Music by numbers

Playing went well today, although I seem to run out of tunes very quickly: my play list seems to get ever shorter, although increasing speed makes a difference. And I really do seem to be speeding up: Over the Cabot Trail, which used to be a gentle wander, has become something of a 100m dash.

My initial thinking on sets was that variety was nice, that I could stick a fast tune on to the end of a slow tune. But, of course, for sessions it seems to work better if the tunes are all alike in a way. So I wondered whether the answer was to group by time signatures.

Including tunes I mean to get one day (ha ha), and tunes I can still just about play, in with my regular playlist, I get something that looks like this.

2/4 marches (or possibly quicksteps)
The 72nd Highlanders' Farewell to Aberdeen
Captain Grant
Murray's Welcome
Teribus

3/4 marches
Highland Brigade at Magersfontein
My Home Town

4/4 marches
Bonnie Galloway
Flett from Flotta
The Rowan Tree
The Shores of Loch Bee

6/8 marches (although some are described as jigs, especially where gleaned from The Session)
Over the Cabot Trail
Captn Angus L MacDonald
MacIntyre's Farewell
The Atholl Highlanders
The Braemar Gathering
A Rock and a Wee Pickle Tow
The Glasgow Gaelic Club
Balmacara
The Falls of Glomach
Troy's Wedding
South Georgia Whaling Song
March of the King of Laoise
All the Blue Bonnets Are over the Border

Hmm. I think all this does is prove that a time signature may be one characteristic of a tune, but it's far from defining a tune. Two of the 4/4s I play slowly, two a bit faster. The 3/4s I play slow, although I also like Magersfontein with a bit more speed. Blamacara and Glomach are lilting and lyrical, Bonnets is a romp, King suits various speeds... As it happens I do play Flett and Bee together, although I'm not totally convinced that works, and plenty of 6/8 tunes in that lists just wouldn't sit together. So, back to the drawing board on sets.

I guess all this list does show is that I seem to have a predilection for tunes in 6/8 time...and that I struggle with them.