Cabar Feidh - Reel

AUDIO - Cabar Feidh Reel

Another competition reel is “Cabar Feidh” that is also commonly played as a march in 4/4 time, and as a strathspey. There is also a jig setting.

The exercise below is to make sure the movement that occurs often is played correctly. The longest “Bs” and “Cs” must have good relative duration. The “D” and “E” grace notes following have to be executed clearly by playing “D” grace note on the way down to the lower note, not late. As you can see the “E” grace note is played soon afterwards with clear division, all akin to the “G, D, E,” rhythm, without clipping. If necessary practise a while slowly and evenly like an open tachum with an “E” grace note tagged on the end.

The first part has some expressive main notes. Can you name them? They are longer duration high “Gs” and high “As”. The dotted low “A” in the seventh bar can have a bit extra feeling, yet within the momentum. 

The second part doublings on the low “Gs” should be relatively open. The low “G” grace note could almost be a short note. Attend to the good upbeats as in the tune throughout.

The third part has feelings on the “Cs” and “Ds” with solid grips that must have clarity of the short “C” grace note ahead of the grip, almost as a very, very, short melody note, which together imparts a nice rhythmic embellishment. The high “A” in the eighth bar can be felt to good effect too.

The fourth part “G, D, Es” should have that extra touch of duration on the first dotted note, first pulse in the first, third, fifth bars, and dotted low “A” in the seventh bar, as you flow along with good down/up much as for the previous reel.

Have clean clear fingering in exchanging of lower and upper hand notes. The tune flows along and is more relaxed than the previous reel. I like to dwell on the longer high “A” in the last bar and slight deliberation on the “C” to finish nicely, subtly perhaps.

If in doubt about rhythm in reels, in general let the reels roll along in a nice regular Down Up pulsed rhythm with certain accents or feeling, not over-pointed allowing for clean clear execution without clipping short notes too much. P/Ms or Directors of bands might want competition type reels played with more relative duration or pointing on most of the dotted notes. That can be fine providing good clarity is maintained on the short notes and on technique such as tachums, cuttings, and “G, D, E,” movements.

The tune notation can be downloaded/viewed from the below link:

CLICK to download the music notation.

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