Annotation:Seven Step Polka (Da)
X: 1 T: SEVEN STEP POLKA S: Hansen R: polka B: Haand me doon da fiddle, 1979 Z: 2012 John Chambers <jc:trillian.mit.edu> M: C L: 1/8 F:http://www.john-chambers.us/~jc/music/book/HaandMeDoonDaFiddle/08_SEVEN_STEP_POLKA.abc K: G G2 G2 G2 G2 | FG AF G2 D2 | B2 B2 B2 B2 | AB cA B2 G2 | e2 e2 d3 B | c2 c2 B3 G | E2 A2 A3 G | FD EF GA Bd | e2 e2 d3 B | c2 c2 B3 G | E2 A2 A3 G | FD EF G2 D2 |] N:Dis t\"un wis \"osed fir an auld Shetland dance caaed be da same name. N:What wye it cam ta Shetland we dinna ken. Dere is a version o' him N:in England \"osed fir a different dance. Dis een is in G and du haes N:ta geng doon ower to da third string. Afore du plays him, try du N:over da scale o' G.
SEVEN STEP POLKA(, DA). Shetland, Polka (whole time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (Anderson): ABB (Miller & Perron). Tom Anderson remarks "Collected from the late Jean Pole of Waas, Shetland, and used for the dance of the same name. There are variants of this tune in other countries, Sweden, England, Denmark, and parts of the USA" (Anderson). Other variants are common in Germany and Austria, where the dance is called the "Siebenschritt." It is regarded as one of the few traditional Shetland Polkas, along with “Bonnie Polka (Da)” and “Sister Jean.” Caoimhin Mac Aoidh (1994) finds this to be a close version of a tune still played in west Donegal called the “Eight Step Polka,” and it is known in northern Ireland as “Ulster 7-Step (The).” While Anderson’s Shetland single-part version has 12 bars, the Donegal one only has 8. Many Irish fiddlers today know a rather distanced version of the tune as “Lucy Farr's Barn Dance,” after the famous London fiddler, born in County Galway, but the tune has many titles and variants.
