The Butterfly in E Minor — Slip Jig | Tenor Banjo TAB & D Whistle Fingering

Japanese version: The Butterfly（Eマイナー・Slip Jig）｜バンジョーTABとD管ホイッスル運指

“The Butterfly,” the slip jig associated with Tommy Potts, has been converted with ABC2Tab for GDAE tenor banjo and D tin whistle. In addition to standard notation, the diagrams show the banjo string and fret and the whistle’s six-hole fingering for every note.

Basic information

• Tune type: Slip jig
• Time signature: 9/8
• Key: E minor
• Tenor banjo tuning: GDAE
• Whistle: D tin whistle

Both scores place all 12 measures in four-measure systems, for 3 systems in total. Each of the three parts is placed on its own four-measure system.

D tin whistle: standard notation and fingering

Six circles appear below every note. A filled circle means covered, an open circle means uncovered, and the top circle is nearest the mouthpiece. This setting contains zero notes that are unsupported on a D whistle.

Tenor banjo: standard notation and GDAE TAB

Note names appear above the staff and the TAB appears below it. The strings are tuned G-D-A-E from lowest to highest. Numbers indicate frets, and 0 indicates an open string.

How to practise

1. Count 9/8 in three groups: “1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9.”
2. Repeat one measure at a time at a tempo where each three-note group stays relaxed.
3. Connect each four-measure line, then play the three parts in A-B-C order.

Source and conversion method

The melody was checked against public setting #10 on The Session.

Source: The Butterfly on The Session

The images were produced by entering the public ABC notation into ABC2Tab and converting it to D-whistle fingering and GDAE tenor-banjo TAB. This article does not reproduce The Session’s page text.