Hair On The Gate reel

Windbroke was written by Mike McGoldrick. Lunasa plays it after Donogh and Mike’s 1st August on the 2nd track of their cd Merry Sisters of Fate.

Thank goodness someone else dared to post this tune. I’d have no idea how to write this in abcs so that Jeremy could translate it into standard notation.

The rhythm in Windbroke plays on holding the 4th beat of one bar over the 1st downbeat of the next bar. Definitely a tune worth learning straight from the recordings (or a live player who knows it well). Here’s my attempt at capturing it in abcs. I’m sure there’s a more graceful way to notate this in abcs, but I’ve left out the bar lines where the beat carries over, so you’ll get 8 beats per bar. I’ve also used period ( . ) to indicate notes that should be played staccato, with extra punch, and the standard “z” for a rest. Not sure if these are strictly accurate for what the boys are actually playing, so again, listen to the recording to get the feel. On some of those staccato/rest notes, they just hang on them, with less of a hiccup between notes. For those of you trying to peg what they’re doing on the cd, I hope this helps:

T:Windbroke
C:Mike McGoldrick
L:1/8
R:Reel
K:E Dorian

|:BE(3EEE GAB(3EEEGAd B2 AG|
|BE (3EEE GABc2 BAG B2 AG|
|BE (3EEE GAB(3EEEGAd B2 AB|
|edde ~B3G|1 ~A3G FGAc:|2 A2 AG FGA2||
|:Begf efd.e|zedf efed|Begf efg.a|za2 g fede|
|Begf efd.e|zedf efeB|1 ~c3A ~B3G|A2 AG FG A2:|
|2 c8- |cd (3cBA FGAc|

2 names for this pretty tune.
Play it with a lot of swing.
Sorry Will, but it’s not in E Dorian but in E minor this tune.
Yes, there is a change a the end of the tune. Stay 3 times on the C, play the rest of notes and play it again !

Oops, yes, of course E minor. Those c’s are naturals, not sharps.
I suppose a cleaner way to post the first two bars would be:

|BE(3EEE GABE/E/|EGAd B2 AG|

Apparantly (and I got this from Kevin Crawford, who should know) the tune was named for Mike’s dad, who also played flute, but was not so good with the breath control. He would stop midway through a tune and gasp ‘wind broke, wind broke’ i.e, he had run out of air.

Will, you can use the “tie” sign over the barline like this: |BE~E2 GABE-|EGAd B2AG| although I’m sure you know that now since you wrote that 2 years ago!

Yep, that’s nice and clean Mark. I wear a tie so rarely, I forget how to knot one. 🙂

This is how I play it now:

X: 1
T: Windbroke
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Emin
|BE ~E2 GABE- |EGAd B2 AG | BE ~E2 GABc-|cBAG ABAG|
BE ~E2 GABE- |EGAd B2 AG | edde ~B2 AG |A2 AG FGAc :|
|:Begf efde- |eedf e2 eA| Begf efga-|a a2 g fede|
Begf efde- |e edf e2 eB | ~c3 A ~B3 G|A2 AG FGAc :||

Nice tune, the 2nd part is unusual and strong.

As usual, there is now ideal way of transcribing music, or the spoken word for that matter.
Just in case you’re interested, and as a case study, here is my own transcription -which is based on your ideas (I haven’t heard the tune myself!).
Note how bad the MIDI rendition sounds for “~”, but the use of those tildes work well on the sheet.
Note the use of “ ’ “ to indicate the (broken) breaths!

X: 1
T: Windbroke
C: Mike McGoldrick
L: 1/8
R: Reel
K: Eminor
BE E/E/E GAB(E/E/|E)GAd B2AG|BEE/E/E GAB(c|c)BAG B2AG|
BE ~E2 GAB(~E|E)GAd B2AB|edde B3G|1 A3G FGAc:|2 A2 AG FGA2||
Begf efd.e|“`“zedf efed|Begf efg.a|”’“za2 g fede|
Begf efd.e|”’“zedf efeB|1 c3A B3G|A2AG FGA2:|2 c8- |cd (3cBA FGAc||

On breath control of Mike’s dad, apparently being a heavy smoker didn’t help. Great tune.