Rhythm Distribution in Recordings
(In Fully Irish Traditional Albums)

This list ranks rhythms by their relative frequency among all tune instances on all fully-indexed, commercial recordings of primarily Irish traditional music in my entire database. The total number of such tune instances is 23,445. Since it ignores whether a tune recording is a distinct tune or not, it reveals how often each tune type has been recorded. For example, even if one particular reel was recorded by ten different musicians over time, it still counts that as ten "votes" for the reel rhythm.

This report illustrates the distribution of tune types in commercial albums of Irish traditional music. Since it ignores whether a tune recording is distinct or not, and excludes incomplete albums, it can present the average rhythm distribution per album. The following 53 album codes are excluded from this report: 4MD 2, AKG 2, Arc 1, BBSW, BIABH 3, BF, Boys 12, Boys 13, Ch AIE, Ch BIH, CFF 1, CFF 2, CFF 3, CFF 4, CFF 6, CMcAn, CnORa 1, CMr 2, CTL 12, DD 8, DD 9, Di, DSLM, ECoyKD, FFH, Gdwr 2, HatW, InTndm, JMcC, JOS 2, KCs, LMcK 1, MMcG 3, Nms 2, NP, NVall 1, OMcA, OHs 2, OHs 3, Plx 7, Scglen 2, SkHly 3, Socks 2, Srnd, StGrmm 2, Stpkt, StWing 9, SS 2, SW, THayes, THny 1, Trpsw, TW.

This report, since it excludes some recordings, is slightly different from the report Rhythm Distribution in Recordings (All). Compare also Rhythm Distribution of tune types among all distinct tunes, as well as Rhythm Distribution in Session Tunes.

Rhythm	Count	Average per album	% of total	Bar graph
Reel	10,630	13	45.3%
Double jig	4,758	6	20.3%
Hornpipe	1,745	2	7.4%
Song	1,306	2	5.6%
Polka	1,080	1	4.6%
Slide	686	1	2.9%
Air	655	1	2.8%
Slip jig	588	1	2.5%
Piece	338	0	1.4%
Barn dance	257	0	1.1%
March	233	0	1.0%
Waltz	209	0	0.9%
Set dance	203	0	0.9%
Single jig	197	0	0.8%
Fling	173	0	0.7%
Highland	133	0	0.6%
Strathspey	81	0	0.3%
Mazurka	67	0	0.3%
Schottisch	54	0	0.2%
Other	28	0	0.1%
Single reel	24	0	0.1%