๐ป You've heard of a slip jig... now how about a slip polka?
Published about 1 month agoย โขย 2 min read
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Hi Reader!
Out of curiosity... did you go "oooo" or did you roll your eyes when you saw "slip polka" in this email's subject line?
If you've played a session with me any time in the past 5 years, you'll know I'm a sucker for a good polka set, particularly polkas from the Sliabh Luachra areas of Cork, Kerry and Limerick!
It's really only been in the past year that I started hearing about slip polkas!
Since a jig is 6/8 time, and a slip jig is 9/8 time, it stands to reason that a polka is in 2/4 time, and a slip polka is in 3/4 time!
It's not a waltz, so you don't hear the emphasis as ONE-two-three, ONE-two-three. The way I play polkas, this tends to come out as one-AND, two-AND, three-AND.
My good friend, Jack Hughes (who will be making an appearance on the Find Your Lilt podcast later in March) happened to compose a set of polkas in 3/4 a few years ago, and brought them to a mini artist retreat we did back in January this year. I had been wanting to learn some slip polkas, and asked if he'd be okay with me performing them at the instructor concert for Tune Junkie weekend this February.
He happily agreed, and so here are Jack's (unnamed) slip polkas for you performed by myself, Randy Clepper and Andy Kruspe about a month ago!
Side note, Reader, there is really nothing like having an upcoming gig to kick yourself into gear and get a tune set learned! This was the most focused practice I've done in ages, and now I want to do this for more sets!
Good thing all the St. Patrick's Day gigs are coming up soon... (more on that next week)
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Style your Trad Tunes is now a membership!
After trying out a couple different ways of packaging this offer, I'm so happy to let you know I've landed on a solution! SYTT is a low-cost monthly membership where you're developing good bowing habits + exploring how to style your tunes (think phrasing, ornamentation + variations).
There's a higher ticket monthly option where you get personalized bowing patterns from me on tunes you are specifically working on right now.
Last but not least, Reader, my latest album At the Core is now available digitally and physically on Bandcamp! You can click the link above to listen, or the Bandcamp icon in the far left corner in the footer of this email.
No slip polkas on this one, but as far as regular polkas go... well that's another story! You know you like a tune type when a third of your album tracks have at least one polka in them.
Hope the polkas put you in a cheery mood this week!
~Hannah
Hannah Harris
I help aspiring Irish fiddlers find their lilt and get the real feel for the music.
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