Current Issue | Home | Back Issues | Other Mel Bay Sites | Purchase Mandolin Products
Latin Mandolin | Tom Billy's Jig | Bacon and Bread
Interview with Hans Brentrup | St. Anne's Reel - The Harmony Part
Jazz Mandology |  Building A Traditional Tune Repertoire |  Klezmer 101

Tom Billy's Jig

by Roger Landes

"Tom Billy's Jig," also known as "Tom Billy's Favourite," is a great Double Jig named after fiddle master Tom Billy Murphy (1879-1944) of Ballydesmond, Co Kerry.

In spite of my use of a few G#s in the A part, this tune is essentially a Mixolydian tune, meaning that it is in a mode close to the major scale except that the 7th degree of the scale is "flat" - a G natural instead of the G# in the major modality. Don't let the key signature with two sharps throw you - it's not D major - it's A Mixolydian. Chords for this tune are A major, G major and E minor, with D major, B minor and F# minor possible, too, but not as typical.

As in my previous columns I've transcribed the tune three ways: 1st with just the bare bones melody, 2nd is a version with some ornamentation (see my column in the February/March Mandolin Sessions for an explanation of these ornaments), and 3rd is an even more ornate setting, utilizing most of the ornaments that I use on the mando. This time I have not notated the triplets as "staccato" or "muted" - I'll leave that up to you. Please mix and match, moving these around within the tune, replacing the rolls I've notated with triplets and vice versa. Feel free to play only a few of these ornaments the first time through a part and add the others in on the repeat.

As with our previous tunes "Bush on the Hill," and "Peter Street," don't use all of these ornaments in a single repetition of the tune, rather I've condensed the many possibilities into one time through the tune. I would make a point of playing each of these ornaments at least once over the three repetitions, but never all of them in one repetition.

Remember that Double Jigs are in 6/8, and that the first of each group of three notes is slightly lengthened, borrowing some of the time from the following note. See my column in the February/March Mandolin Sessions for a further explanation of Jig rhythm.

Picking pattern: use Down-Up-Down Down-Up-Down for all the measures that are not indicated. Please follow the picking directions I've given in the transcription and PLEASE avoid the temptation to use Down-Up-Down Up-Down-Up!