Drops of Brandy

Slip jig, G, Traditional Irish

Drops of Brandy, a spirited Irish tune, is among the most popular of traditional Irish slip jigs.

Here’s praise indeed for the golden grape that hangs upon the vine.
For without the golden grape we’d not know brandy wine.

From the song “Merry Little Hop” by Graeme Miles

Recordings

• Video – Dulahan Ireland: The Drops of Brandy Slip Jig – played on fiddle and tenor banjo with rhythm guitar. (Dulahan is the duo of Joe and Adele Green, County Mayo, Ireland.)
• Video – Mick Moloney & Barney McKenna: The Drops of Brandy – played on two tenor banjos
• Audio – Comhaltas: Drops of Brandy – session recording, from the album Foinn Seisiún Volume 2

Dots (Music Notation)

As always for traditional tunes, the musical notation and chords do not indicate the “right” way to play the tune, but are a useful reference.

Here’s little Sir John in a nut-brown bowl,
And brandy in a glass;
And little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl
Proved the stronger man at last.

From the traditional English ballad, “John Barleycorn”

Sets

Examples of sets that include this tune.

• Drops of Brandy / Fig for a Kiss
• Humours of Whiskey / Hardiman the Fiddler / Drops of Brandy
• Humours of Derrykrosane / Hardiman the Fiddler / Drops of Brandy

References and Resources

For those who want to dig deeper, here are some other resources.

• More Recordings
  • Audio – Stephen Ducke: Drops of Brandy (Slip Jig) – played on tin whistle. From the book Irish Music – 400 Traditional Tunes
• Books
  • Book – Comhaltas: Foinn Seisiún Volume 2 
  • Book – Stephen Ducke: Irish Music 400 Traditional Tunes
• Lessons
  • Lesson – Online Academy of Irish Music: Drops of Brandy – fiddle lesson with phrase by phrase instruction, ornamentation, sheet music, and play-along tracks
  • Lesson – Enda Scahill: 5 Tunes for Irish Banjo – Simple and Ornate Versions – demonstration of the tune played on tenor banjo, with and without ornamentation. Video and animated musical score (SoundSlice).
  • Lesson – Gavin Atkin: Drops of Brandy – tune and chords demonstrated on button accordion atnormal and slow tempos.
• Other Resources
  • Webpage: The Session: The Drops of Brandy (Slip Jig) – crowdsourced sheet music, comments, and other information.