Tune # 5: The Minor Slip
I’m kicking off the new year with one of my favorite slip jigs — The Minor Slip (thanks for the suggestion, Harold!). Honestly, I don’t know why it took me so long to actually sit down and learn this one. It’s not a complicated tune; in fact, once it gets in your ear it tends to stay there.
Part of its charm, for me anyway, is that it’s in a minor key. I don’t know what it is about minor tunes, but they always pull me in. They feel more emotional somehow — darker colors, but not sad exactly… maybe just more honest? They’re expressive in a way that really suits the fiddle. There’s this delicious space between light and shadow that the instrument can lean into, and The Minor Slip lives right inside that space.
The first time I heard this tune, I was listening to Solas — probably in the car, windows fogged up, coffee in a travel mug, doing that thing where a tune comes on and you instantly crank the volume because you know something good is about to happen. I still remember that feeling of hearing it unfold: the pulse of the slip jig rhythm, that minor lift in the melody, the way the tune seemed to tug at something just under the surface. I fell for it right there.
So here we are — new year, new possibilities, and a tune that feels just right to start things off. If you haven’t played this one yet, consider this your nudge. And if you have played it, well… maybe this is your reminder to fall in love with it all over again.
Here’s my version:
Session Obsession 