Dolina MacKay reel

This is a fantastic reel with a great syncopated bit in it. It features in Blazin’ Fiddles ‘Fire On’ CD, followed by The Little Cascade and The Banshee.

Reminds me of this one https://thesession.org/tunes/2826.

Are those part endings real? The leaps seem amazing to me…

The bg at the last bars should be BG. They are an octave to high.

You are right re the BGs at the end of each part - very new to ABC, so got it a bit wrong! To complete the corrections (now that I’ve seen it in notation), the 4th and 7th notes in the fourth bar of the third part should be Bs rather than fs and the 7th note of the seventh bar of the third part should be B not b. Sorry! Promise to do better next time! I have asked Jeremy whether he can correct the notation.

Any Fs should be sharp - it’s a pipe tune.

I find this incredibly useful for checking my abc
http://www.concertina.net/tunes_convert.html
I believe you can edit a tune you have posted yourself here

Thanks! Great site.

This is a highland pipe reel in A myx by James Scott . Appears in John MacFadyen’s book "Bagpipe Music " published in 1966

Guys loads of good comments here on a great tune. The comments about the endings are valid but don’t beat anybody up about it. Played this in Shotts Pipe Band in my first year there many years ago and if any tune suited Tom McAllister’s sound and his view of how music should be played then this is it.

Just enjoy it. Its the Dog’s whatsits !

Should be listed in A dorian, definitely not Amin. As Kenny says all the Fs are sharp, the reason it’s not mix is because there are no Cs in the tune - that’s how most minor tunes are played on GHB. For true A minor the Cs and Fs are left out or played as a passing note. For dorian leave out the Cs. Modern chanters can play the c and f naturals but not for this tune.

Obviously everything is a semitone up for actual GHBs

Learned the 4th part as follows:

|: AaaA g2Aa | Aaag e2dg | Ggge g2 de | gedB e2dB |
AaaA g2Aa | Aaag e2de | aeea e2dB | A2BG A4 :|

Gordon Duncan plays this tune brilliantly about 4m30s into this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlTxTCxgG7g

play video

This tune appears (p.45) in Cruinn Comhla (The Well travelled Fiddler’s Collection) published 1995 by Taigh na Teud where the composer is credited as Dr.John MacInnes (and tune included by permissin of James S. Kerr, Music Publishers, Glasgow)

The tune is credited, by John MacFadyen, as being composed by John Scott of South Uist, who was a regular at The Scottish Pipers Association meetings in Glasgow. Dolina (Dolly) MacKay was the mother of Evan MacKay (who was Pipe Major of the Association in 1960) and she was active in the administration of the Association for several years.

Christine Martin has been known to make mistakes from time to time!

Yes, she has. I daresay anyone who is human has.

Awesome choooooooooooon!

Second tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai9q4QydNWE

play video

This setting is based on Gordon Duncan’s playing of the tune in the clip highlighted in a comment above. I haven’t put in the birls - it’s pretty obvious where they go - and I haven’t bothered with a couple of little variations on repeats (like on the 4th part repeat he starts the second line with a birl). He also seems to end each part with |A/A/ABG AAA… but I think the respite of a crotchet/quarter note is welcome to non pipers.

The key signature for the sixth setting, X:6, should be no sharps or flats, not two sharps. And the B# in the B part, despite creating a little bluesy effect, should definitely not be there.

Hi,

has anyone got chords charts for this tune easily available?

Thank you!!

Hi Gillies, there are lots of ways this can be accompanied so what I offer is just one personal take.

I find that using an A5 chord as the root gives the tune more power than Am (or A?!). On a guitar I play that as x079xx but can also be done as x07x5x or x022xx.
Dolina Mackay is also one of those tunes where the rhythm of the accompaniment plays a bigger role than the chord choices. I tend to accompany the last two bars of each part the same each time with a syncopated rhythm:
|Em7 / / D/F#|D/F# G A5 / | - a 3-2-1-2 sort of rhythm.

Here’s a rough chart with comments underneath:

|:A5|A5|A5|D/F# G|A5|A5|Em7 D/F#|G A5:|
|:A5|C|G/B|D|A5|C|Em7 D/F#|G A5:|
|:A5|A5|Em7|Em7|A5|A5|Em7 D/F#|G A5:|
|:A5 G|A5|G D/F#|G|A5 G|A5|Em7 D/F#|G A5:|

I actually don’t play G but play G5/A x057xx to pick up on the A drone (and play D/A 5x47xx rather than D/F#) but that’s just my preference.
In the second part I push the C and D chords to start on the last crotchet/quarter of the previous bar so, over two bars you have a 3-3-2 rhythm. The C chord is the only time I’ll play a C note anywhere.
In the third part I keep the 3-3-2 rhythm going through the A5 and Em7 chords.
In the last part I’ve often heard an Fmaj7 chord slung in as in say |Fma7|Fmaj7|Em7|Em7| etc and that can work but it’s a bit out there for me.

Hope this gives some ideas.

Here’s another great rendition of this tune! Gillies you might get some chord ideas here as well. Also there’s some comments from Dolina’s Grandson in the YT comments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOl81TrewmQ

play video

DonaldK - That’s great info to get me started - I’m just beginning to figure out tune accompaniment - after years of just bashing out Dougie Maclean and Cat Stevens covers ;) - so this is very useful indeed.

Cheers!

Far North Retreats - Hey! Nice to see a friend’s name in here. More absolute wizardy from Brighde - I’m glad she slows things down for us mere mortals!! 🙂

G