Jackson’s Fancy – Traditional Double Jig

Welcome!

Today DJPTeaching is bringing you a traditional Irish double jig called Jackson’s Fancy.

History

Traditional Irish music has a long history stretching back over a thousand years with evidence of the fiddle being played as far back as the 8th century. There are many instruments in typical usage today from the
bodhrán, feadóg stáin and uileann pipes to the more contemporary guitar and tin whistle.

Ireland is geographically isolated from the rest of Europe and this meant that the Celtic culture was more easily preserved in the oral tradition than other cultures. It’s only since the 18th and 19th centuries that much music was transcribed leading to different versions of many tunes and dances.

Irish music also had some notable composers and performers from Turlough O’Carolan to The Chieftans. However, discussion of this type is beyond the scope of this post.

Double Jigs

A double jig is a piece of music you perform to accompany a dance. As such it needs to be at a suitable tempo. If you play it too quickly the performers are under pressure and too slowly can result in a lacklustre dance.

The tempo indicated below is a dotted crotchet at 120 bpm. It makes far more sense in a compound time signature (one where the main beat is subdivided into three) to use the metronome tick to indicate a dotted note beat rather than a non-dotted note.

The music is in 6/8 time. This is a 2 beat measure with each beat split into three. You can get a feel for this time signature by counting 1 2 3 – 4 5 6 evenly and repeatedly, emphasising the 1 and 4 counts. Alternatively you can say “Rashers and sausages” repeatedly (“RAshers and SAUSages”) to attain the same rhythmic feel.

Another feature of a double jig is the rhythmic motif used for most of the phrases; that of two groups of quavers per measure as detailed in the above diagram.

Jackson’s Fancy

On to the tune! The key is D Major the notes of which are D, E, F#, G, A, B and C#. Unlike a lot of traditional music it doesn’t use Dorian or Mixolydian mode. You can use the diatonic chords of D Major to harmonise the tune.

As you can see above, the tune is in two sections, and A and B section. It’s usual practice in dance tunes to repeat each section as indicated. Therefore the form of the tune A A B B.

I’ve also notated the tune in staff notation, making it easier for you to transfer the melody onto your own instrument.

The A section is based around a D Major arpeggio which is simpler to finger on instrument which are tuned in fifths, such as the banjo, fiddle and mandolin. On guitar this is a slight problem and means that you have to choose to either sweep across the strings or use alternate picking.

Both sections feature a call and response type of melodic device, with measures 1, 3, 5 and 7 featuring the same four notes (the ‘call’). The ‘responses’ being the differing endings in measures 2, 4, 6 and 8. In the A section this ‘call’ is a D major arpeggio and a lot of traditional music uses an arpeggio at the outset.

Instrumentation

As we have noted above, the tune can be played on multiple instruments and each presents it’s own set of technical problems.

Guitar

Above you will see the tune in guitar tablature notation. If you follow the picking directions you will notice that I have indicated alternate picking. The basic premise being that every down-pick is followed by an up-pick. However, this can be quite awkward in 6/8 time where the main rhythmic motif is two groups of three quavers. Slow practise will help you to get the required picking hand movements more fluent.

You can also play the tune using economy picking:

This style of picking is more in tune to the techniques used by more traditional players, but also presents it’s own set of challenges. It’s more difficult to maintain rhythmic fluency using economy picking, despite being a slightly more ‘natural’ way to play.

Banjo and Mandolin

Above you can see the same tune notated in tenor banjo tablature. The tuning (G, D, A, E) of the banjo in perfect fifths makes playing some of the trickier passages easier, especially the arpeggios. You can also use this form of notation for the mandolin. Just note, you tune a mandolin an octave higher than the banjo.

Bouzouki

Above you can see the tune notated in tablature for the bouzouki. The tuning here is unusual, (G,D,A,D) meaning some of the passages fingerings are different from the banjo tablature above.

Conclusion

You can find the score in PDF form by clicking on the links below:

Happy learning!!!! 😀