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[The Oul' Boy]

Pretty much every score I've seen for Blaydon Races gives it as 6/8 but I've always known it and now play it as a march (I can do a 6/8 version, though it tends to become a march unless I concentrate). Am I alone in this, or is the march version commonly played (I must have picked it up somewhere, and I did live in Newcastle for 20 years)?

[Hugh Taylor]

Blaydon Races is what I call a single jig - tum ti tum ti tum ti tum etc, rather than a double jig that goes diddle de diddle di etc.
Lots of marching is done to jigs so no contention there.

[The Oul' Boy]

Blaydon Races is what I call a single jig - tum ti tum ti tum ti tum etc, rather than a double jig that goes diddle de diddle di etc.
Lots of marching is done to jigs so no contention there.

Hmm, maybe that's where I'm getting confused, it doesn't play like the other jigs I know, but maybe the speed of it makes it sound more like 2/4.

[Theo]

6/8 marches are well known in Scottish pipe music, somevon military bands too. There are numerous examples on YouTube.  Here’s one https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkgnx6DhnBo

[The Oul' Boy]

6/8 marches are well known in Scottish pipe music, somevon military bands too. There are numerous examples on YouTube.  Here’s one https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkgnx6DhnBo

Thanks Theo. Actually, I know that tune, and lots of other similar bagpipe tunes (bagpipes being the usual folk instrument where I grew up in Northern Ireland). I think I was confused because I was thinking of jigs as having more swing (if that's the right word), and assumed marches couldn't be jigs as a result.

[Theo]

I think it all depends on how you play the tune.  Play a 6/8 a bit slower and with a lilt and it can become a march, a bit faster and the same tune can become a jig.

And then there are two steps which are also in 6/8, and if you venture to the southern parts of England some jigs can begin to sound like hornpipes.

[The Oul' Boy]

I think it all depends on how you play the tune.  Play a 6/8 a bit slower and with a lilt and it can become a march, a bit faster and the same tune can become a jig.

And then there are two steps which are also in 6/8, and if you venture to the southern parts of England some jigs can begin to sound like hornpipes.

Thank you, I have much to learn!

[Stiamh]

If you have heard the song (Oh! me lads), playing the tune at a tempo suitable for marching would seem pretty dull, IMO.

[george garside]

It also works well as a 'two step'

george

[Tone Dumb Greg]

Can you give an example, please, George?

[george garside]

two steps are danced to a 6/8  tune and the Blaydon races is a 6/8.  So in theory a two step can be danced to any 6/8although some tunes sound better than others.   It requires adjusting the tempo ,phrasing,  and note lengths on the hoof to get the required rhythm'

6/8 can be played as jigs, quick marches, slow marches, quick steps, waltzes, and of course to accompany either a solo singer or a roomful of singers ,sober or otherwise!

Its probably much easier for a 'by ear' player to do this than it is for an avid reader who would ? need the dots to be rewritten. Put simply you adjust the way the tune is played to what the feet of the dancers is doing or to the speed etc etc that a   singer  requires

for what its worth I sometimes put Blaydon races and  madamoselle from a armentiers together as a set.

Its much easier to do than to try to explain!


george

[Tone Dumb Greg]

Ah, I was hoping you might have a sound file.

[george garside]

Ah, I was hoping you might have a sound file.

sorry don't do this digital stuff!  Have just bought a new laptop so will look into it - but don't hold your breath!

1

george

[[ADMIN]] edited to remove excessive amounts of space.

[Open_G]

It would be interesting to write it out in a playback programme in both 6:8 and 2:4 time and see how a computer (with no phrasing bias) would differ from one to the other if at the same tempo.

[playandteach]

It would be interesting to write it out in a playback programme in both 6:8 and 2:4 time and see how a computer (with no phrasing bias) would differ from one to the other if at the same tempo.

I might misunderstand your point, but why use a computer? If you are playing it in 2/4 with no triplets, then it is a very different rhythm. If you are playing it in 2/4 with triplets, then it is identical. But that is straightforward to do without a computer. Perhaps you were saying something else.