Tune Add: The Summerhouse: is it a waltz or a jig?

Subject: Tune Add: The Summerhouse: is it a waltz or a jig?
From: GUEST,Captain Swing
Date: 23 Apr 18 - 01:24 PM

I wrote this tune a couple of weeks ago in 3/4 but when I tried to accompany it in 3/4 it didn't work. So then I tried 6/8 but that didn't work. I even tried 4/4 - definitely not! Then I tried 3/8 and it worked. So is it still a waltz? Google says it is. Or is it half a jig? Or is it something else entirely?

mp3 version here: The Summerhouse mp3

dots, chords, tab here: The Summerhouse dots, chords, tab

Subject: RE: Tune Add: The Summerhouse: is it a waltz or a jig?
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 23 Apr 18 - 04:00 PM

FWIW, what I hear listening to it is clearly 6/8, with beats 2 and 3 of the six generally replaced by a triplet. That's not quite the same as your dots.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: The Summerhouse: is it a waltz or a jig?
From: GUEST,Captain Swing
Date: 23 Apr 18 - 05:28 PM

Interesting Richard and thanks. I do tend to drift from the written arrangement when I get to know the tune and I can see that the triplets have found their way in as a result of using the mandolin rather than the fiddle. I'm sure this isn't an exact science but I didn't feel it had the swing of 6/8.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: The Summerhouse: is it a waltz or a jig?
From: leeneia
Date: 24 Apr 18 - 12:01 PM

Congratulations on writing a fine piece of music. I enjoyed it, but the more I tried to figure out the time, the more confused I got.

The DH thinks it is in 2/4 time.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: The Summerhouse: is it a waltz or a jig?
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Apr 18 - 12:15 PM

Yeah, the 1st section sounds like 2/4 and to my ears the bridge goes to 3/4.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: The Summerhouse: is it a waltz or a jig?
From: gillymor
Date: 24 Apr 18 - 12:47 PM

Scratch that, on second listening I think Richard is right but the gtr. backup seems to be jumping around time-wise, just a bit.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: The Summerhouse: is it a waltz or a jig?
From: GUEST,Captain Swing
Date: 24 Apr 18 - 01:41 PM

It's getting more interesting. So far, including discussions elsewhere, I've had 3/4, 6/8, 12/8, 2/4 and 3/8. I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds it an enigma!

Subject: RE: Tune Add: The Summerhouse: is it a waltz or a jig?
From: leeneia
Date: 25 Apr 18 - 11:03 AM

Record it again, slower. And don't use the hammer-dulcimer sound. I have been transcribing music for a long time, and getting the timing is always the hardest part. The hammer dulcimer is about the worst instrument to figure out, because the players let the hammers bounce, which easily produces triplets, fourthlets or fifthlets, which are fun to hear but hard to decode.

I think you have done some of that in your B part.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: The Summerhouse: is it a waltz or a jig?
From: GUEST,Captain Swing
Date: 25 Apr 18 - 11:08 AM

The instrument I use are acc guitar, small tenor type guitar, mandola, mandolin, fiddle and bass. It could be the combination of non-fiddle instruments that sound like a hammer-dulcimer.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: The Summerhouse: is it a waltz or a jig?
From: Stevebury
Date: 25 Apr 18 - 06:33 PM

For what it's worth, I hear this (at this tempo) as 6/8. I hear what's written as measure 1 as being the upbeat, and the written measures 2 - 3 are the first full measure in 6/8. So the downbeat of each measure would be on (your) measures 2, 4, 6, etc.
(Record it slow enough, and you might make it a 3/4 waltz, however.)
That's how I hear it. Nice tune!
Stevebury

Subject: RE: Tune Add: The Summerhouse: is it a waltz or a jig?
From: GUEST,Captain Swing
Date: 25 Apr 18 - 07:00 PM

Thanks for the comment Stevebury. Consensus seems to be moving towards 6/8 but, as you say, slowed down could also have the characteristics of a waltz.

Subject: RE: Tune Add: The Summerhouse: is it a waltz or a jig?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 28 Apr 18 - 06:33 PM

It's the way you play it!