IT'S
GENERALLY ACKNOWLEDGED that the reel is a Scottish invention; the first record of a reel being danced here was in 1591. From Scotland they spread and became very popular in Ireland. Indeed, many Irish reels are in fact Scottish in origin. Such Irish staples such as Paddy Ryan's Dream , The Flogging Reel, The Youngest Daughter, The Ewe Reel, The Boyne Hunt, Dogs Among the Bushes, Bonnie Kate, The Mason's Apron, The Money Musk, The Flax In Bloom, Miss McLeod's, Green Groves of Erin, Lord Gordon's Reel, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Rakish Paddy, The Tarbolton, are just a few that are Scots imports.
So what makes a reel? It's all in the rhythm. The reel rhythm is 4/4; that is, four quarter notes in every bar. When you listen to a reel your feet tap four times to every bar (or if it's played very fast two). The rhythm can be counted out ONE-two-three-four, ONE-two-three-four, and so on. Usually a reel is made up of a mixture of quarter notes and eighth notes.
Tail Toddle
Chorus:
Tail todle, tail toddle;
Tammie gart my tail toddle;
At my ae wi' diddle doddle,
Tammie gart my tail toddle.
1. Our gudewife held o'er to Fife,
For tae buy a coal-riddle;
Lang or she came back again,
Tammie gart my tail todle.
(Chorus)
2. When I'm deid I'm out o' date;
When I'm seik I'm fu' o' trouble;
When I'm weel I step about,
An' Tammie gars my tail todle.
(Chorus)
3. Jenny Jack she gae a plack,
Helen Wallace gae a boddle;
Quo' the bride, its o'er little
For tae mend a broken doddle.
(Chorus)
Rhythm
Reels are in 4/4 time. That means that there are four beats in every bar, and that the length of the beat is a quarter note. In Exercise 1 below, the top line consists of half notes (a whole note would take up the whole bar, half notes take up half the bar). Start counting out a 4/4 beat:
ONE - TWO - THREE - FOUR,
ONE - TWO - THREE - FOUR,
and so on. Each half note will take up two counts. Play that for a
while.
On the second line, all the notes are quarter notes, so there will be
four in a bar, and they'll each take up one count.
The third line has a mixture of quarter notes and
eighth notes, so the count would be
ONE - TWO - and - THREE - FOUR - and,
ONE - TWO - and - THREE - FOUR - and.
Finally, the fourth line has all eighth notes, and
the count would be
ONE - and - TWO - and - THREE - and - FOUR - and
for every bar.
Exercise 1
Short Coated Mary
I don't know much about this tune, but I think it was originally a
bagpipe reel, and that somewhere there is another two parts. Our aim with this and Tail Toddle is to start off slowly and get faster when you start to know the tunes.
IT'S
GENERALLY ACKNOWLEDGED that the reel is a Scottish invention; the first record of a reel being danced here was in 1591. From Scotland they spread and became very popular in Ireland. Indeed, many Irish reels are in fact Scottish in origin. Such Irish staples such as Paddy Ryan's Dream , The Flogging Reel, The Youngest Daughter, The Ewe Reel, The Boyne Hunt, Dogs Among the Bushes, Bonnie Kate, The Mason's Apron, The Money Musk, The Flax In Bloom, Miss McLeod's, Green Groves of Erin, Lord Gordon's Reel, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Rakish Paddy, The Tarbolton, are just a few that are Scots imports.
So what makes a reel? It's all in the rhythm. The reel rhythm is 4/4; that is, four quarter notes in every bar. When you listen to a reel your feet tap four times to every bar (or if it's played very fast two). The rhythm can be counted out ONE-two-three-four, ONE-two-three-four, and so on. Usually a reel is made up of a mixture of quarter notes and eighth notes.
