That time of year again - teach me to count Rocky Road to Dublin

[jeff_75]

Time to get the St. Patrick's Day set list together. I'm a fairly bright guy, I know a bit about music, and I've even played some jazz guitar and mixed meter pieces in my day.

But for the life of me, I cannot manage to get the time for Rocky Road to Dublin in my head. I know in theory that it's basically a 9/8 slip jig. But this doesn't translate well to my fingers come playin' time. Can someone suggest a good way to count/keep time on this song?

[EdSherry]

Musically, it's "One-two-three two-two-three three-two-three" or "One-and-uh two-and-uh three-and-uh."

But the tune is not a steady stream of eighth notes, but instead is (effectively) a quarter note followed by an eighth note, which makes counting tricky.

Many of the Irish dancers I know count slip jigs "ONE-two-THREE-four-FIVE."

The matchup here is:

Musician's version vs. Dancer's version

One = ONE
and = (silent)
uh = two

Two = THREE
and = (silent)
uh = four

Three = FIVE
and = (silent)
uh = (silent)

Sing the beginning of the chorus to the "Rocky Road to Dublin" song ("One two three four five, hunt the hare and turn her ...) and you should be able to see what I mean.

[jeff_75]

That was actually very helpful. I'd been trying to count 9/8 as "one + uh, two + uh, three + uh" and it wasn't getting the job done. Switching over to the one-two-three-four-five count helps. Odd how such a simple change can make a difference.

I can sing the song. And I can manage to play the song. Trouble is, I'm going to have to do both together. Back to work...

[steve V. johnson]

This is a tough one. I generally have to just close my eyes and concentrate really hard on the fiddler.

Thanks, Ed, that's a really good explanation/method!

stv