Early preview · sample content while the archive is being built · Knoxville, Tennessee

Jig · G major

The Kesh

The jig everyone learns first and nobody stops playing. If a Knoxville session is friendly to beginners, this is usually the second or third tune you’ll hear.

Type
Jig
Key
G major
Meter
6/8
Origin & travel
Ireland
Traditions
Irish

Sheet music session skeleton

Press play and the notes light up as they sound. Chord names above the staff are coloured by their root letter (the same colours as the song sheets). “Standard” and “Richer” are General-MIDI stand-ins hosted elsewhere; “Scruffy” is our own bank rendered from open sample sets (credits at /soundfont/scruffy-v1/CREDITS.md). Tempo slider is the “warp” control in the player.

ABC notation — copy into any ABC tool
X:3
T:The Kesh
R:jig
M:6/8
L:1/8
Q:3/8=116
K:G
|:"G"G3 GAB|"D"A3 ABd|"G"edd gdd|"D"edB dBA|
"G"G3 GAB|"D"A3 ABd|"G"edd gdB|"D"AGF "G"G3:|
|:"G"B2B d2d|"C"ege "G"dBA|"G"B2B dBG|"D"ABA AGA|
"G"B2B d2d|"C"ege "G"dBd|"C"gfg "D"aga|"G"bgf g3:|

Listen

Open the beat-synced play-along for this tune

Where it came from, where it went

A double jig in G, widely popularised in the 1970s revival and now a fixture of session “sets” worldwide. Its place on the first page of nearly every tutor book makes it the shared handshake of the Irish tradition.

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