to go kill Glauber for posting the site in the link section. *grin*

Thanks for being kind about the mp3s, Brad. I suppose it was only a matter of time before people found out exactly how poor a player I really am! Anyway, we figure that at this point we’re good enough for weddings and parties and such (since people are booking us, anyway, which surprised the heck out of us) — none of us ever want to tour or do full-fledged shows.

Dirk IS quite impressive, isn’t he? His version of O’Farrell’s Welcome is my favorite track of the six, frankly, but maybe that’s because I don’t play on that track at all. 🙂 Colorado is a horrible place to be a piper; when Scoiltrad came to town, we warned Eoin, and he smiled and seemed to think it would be all right, but he was amazed at the end of three days at exactly how bad it was. I expect to hear some truly mighty stuff come from Dirk’s pipes in the next years. (No pressure or anything, Dirk. *snicker) He played jazz saxophone before this — insofar as I know, nothing Irish until he decided that the pipes were for him…he played the whistle while waiting for his pipes to arrive and I think that was it.

That’s more or less how we play it, Brad, close enough — there’s an almost exact transcription on the SCTLS site if you want to be fussy about it.

Anyway, thanks for the good wishes. 🙂

Zina

Here’s a different version of this tune that I found in an old public domain collection of New England fiddle music (circa 1970 I think). The B-b leaps are quite distinctive in this version.

D3E FA A2|defe dBBd|BdAd Bb b2|afde fe e2|
DCDE FA A2|defe dBBd|BdAd Bb b2|afde fd d2:|
|:a3b afed|gfed fd d2|BdAd Bb b2|afde fe e2|
a3b afed|gfed fd d2|BdAd Bb b2|afde fd d2:||

trevor macsheoinin

The first notes of bars 1 and 5 are normally played an octave lower than what you have here, i.e.: DB, ~B,2

Sorry, I meant DA, ~A,2

On andy McGann & Paddy Reynold’s album they did do the dA~A2 an octave lower. Here’s where the funny thing about tunes comes in… If I’m not mistaken Zina & Co. learned this tune from Shannon Heaton who is a great flute player, the flute would play those notes an octave higher. I first learned the tune from Zina & that’s the setting I ended up with. It’s normal for the flute, weaker for the fiddle but neithers right or wrong.

Brad’s right on all counts — yes, we did learn it from a fluter, Shannon Heaton, who I believe learned it from John Williams (the alive box player), but could be wrong about that. I’ve heard it the other way as well, but like the way it sounds as Shannon taught it to us, especially as I normally play with a piper (Dirk) who would also play it that way naturally.

Seemed fairly plain to me that a flute, whistle or piper was the source of this version. They, of course, have to bend the tune back above D. On the other hand, it’s not necessarily the case that "neithers right or wrong." If a tune really does start out going below D, and especially if bending it back above sounds weird, then I’d say the tune actually goes below D. So, if one’s instrument allows, one should learn/play it the way it "actually goes." Since I don’t have any insight on which way this tune "actually goes," I can’t say here. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a right way to play it. 8^)

Here is another version I have found, under the name New Policeman. It is a transcription of an old recording (early 1970-ish)by the Sligo flautist Seamus Tansey.

M:C|
L:1/8
K:D
DA,~A,2 DEFA|defe dB (3BBB|BAFA AB{Bc}BA|FEDE FEE2|
DA,~A,2 DEFA|defe dB (3BBB|~d3B ABdB|AFEG FED2:|
|:~a3b afdf|(3gfe fd cde2|(3gbg ef gbag|(3fff gf e4|
dB~B2 AF~F2|DF~F2 ABde|(3fff ec dBAF|GFEG FED2:||

Trevor

This tune is absolutely gorgeous. I love it because it goes exactly where I want to hear it going, without being too predictable, if you know what I mean. I didn’t even have to even sit down and learn it because I’d heard it played so many times in sessions that it was in my head just ready to play, every note of it.

I suppose I should post my setting while I’m here.

|:DA,~A2 DEFA|defe dBBA|B2AF ABdf|afde fee2|
dA~A2 DEFA|d2fe dBBA|B2AF A2dB|AFEG FDD2:|
|:faab afdf|gfed (3Bcd ef|g2gf gbag|fgaf effe|
dB~B2 AF~F2|DFBF ABdf|afef dBAF|A2ag fdd2:|

Isn’t this tune just another setting of Miss Monaghan?

No.

The New Policeman is the name of another tune as well that is also called Michael Dwyers Favorite. And it is this New Policeman that is on Take a Bow

For a separate posting of the setting in Trevor’s 1st comment, go here https://thesession.org/tunes/5998. It’s in Cmaj rather than D, but with the distinctive octave leaps Trevor mentioned, it’s recognisably the same tune.

Picked this up from a recording by a piper (Michael Cooney)

X: 1
T: Belles Of Tipperary, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: Reel
K: Dmaj
|:D ~A3 DEFA | defe dBBA | B2 AF ABde | fede fe e2 |
D ~A3 DEFA | defe dBBA | B2 AF ABdB |1 AFEG FDDA :|2 AFEG FDD f |
|:~a3b afdf | gfed (3Bcd ef | g2 gf gbag | faaf egfe |
dB~B2 AF~F2 | D ~F3 ABdf |1 afec dBAF |ABde fdd f :|2 afec dBAF | EFGE FDDA ||
"Variation in B part 3rd measure for second time thru"
|:~a3b afdf | gfed (3Bcd ef | gdBd gbag | faaf egfe |
dB~B2 AF~F2 | D ~F3 ABdf | afec dBAF | EFGE FDDA||

http://www.soundlantern.com/UpdatedSoundPage.do?ToId=23189

first tune in the set, I started off with the high bar

Here it is by Tom Doorley. The second tune

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqWMn6RnWCA

play video

X: 1
T: New Policeman, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
|:D2 FA D2 FA | defe dBBA | B2 AF ABde | f2 ed fe e2 |
dA A2 DEFA | defe dBBA | B2 AF ABdB | AFEG FD D2 :||
|:faaf afdf | gfed (3Bcd ef |g3f gbag | faaf egfe |
dB B2 AF F2 | DF F2 ABdf | afef dBAF | A2 ag fd d2 :||

Such a great tune. Here it is by Síle & Bríd Ní Mhaonaigh and Pat Marsh. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR_c7Ca-fAU&playnext_from=TL&videos=w3H1NkkhwPo&feature=grec

play video

It’s the second tune from about 1.08

I play it with mrs galvins reel

There’s a great book by Kate Thompson, aimed at young adults, but good fun for adults too called, The New Policeman about a young fiddle player in Ireland. At the end of every chapter there is the sheet music for a tune. That’s how I learned this one.
Funny, I’ve seen another reel, in G, by the same name …

Got to love this tune. Here it is by Vinnie Kilduff http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqUcxsja1Uw

play video

Submitted on November 25th 2012 by smw.
~ /tunes/12319

X: 7
T: Belles Of St. Louis, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
|: D3 E F3 A | defe dBBA | B3 d BdAB | dfaf e2 dB |
AD ~D2 FDFA | defe dBBA | ~B2 Ad BdAc | dcdA FD D2 :|
|: f^gab afdf | bafe fedB | ~d2 f^g ~a2 fa | bfaf e3 a |
fa (3aaa afdf | bafe fedA | ~B2 Ad BdAc |[1 dcdA FD D2 :|[2 dcdF GEFE |]

This is a reel that comes from Tommy Peoples’ album "The Iron Man." I’m surprised that I don’t hear it more often.

The transcription (with a few small changes) comes from here:
http://tunedb.woodenflute.com/tune_details_results.html?tune_id=2555&tune_name=The%20Belles%20Of%20St.%20Louis

# Posted on November 25th 2012 by smw
https://thesession.org/members/20040

This setting is a bit of a mish-mash of all the great settings posted here. This tune really lends itself well to lots of variation, doesn’t it?

Recorded at EnnisTradFest 2019