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Building a Traditional Tune Repertoire | St. Anne's Reel - The Lead

Peter Street

by Roger Landes

"Peter Street" is a great reel. I learned this tune from the uilleann piping of my friend Eugene Lambe when he played a few gigs with Scartaglen in the mid 1980s.

Reels are in 2/2 or "cut" time with eight bar phrases repeated.

I've transcribed the tune three ways: 1st with just the bare bones melody, which never happens in actual Irish playing but I find it helpful to show the skeletal structure on which a typical performance is built; 2nd is a version with lots of Left hand muted "triplets." You'll remember these from my previous column in the February edition of Mandolin Sessions; 3rd is an even more ornate setting, utilizing Staccato "triplets" on 2 pitches, of Left hand muted "triplets," "Pull-off Cut" and "Rolls."

As with our previous tune, "Bush on the Hill," I wouldn'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.

Reels are in 2/2 time, meaning there are two beats per bar and a ½ note gets one beat. Usually, reels are in groups of four 8th notes on each of two downbeats per bar. The first and 3rd of the four 8th notes on each beat is usually lengthened slightly, borrowing some of its duration by a consequent shortening of the second and fourth notes. This lengthening of the 1st and 3rd notes throughout a tune is often referred to as "lilt." The third note on the beat is sometimes also accented to give a "hopping" or "loping" feel to the rhythm.

Picking pattern: use Down-Up-Down-Up as I've indicated in the transcription (except where there are triplets). This pattern will be familiar to those with Bluegrass and Old Time mandolin experience, but please keep in mind that Irish "lilt" has quite a different feel from Bluegrass fiddle tunes or Old Time dance tunes. It's best to listen carefully to expert Irish players to pick up on it. One thing I sometimes tell students who are new to this feel is to imagine they are watching an old Western on TV and there is a scene of a horse walking across a bridge. The "CLOP-clip CLOP-clip CLOP-clip CLOP-clip" sound of the horse's hooves on the wooden bridge planks has this rhythm in it. The "CLOPs" are longer than the "clips," so the rhythm is almost dotted, but not quite.

In Version 2, be sure NOT to push the A string all the way to the fret on the C# and B notes in the Left hand muted triplet in bars 1, 3, 5, and 12 or the G# and F# in bar 10. Gently brush the fingers against the string above the frets for those notes, momentarily muting the string. For the B, A G# triplet in bar 15, make sure that these three notes are NOT played evenly - keep in mind that the B and A are closer to 16th notes and the G# is closer to an 8th, although you have some freedom with this. What we don't want to hear is three evenly spaced notes in the space of two, which is a "real" triplet - not the Irish ornament. Notice that all of the triplets in version 2 are on downbeats.

In Version 3, we have a Staccato "triplets" on 2 pitches and a Staccato "triplets" on 3 pitches in Bars 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 12, and 15. In the first bar - the 1st triplet is on the downbeat, while the 2nd is on the backbeat, followed by another Staccato "triplet" on 2 pitches on the downbeat of the second bar. This is difficult, particularly since the picking pattern for these two successive triplets is DUD DUD, but remember, we used DUD DUD for the Jig in my last column, so the movement should be familiar even though its application in this case is probably new to you. (It's a good idea to practice triplets in succession very slowly - preserving the rhythmic relationship between the two shorter notes and the one longer one.)

For the "Pull-off Cut" in bar 6, make sure that your left index finger pulls down off the 1st string - DON'T lift your finger to execute this - pull it through the string and off the fretboard, curling into the palm. This will give the impact to the open E note that the phrase needs. Make sure that this movement occurs ON the downbeat - not before or after it. The "Pull-off Cut" is the attack of the note. It is a rhythmic event rather than a melodic variation.

The Staccato "triplets" on 3 pitches in Bar 10 are different from those in Bars 1, 2, 3, 5, 12 and 15 in that they are muted, and because the last note of the triplet is a fretted rather than an open note. I usually just brush the string with my left hand fingers for the first and second notes of this type of triplet, in this case using my 4th finger to brush the D string just above the 6th fret for what is notated as "G#," and with my 2nd finger above the 4th fret for the "F#."

Have fun with "Peter Street."