My Darling Asleep is a really popular Irish tune to learn on the fiddle. In fact, it’s often one of the first Irish tunes that new fiddle players look to learn. If you’d like to learn My Darling Asleep on the fiddle, take a look at my video below.
My Darling Asleep in an Irish jig, which means it is in 6/8 time. Say, DA-di-dee DA-di-dee for the rhythm. Or BA-con-and SAUce-a-ges, BA-con-and SAUce-a-ges.
In Irish sessions, you will often here it jokingly referred to as “My Darling’s a Sheep”. But it is a little known fact that even the ‘real’ title was made up.
When Chief Francis O’Neill — the great collector of Irish immigrant music to the US — collected the tune from Abram Beamish he was told the tune was called “My Darling in Bed”. He changed the title to My Darling Asleep when he published it to make it less suggestive! O’Neill wrote to a friend that:
A rare tune unknown to all of us named “My darling in bed” was noted down from the playing of Abram S. Beamish (born within 5 miles of my birthplace in West Cork). For obvious reasons the title was modified to “My Darling Asleep.”
(https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:My_Darling_Asleep)
In this video I play through the tune My Darling Asleep. Fiddle players who have some experience learning tunes by ear will be able to pick out the melody and any variations or ornamentation. If would like to learn this tune with me, or if you would like me to make a tutorial video please do let me know.
Fiddle players, if you would like to take your fiddle playing to the next level, take a look at my online fiddle courses, including my free Irish fiddle course.
My Darling Asleep is a tune that has been very widely played and recorded by Irish fiddle players, and by a whole host of bands.