“Miss Monaghan’s Reel” for Low G Ukulele – FREE TAB

Click here to jump straight to the TAB for “Miss Monaghan’s Reel.”

“Miss Monaghan’s Reel” is an old tune first recorded in the collections of John Goodman, a 19th century Irish cleric who was a scholar of the Irish language and a well-known uillean piper. Goodman collected traditional Irish tunes and wrote them down, amassing a collection that numbered in the thousands during his lifetime (1828-1896).

Goodman’s story and high-resolution photographs of his manuscripts are recorded on the website for the Irish Traditional Music Archive, a wonderful collection that will keep you busy for hours if you are a history nerd, like me.

To see “Miss Monaghan’s Reel” written in Goodman’s own hand, click here to open the scan of Volume 1 of Goodman’s collection and scroll to page 46 (page 42 as numbered in the original manuscript). “Miss Monaghan’s” is the third tune on the page.

“Miss Monaghan’s Reel” Playing Tips

This tune is a steady stream of eighth notes with only a few breaks, so I’ve included a simplified version of the tune that has a lot more space if you can’t keep up initially. The download link for the simplified version of the music is at the bottom of the page.

For those tackling the full version of the tune, this one really comes down to nailing the timing of two measures – 6 and 11. Both of these measures open with a dotted quarter note, a point of inflection that becomes the rhythmic signature of this tune, even though it only appears twice.

Let’s look at measures 5 and 6 and break them down with rhythm syllables. Measure 5, with a quarter note and eighth notes, looks like this:

TA TI TI TI TI TI TI

Whereas measure 6, with the dotted quarter preceding the eighth note run, looks like this:

TA-I TI TI TI TI TI

The difference is subtle, but it is critical. If you don’t play the full duration of that dotted quarter note, you end up coming up short in the measure, either getting yourself off-beat entirely or stretching the final eighth note of the measure out to a quarter note. Both of those options will result in you falling out of time. Be careful!

Click the download link below if the embedded PDF doesn’t display correctly. Happy picking!

“Miss Monaghan’s Reel” Low G Sheet Music Download

“Miss Monoghan’s Reel (Simplified)” Low G Sheet Music Download