The Session >> Tunes >> The Maid Behind The Bar (reel)

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

The Maid Behind The Bar

reel

Key signature: Dmajor

Submitted on May 25th 2001 by Jeremy.

This tune has been added to 1720 tunebooks.

Also known as The Babe Behind The Bar, The Barmaid, The Green Mountain, The Haymaker, Judy's, Kiss The Maid Behind The Bar, Little Judy, Little Judy's, Maid Behind The Bar, New York.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

X: 1
T: Maid Behind The Bar, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
|:FAAB AFED|FAAB ABde|fBBA Bcde|fBBA BcdA|
FAAB AFED|FAAB ABde|fBBA BcdB|AFEF D4:|
|:faab afde|fdad fd d2|efga beef|gebe gfeg|
fgaf bfaf|defd e2 de|fBBA BcdB|AFEF D4:|

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments
The Maid Behind The Bar sheetmusic
Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

This is a very popular tune that can be heard at most sessions.

Try turning the A's in the very first phrase (FAAB) into a triplet. You can do this wherever this phrase appears.

The second part can be quite tricky. Reaching those high notes can involve quite a stretch of the fingers. Don't try to play this part at session speed until you can play it perfectly at a slower pace.

# Posted on June 2nd 2001 by Jeremy

Maid Behind The Bar

In Ontario old-time fiddling circles this tune is usually called "Judy's Reel" or "Little Judy's Reel". It's in 1000 Fiddle Tunes under that title. The "B" part also turns up as the third part of the French Canadian reel "La Ronfleuse Gobeil" (Snoring Ms. Gobeil)

# Posted on February 4th 2002 by Ian

IN the details section you might find that its also called "The Green Mountain", (See Mike McGoldrick Album Morning Rory). However, The Green Mountain is a different tune!

# Posted on August 15th 2002 by Jan

Tune titles

That's hardly anything new though, is it?

I mean there are some tunes with twenty names and some names with twenty tunes.

That's just the way it is Irish music.

# Posted on August 15th 2002 by Jeremy

Maid Behind the Bar

It's popular in Newfoundland, too. I have heard it paired behind Flowers of Edinburgh and before Sheehan's Reel. Nicely put together! Also heard it played on both mandolin and fiddle. Works either way.

# Posted on July 6th 2003 by gbsfanatic

The Maid Behind the Bar

I once heard this tune is listed as "The Green Mountains" in O'Neill's. Is it true?

Here's what I play on flute.

K: Dmaj
E|FAAB AFED|FAAB A2de|fBBA Bcde|fdgf efdB|
FAAB AFED|FAAB A2de|fBBA BcdB|AFEF D3:|
e|faag fdde|fdad fdd2|efga beef|gebe gee2|
faaf b2af|defd e2de|fBBA BcdB|AFEF D3:|

# Posted on February 23rd 2005 by slainte

The Green Mountain is indeed a different tune although I play it in a set with the Maid Behind the bar coincidently.
This is one of the first tunes I learned (what a way to start, eh?).

# Posted on October 22nd 2005 by 52Paddy

Compare the alternative setting of the Green Mountain: http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/166/comments#comment110710

# Posted on October 22nd 2005 by slainte

New York Reel

I first came across this melody listed as the "New York Reel" in an early collection of (5-string) banjo music published in the 1850's (Buckley's New Banjo Method). Interestingly, it appears alongside another piece called the "Empire Hornpipe." I was impressed to hear the same two melodies played in a set on an old recording of fiddler Neil O'Boyle. O'Boyle, however, called them Harvest Home and The Green Mountain. Is there some traditional association of these pieces?

# Posted on March 15th 2006 by gille ruadh

The following reels are structurally very close, they even share whole bars and beats:
The Green Mountain http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display.php/166
The Maid Behind the Bar http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/64
The Tinker's Daughter http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/353
Interestingly, they are all very popular, often played and, I assume, rarely confused with one another: I wonder how many musicians have realised how similar they are on paper?
The Silver Spear http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/182 falls in that category too.

# Posted on May 11th 2010 by birlibirdie

Nobilis Humilis, a 12th-13th century hymn from Orkney, may be the earliest mention we have of the appealing pentatonic run of notes in the first bar of The Maid Behind the Bar: ‘FAAB AF… D’.
This ‘run’ is famously found in Stephen Foster’s Oh Suzannah! and some other old favourites like the Ozark song: (Get Along Home) Cindy or Whisky in the Jar (viz: ‘I went out on the mountain […] Thought I heard my true love say’ / ‘As I was a goin' over […] I first produced my pistol’)

The notes in the manuscript are part of the lower voice, on the words:
“vene –rabilis et tutor landa-bilis”: AccdcA…F (F Lydian mode)

See for yourself at: http://www.vikinganswerlady.com/music.shtml
and http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/imagelibrary/picture/number901.asp

# Posted on May 11th 2010 by birlibirdie

Looking at the sheet music in O'Neill's, 1,850 tunes, I'd say this tune here IS The Green Mountain, pg. 227, #1205. Somehow, a green mountain seems more like the picture this tune presents than a barmaid. Oh well, that's my personal opinion.

# Posted on August 3rd 2010 by c.smitty

The Maid Behind the Bar

Cormac Breatnach on a C whistle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UWHg6BbfLU

# Posted on November 12th 2010 by bogman

Personal opinion

It's maid behind the bar so beat it :p

# Posted on April 15th 2011 by Choons

Haymaker as played on Chicago Reel album

X: 1
T:The Haymaker
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Cmaj
|: E4 E3G |EDCD (3EFG cA |dc (3ccc dcAc| dc (3ccc dcAG|
E4 E3G |EDCD (3EFG cA |dc (3ccc dcAE|1 GEDG ECCD :|2 GEDG EC C2 ||
eg ^fg ec ~c2 | ecgc ec ~c2 | e2 ag ed (3ddd| edad ed (3ddd |
eg (3ggg aged | (3ccc cA d2 cd| (3edc dc AGcA| GEDF EC C2 |
(3ggg ^fa gc ~c2 | Gc ~c2 cdeg| ^fd ~d2 defg| (3agf fe fedf |
ec ~c2 AFGc | AF ~F2 Ad ~d2 | dcdc AGcA| GEDF ED C2 ||

# Posted on December 5th 2011 by bobbi

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