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What am I playing??

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Sandy:
After four years of playing I have quite a few tunes, mainly learnt after trawling youtube and myspace. However I am not totally sure what defines the tune type exactly. i.e polka, hornpipes, jigs, reels etc. I appreciate that different rhythms are involved but wondered if there was a resource (on the net) to look at this in more detail.  ???

cheers

Sandy.

Graham Collicutt:
One that I've read several times :-  http://www.irishtune.info/rhythm/

Graham

Pete Dunk:
That's a good question Sandy and I for one will be following up any info/links given here. I find the definition of a hornpipe quite baffling to be honest because it can be played 'straight' without the dotted rhythm - but isn't that a reel? What makes a reel into a rant?

I've asked a similar question elsewhere without much in the way of answers I'm afraid.

Pete.

Falseknight:
I can identify the jigs, reels, polkas and hornpipes - more or less  :).  The figures tend to be in multiples of 8 or 16,  I usually work with the caller to determin wht form (jig or reel) and what length he requires, then we go through appropriate (or otherwise) tunes.

There is usually a preferred head tune (first tune) for a particular dance set, so with practice, you can identify "tunes like..."

The big problem that I have (and I suspect a lot of musicians) is that i have no memory for names, and different sets of musicians have differnt names for the same tune, and even the same name for different tunes.  If you are playing chordal accompaniment rather than lead, you get to recognise the form and pick up the key pretty rapidly.

Martin J:
Here's the most simple ones

3/4  Waltz
6/8 Jig
4/4 Reel.  Also known as common time, used for quite a lot of other things ie. Hornpipe
Hornpipe.  Usually dotted.  The emphasis is on the the third note in the bar.  Just imagine someone doing a hornpipe step.
Earlier post accurate, no dots could be a reel, a polka etc.
2/4 or 4/4 March
9/8  Slip Jig
If there is no timing then it is assumed to be in 4/4

There are lots more but this is a start.

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