Exercise 2

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Once you have practiced the exercises in Part 1 and are familiar with the rhythm and the chord changes, we can now look at ways to modify the strum pattern which will enable us to add a degree of subtlety and expression to the accompaniment of this and other Jigs. We play a standard 6/8 strum using 6 beats in the bar. By muting the second beat in the bar (The 2) and changing the count to 1 * 3 4 5 6, we can phrase the Jig rhythm in a slightly different way to give 5 in a Bar. Because the 1 and the 3 are both down strokes, we can also substitute a bass note for the 1 and a full chord strum for the 3 to introduce a bass strum pattern. Practice both these techniques across a bar of G and a bar of D. Remember to be accurate in your strumming pattern as the bass notes of both these chords fall on different strings.

Muting the fifth beat in the bar (The 5) while keeping the accent on the 4 and the 6 (both upstrokes) adds definition to the last bar of the phrase. This can be used to enhance the endings and the turnarounds of the jig. For this syncopation to work properly, it needs to be preceded by the full 6 beats in the previous bar which will give a count of 1 2 3 4 5 6 � 1 2 3 4 * 6 over the 2 bars.

The up-stroke on beat 4 in the last bar can also be considered a natural ending for the Jig.

Using these techniques we can now construct a full accompaniment arrangement for The Kesh Jig.

The bass strum pattern is used for bars 1 to 3 before reverting to a standard 6/8 pattern (6 in a Bar) across bar 4 (split bar G to D). Bars 5 to 7 return to the bass strum pattern before concluding with a standard 6/8 pattern across bar 8 (split bar D to G). This sequence is then repeated with the inclusion of a syncopated turnaround across bars 15 and 16 to mark the end of the A part. The B part uses the bass sturm pattern from bar 17 to bar 23 before returning to a standard 6/8 pattern across bar 24 (split bar D to G). The bass strum pattern is repeated through bars 25 to 30 and the first round of the jig is completed using a defined ending across bars 31 and 32