Usually when I post a beginner-friendly Irish tune, I feel the need to defend it. You don’t have to look far online to find people complaining about how songs like “Boys of Bluehill,” “Egan’s Polka,” or “The Kesh Jig” are overplayed and are disliked by many advanced musicians. But for some reason, I haven’t run across any similar complaints for today’s simple polka: “The Britches Full of Stitches.”
My best guess as to why this tune doesn’t garner eye rolls from the experienced session crowd is pretty simple: “The Britches Full of Stitches” is a fun song. It’s fun to play. It’s fun to listen to. It’s fun to embellish and add little variations to mix things up a bit. (I’ll add some of those when I write higher level arrangements.)
“The Britches Full of Stitches” Playing Tips
“Britches” is a polka, a type of dance tune in 2/4 time that typically has a lot of bounce (a.k.a. a “dotted rhythm”). Last week in my post for “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain,” I talked about how you can incorporate a bit of polka-esque bounce into the children’s song to give it a similar feel. If you aren’t familiar with how to play a dotted rhythm in a 2/4 time signature, be sure to give that post a read.
Reels and hornpipes are generally written in straight notation, and while they can be played straight, you’ll often hear them with a bounce. That bounce, however, is at the discretion of the performer. Polkas, on the other hand, include the bounce explicitly in the written music.
The bounce in a polka isn’t optional. If it’s there, you play it; if it isn’t, you don’t. And you have to pay attention because it can take many different forms. Here’s a few examples from the polkas I’ve posted here:
- “The Britches Full of Stitches” has a dotted rhythm in every other measure for the entire tune.
- “Egan’s Polka” has a dotted measure in the third of every four bars in the A section and then every other measure in the B section.
- “John Ryan’s Polka” has almost no dotted measures.
The position of the bounce in a measure also varies. In “Britches,” it’s always in the first half of the measure. In “Egan’s,” it’s always in the second half. When in doubt, turn to YouTube and find a performance or recording of a tune to figure out how it is meant to sound.
The low G version of this tune is in the key of D, the key that you’ll most often hear it performed, so you’ll be able to play along.
Click the link or the ‘Download’ button below to see the sheet music if your browser doesn’t display the embedded PDF.
Don’t have a low G uke? Not a problem. I’ve included a standard (high G) TAB for this song as well. Find the link at the bottom on the post. Happy picking!
“The Britches Full of Stitches” Low G Sheet Music Download
“The Britches Full of Stitches” High G Sheet Music Download
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