THE very last tune recorded with the Vintage A. I'm pretty sure this is a Paddy O'Brien tune. I'm trying to play this as a reel though it may sound a wee bit hornpipe-y as for several years I played it as a hornpipe (taught to me as a hornpipe by my old banjo teacher Angelina Carberry) Here's the ABC's from thesession.org, where it was submitted as "The Little Hills of Offaly: X: 1 T: Little Hills Of Offaly, The M: 4/4 L: 1/8 R: reel K: Dmaj |:d2Af dBAF|A2EA cege|d2Af dBAF|EFGE BEEE| d2Af dBAF|A2EA cege|d2Af dBAF|EAGE D2z2:| |:dcdf a2af|eage cAeA|dcdf a2af|eage fddA| defg a2af|eage cAGA|((3Bcd) ed cAGE|FAGE D2z2:|
I could listen to you play the mandolin all day! You just knock out those triplets like they are easy as pie. Thanks for all these great new songs ~ more for me to listen to over and over ~ which I will!
"I could listen to you play the mandolin all day! You just knock out those triplets like they are easy as pie. Thanks for all these great new songs ~ more for me to listen to over and over ~ which I will!" Well, Loretta pretty much said it all right there...I'll just add a "Wow!", and a thank you, from me as well.
Cheers, glad you enjoyed the tune!
Jill, what a great gift you share with us in all your performances! Just wondering, if you don't mind telling, how long does it take you to get a tune like "the small hills of offaly" practiced up to be able to play it like it is here? (and please, maybe a little hint as to how you go about it...) Thanks.
Thanks for the kind words Michael! As regards how long it takes to work up a tune, for the Small Hills it's a bit difficult to say as it was one of the first tunes I learnt on the tenor banjo when I picked it up a few years ago. So at that time it was taking me several weeks to really get a tune up to speed, ornaments in place, etc. Nowadays it would take me less than a week, though I'd continue honing it well beyond that. I'll generally learn the bare bones of a tune to start with but as soon as I start hearing areas where I can introduce triplets or unisons I'll start throwing them in sooner rather than later, and sometimes I'll stumble across an idea for variations simply by hitting a "wrong" note that sounds "right" or sometimes I actually work up variations in my head, without the mandolin in my hands, simply by humming or lilting the tune to meself.
Stellar playing as always, Jill. You should offer web lessons while you're between jobs. I'd gladly pay to learn how (and when) to play those triplets.
Cheers, Don! I actually am starting to give some lessons, both real time lessons and one's via the internet. When I would be busking for fun last year I always would think to meself, "Janey mack, if the worst ever happened and I was out of work, at least I've always got the mandolin for making a wee bit of money to keep the wolf from the door.." Now that the worst HAS happened I may not make enough to keep the wolf from the door but my modest efforts should at least be enough to keep him in the next room and put a chair against the door!
As always, a very fine piece of playing here, Jill. You do set the bar very high for the rest of us with your renditions. I was going to perpetrate a dreadful Scottish pun and say that your playing here was really "Offaly" good, but I thought I had better not. But it was, so there! All the best with the lessons and whatever else musically you can find to supplement your current out-of-work situation (if I am reading your posting correctly?)
Jill, PM sent on lessons.
Here's my medley of Small Hills of Offaly (played as a hornpipe) and Wicklow Hornpipe, played on my Collings MT2O mandolin. I've posted this same video in both tune discussions....
Barbara that was the absolute business!!! Great great stuff there!
