Da Seven Step Polka

barndance

Key signature: Gmajor

Submitted on June 2nd 2007 by Dow.

This tune has been added to 14 tunebooks.

Also known as Da Seven Step, Seven Step, Seven Step Polka, The Seven Step Polka, The Seven Step, Shetland Seven Step, Shetland Seven Step Polka, The Shetland Seven Step Polka, The Shetland Seven Step.

Recordings of a tune by this name:

Naked And Bare by Fiddlers' Bid
Proper Job: Melodeon Playing From Dartmoor by Bob Cann

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Details ABC Sheetmusic Comments

Da Seven Step Polka

This unusual 12 bar tune is not a polka in the Kerry sense, but more like a type of barndance. It is usually played swung, like this:

# Posted on June 2nd 2007 by Dow

This usually follows another Shetland "polka", Da Boannie Polka http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/5559.

# Posted on June 2nd 2007 by Dow

~ only in a session and 'nowadays'. The dance that went with this tune was also 12 bars long... The other contemporary way with this is to force it into compromise by expanding it to 16 measures in length...

# Posted on June 2nd 2007 by ceolachan

I've even heard some awful 32 bar takes on it... :-P

# Posted on June 2nd 2007 by ceolachan

Heh, heh, heh ~ 8-)

# Posted on June 2nd 2007 by ceolachan

Penny on the Water

same 'A' but different 'B' and with swing a la schottishe.
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: G
| G2G2G2G2 | F>GA>F G2 | B2B2B2B2 A>Bc>A B2 |
c>de>c A2A2 | b>cd>b G2G2 | A>Bc>A F>DE>F | G>AB>c D2D2 |
c>de>c A2A2 | b>cd>b G2G2 | A>Bc>A F>DE>F | G2B2G4 ||

Have played this for a specific dance whose name escapes me.

# Posted on June 3rd 2007 by hetty

Missing G2 in bar 2

sorry about missing out the G2 in bar 2 and the bar line between 3 & 4.

# Posted on June 3rd 2007 by hetty

Me old mucker, Peter Kennedy - rest his soul - kept trying to persuade me to play this. Actually, I *did* play it a fair few times, but only when he absolutely needed it for the particular dance he was either calling or demonstrating.

I never liked the tune, but he did. And besides, it had its own dance ...

# Posted on June 3rd 2007 by benhall.1

"The Seven-Step" ~ hetty's way?

hetty, hetty, hetty ~ you must be losing sleep again. There's the shorted sheets of bars 2 & 4 of the A-part, now doubled from 2 to 4, if that was waht you'd meant, and then there's those notes in the B-part, the 2nd and 6th measures, the bs, and the D2 D2 in the 4th, which I suspect are an octave out? Let's see, is this what you meant to add, the added spacings and second ending are my way with this tune and its ABCs:

X: 1
T: Da Seven Step Polka
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: seven-step
K: G Major
G2 G2 G2 G2 | F>GA>F G4 | B2 B2 B2 B2 | A>Bc>A B4 ||
c>de>c A2 A2 | b>cd>B G2 G2 | A>Bc>A F>DE>F |[1 G>AB>c d2 d2 :|
[2 G2 B2 G4 |]

It has a bit of "The Thunder Road" about it... 8-)

# Posted on June 3rd 2007 by ceolachan

~ | B>cd>B G2 G2 |

One missed b ~ the B-part, bar 2:

~ | B>cd>B G2 G2 | ~

# Posted on June 3rd 2007 by ceolachan

Thanks 'c' I must have been half asleep. yea B>cd>B G2G2 it is.
Ben! if you are at the session on Wednesday I might be tempted to start playing it!!

# Posted on June 4th 2007 by hetty

"Thunder Road"

Don't know that one. It's not here is it, I've just looked. How does it Go?

# Posted on June 4th 2007 by hetty

~ an old schottische

http://www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/easyrider/data/av-files/bthundrd.wav

# Posted on June 4th 2007 by ceolachan

*splorf*

# Posted on June 4th 2007 by Dow

Swedish Schottishe

Yes! I know it well and have it as the starter of a 16 bar schottishe set which gets used almost every week. I have it as "The Swedish Schottishe" The set comprises - "TSS" + "Over the Hills to Glory" + Castles in the Air" + "Hunt the Squirrel". We use it for a dance called 'Danish Hornpipe" or one called "The Butterfly Hornpipe".
Must say that I would not link it with "Da Seven Steps P" or "P on the W"

# Posted on June 4th 2007 by hetty

"P on the W", I love it... I may post it just for the hell of it. It is one of the earliest schottisches I was ever exposed to, and I also have it as being of 'Swedish origin', though it was one of those that also seems to have featured in North American circles, as with their polka bands and early American dance. The schottische used to be an integral part of most dance socials, there and here, and including Eire & Alba as well...

I'm not sure exactly why your take on it reminded me of the tune, but maybe after a transcription arrives the correlation may be clearer either way. I do know that the two, this tune and dance, and the old Swedish schottische, often came together in the one night of dance, including on 'these isles'!? That may have been all of a memory jog this wildly wired head needed... ;-)

# Posted on June 4th 2007 by ceolachan

Besides, it allowed me to add that link to one of Dow's contributions of question ~ no disrespect meant of course... 8-)

# Posted on June 4th 2007 by ceolachan

Whaddya mean, "contributions of question"??!!

# Posted on June 4th 2007 by Dow

Heh, heh, heh!

No disrespect intended... Aren't all contributions to be questioned? If not, where would you be?

# Posted on June 4th 2007 by ceolachan

You should be thanking me, I've pushed you on to page 2 of 660...

# Posted on June 4th 2007 by ceolachan

That's great, now we can start organising things around here and nobody will notice :-)

Ok, who's first?

# Posted on June 4th 2007 by Dow

Lucy Farr

Thought it worth linking up with the other related tunes to this one.
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/1307

# Posted on June 7th 2007 by hetty

Ah, I see Hetty is with us... ;-)

# Posted on June 7th 2007 by ceolachan

A very frequently played set of polkas in Shetland goes:

Da Boannie Polka
Seven Step Polka
Sister Jean

Some of the first tunes they teach beginner fiddlers too.

S

# Posted on June 12th 2007 by Swift

TANZ! / DANCE! - Steps for this 'seed':

The Seven-Step (originally 12 bars) / The German (short/long) / The German Schottische / The Seven-Step Polka / The Ulster 7-Step

Da Seven Step Polka

barndance

Da Seven Step Polka

Penny on the Water

Missing G2 in bar 2

"The Seven-Step" ~ hetty's way?

~ | B>cd>B G2 G2 |

"Thunder Road"

~ an old schottische

Swedish Schottishe

Heh, heh, heh!

Lucy Farr

TANZ! / DANCE! - Steps for this 'seed':

"The Seven Step" ~ more transcriptions to compare