The Fat Cat hornpipe

This is on the Quiet Glen album by Tommy People. He composed this tune. Lovely album. High part of the road is my favorite album by Tommy.

i actually learned this from him as a reel, but it’s a nice tune both ways. I haven’t heard it on that recording.

In the third measure of the B part he did a little “meow” which is why he called it the Fat Cat, where he slides the A down just slightly to about a g#, and then back up.

I’ve heard him play it both ways, but he always does the 4 rolls in a row on the low A in the first half of the A part (and specifically wrote it out that way when he wrote out sheetmusic) and plays it normally on the second half (the same way he plays it on the quiet glen).

if you haven’t heard Tommy People playing this tune,
1) you’ve missed some great art,
2) you don’t know yet how to play a hornpipe (the only way! 😉 )

I mean the best way to play a hornpipe, of course, is not at all!
Your second best option is passing it off for something else.
Here’s a brilliant example of that: This is a brilliant tune but you have to make a conscious effort to realise it is actually a hornpipe. How refreshing when so many hornpipes are hornpipes first and tunes second…

B.S.

Tommy plays it in A on the lowest strings of the fiddle, all the better to play his contrasting high pitched “meaow”!

Here it is in D, for the benefit of Uilleann pipers who might use the opportunity to sound out their ghost d, for example.

X: 1
T: Fat Cat, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: Dmaj
D2FA BAfe|dABd BAFA|feed B2AF|E2DE FAAF|
D2FA BAfe|dABd BAFA|feed B2AF|EDFE D3E:||
F2AF DFAd|f2ef dBA2|“meaow?“z6 ba|f2ed B2dB|
ADFA ABBd|f2ef dBA2|“meaow!“z6 ed|1 B2AB d4:|2 B2AF D4|]

The fact that the tune is in the major pentatonic mode (no 4th or 7th) makes it eminently playable in A“major“…

Here it is in G, for those who prefer alto cats!

X: 1
T: Fat Cat, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: hornpipe
K: Gmajor
G,2B,D EDBA|GDEG EDB,D|BAAG E2DB,|A,2G,A, B,DDB,|
G,2B,D EDBA|GDEG EDB,D|BAAG E2DB,|A,G,B,A, G,3 A,:||
B,2DB, G,B,DG|B2AB GE D2|“meaow”g6 ed|B2AG E2GE|
DG,B,D DEEG|B2AB GE D2|“meaow”g6 AG|1 E2DE G4:|2 E2DB, G,4|]

This is the way it is played at feiseanna due to the slow 113 BPM. The high A just had to be broken up otherwise it went on forever.
I learnt this from a Sean O’Brien recording