# Celtic Reel & Strathspey — Irish / Scottish Traditional Dance # Reference: Planxty (Christy Moore, Liam O'Flynn), The Chieftains, Battlefield Band, # Altan, Solas, Dervish — and for strathspey: Bobby MacLeod, Ian Powrie, # "The Fiddle Music of Scotland" (James Hunter), traditional Cape Breton fiddle # The reel and strathspey are the two defining dance forms of Scots-Irish traditional music. # # REEL (4/4, straight): fast, flowing, 8th-note melody in groups of 4. # - Bodhran plays the "two-and-two" pattern: bass stroke on beat 1, tip strokes on # the offbeats. In drum-kit terms: kick on 1 and 3, cross-stick on 2 and 4. # - Hi-hat or ride drives 8ths at breakneck speed (120–180 BPM typical). # - No swing — Celtic reels are machine-gun straight. # # STRATHSPEY (4/4, laid_back): slower, with the distinctive "Scotch snap". # - The Scotch snap: a 16th note ON the beat followed immediately by a dotted 8th — # the short-long rhythmic cell that defines Highland dancing and pipe band music. # - In drum notation: accent on beat e (pos 1,5,9,13) rather than the beat itself. # - Kick on beats 1 and 3; snare on 2 and 4 with the snap ghost on beat "e". # - Laid-back feel (slight behind-the-beat) captures the Highland gravitas. # # JIG (6/8 or 3/4 feel approximated): bodhran-style compound metre. # - Compound 6/8 feel: two groups of three 8th notes per bar. # - In 4/4 res-16 approximation: kick on 1 and 3 (pos 0,8), snare fills the compound # subdivisions, hi-hat drives 8ths. The six-per-bar feel is implied by the kick-ghost # pattern at positions 0,2,4,8,10,12 (compound 8th grid). # # GM notes: 36=kick, 38=snare, 37=cross-stick (bodhran tip stroke), 42=closed HH, # 46=open HH, 49=crash # # ── Step grid notation ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── # Each character in a step grid represents one subdivision of the bar. # Resolution controls how many steps per bar (16 = 16th notes in 4/4). # # X Strong accent — velocity = base_velocity × 1.00 (full hit / downbeat) # x Medium accent — velocity = base_velocity × 0.75 (firm stroke / upbeat) # o Soft hit — velocity = base_velocity × 0.55 (brush / light touch) # g Ghost note — velocity = base_velocity × 0.28 (barely audible, mostly felt) # . Rest — no note fired at this step # # Beat positions — 4/4 at resolution 16 (one char per 16th note): # pos 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 # 1 e1 +1 a1 2 e2 +2 a2 3 e3 +3 a3 4 e4 +4 a4 # # Swing / feel: the 'feel' field shifts odd-indexed steps (1,3,5,7…) forward in time. # straight — reel: no swing, Celtic reels must be machine-tight and fast # laid_back — strathspey: behind the beat, heavy, deliberate # ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── name: Celtic Reel family: folk bpm_range: [112, 180] time_signature: [4, 4] resolution: 16 feel: straight instruments: kick: { note: 36, base_velocity: 100, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.12 } snare: { note: 38, base_velocity: 88, velocity_range: 14, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.09 } snare_rim: { note: 37, base_velocity: 72, velocity_range: 12, timing_jitter: 0.014, duration_beats: 0.07 } hihat: { note: 42, base_velocity: 70, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.07 } hihat_open: { note: 46, base_velocity: 80, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.14 } crash: { note: 49, base_velocity: 100, velocity_range: 8, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.22 } humanization: timing_jitter: 0.010 velocity_jitter: 12 velocity_drift: 0.05 sections: intro: type: count_in hits: 4 note: 37 groove: bars: 1 variations: - name: irish_reel weight: 3 # Irish reel groove (Planxty / Altan style): fast, driving, absolutely straight. # KICK: beats 1 and 3 (pos 0, 8) — the bodhran's "bass stroke," the thumb hit # that lands on the beat in traditional bodhran playing. # SNARE RIM (cross-stick): beats 2 and 4 (pos 4, 12) — the bodhran "tip stroke," # the finger flick on the offbeat. Together, kick + rim = a full bodhran part. # HI-HAT: all 8th notes — the incessant driving pulse that locks reel dancers # into the music. At 160 BPM this becomes hypnotic. kick: "X.......X......." snare_rim: "....X.......X..." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." - name: strathspey weight: 2 # Scottish strathspey: the Scotch snap rhythmic cell. # The Scotch snap places a 16th note accent on the "e" of each beat (pos 1,5,9,13) # followed by the main beat landing an 8th later (pos 2,6,10,14). This creates # the short-long pattern (|| = Scotch snap) that defines Highland dancing and # pipe band music. It is the opposite of a swing (which is long-short). # SNARE: ghost notes mark the "e" positions (the snap), while the full accent # falls on beat 2 and 4. The humanization makes the ghosts feel like a # genuine stroke rather than a machine-generated note. # KICK: heavy on beat 1, lighter on beat 3 — the Highland bass drum gravitas. kick: "X.......x......." snare: ".g...g.X.g...g.X" snare_rim: "....x.......x..." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." - name: jig_feel weight: 2 # Irish jig feel approximated in 4/4 (compound 6/8 implied). # The bodhran in a jig plays "dom-da-dom-da" — bass on 1 and "and-of-2" (pos 6) # with tip strokes filling the compound subdivisions. In 16-step 4/4 notation, # the compound 6/8 grouping places main beats at pos 0, 4, 8, 12 but the # bodhran's compound-feel bass lands at 0, 6 (suggesting 6/8 within 4/4). # Open hi-hat on every 8th upbeat adds the "chk" that jig-step dancers use. kick: "X.....X.X.....X." snare_rim: "....x.......x..." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." hihat_open: "..x...x...x...x." fill: bars: 1 variations: - name: reel_roll # Snare roll build into a full accent — the classic session "burst" that signals # the tune is about to end or go around again. snare: "XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx" kick: "X..............." - name: highland_crash # Full kit crash landing in Highland style: snare on all 16ths, crash on 1. snare: "gXgXgXgXgXgXgXgX" kick: "X...X...X...X..." crash: "X..............." crash: bars: 1 variations: - name: standard crash: "X..............." kick: "X...X...X...X..." snare_rim: "....X.......X..." hihat: "x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x." structure: fill_every: 8 break_every: 0 break_length: 1 crash_after_fill: true dynamic_build: false