Guitar Dictionary Category
Roots & Traditional Styles
What Is a Strathspey?
A strathspey is a Scottish dance-tune type, usually in 4/4, distinguished by sharply shaped dotted rhythms and the Scots snap: a short note followed by a longer dotted note.
The name is associated with the Strathspey region of Scotland. In performance, the tune’s pointed rhythm and accented gestures separate it from a smooth reel even when both use common time.
The Scots Snap
A typical snap may be notated as a sixteenth note followed by a dotted eighth. The important feature is the short-long relationship. Strathspeys also use the opposite long-short dotted figure, creating tension between clipped and sustained motion.
Do not shorten the first note so much that it disappears or lengthen the following note beyond the beat. The effect depends on precision inside a steady pulse.
Strathspey vs Reel
A reel generally moves with more even, flowing subdivisions. A strathspey uses pointed articulation, emphatic accents and greater rhythmic contrast. In Scottish sets, a strathspey may lead into a reel, making the release from pointed to flowing rhythm especially clear.
Adapting Fiddle Articulation to Guitar
Fiddle bowing can lengthen, bite or release a note in ways a pick cannot copy literally. Guitarists can suggest the style through pick attack, staccato release, slurs, damping and dynamic accent.
A hammer-on may connect a long-short figure, while a deliberate pick attack can clarify a snap. The adaptation should preserve the rhythm rather than imitate every bow movement mechanically.
Accompanying a Strathspey
Use chord attacks that reinforce the pointed rhythm without striking every subdivision. Drones and open fifths can preserve Scottish colour, while bass movement should respect the strong four-beat framework.
Because the melody contains strong internal accents, accompaniment often works best when it leaves space rather than competing with every snap.
Strathspey Exercise
- Set a slow metronome in 4/4.
- Clap long-short and short-long dotted pairs without guitar.
- Play each pair on one note, using clear releases.
- Apply the figures to a two-bar melody fragment.
- Follow it with the same notes played as even reel-like eighth notes.
Why Strathspeys Matter
The strathspey teaches rhythmic identity at a detailed level. It requires the guitarist to control note length, accent and silence precisely rather than relying on tempo or chord choice to create style.
Kalymi Tip
Practise the Scots snap and the ordinary dotted pair separately before placing them in a tune. The two figures need different releases even though both fit within the same beat.
Use one note first. When the rhythm is convincing without a melody, transfer it to a short phrase and preserve the exact pulse.
Listen to Scottish fiddle and pipe performances as well as guitar versions. The guitar adaptation should translate the articulation, not replace it with generic swing.
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- Bagpipe News: The Strathspey in Scottish Music
Reviewed by
Brent C. Robitaille,
music educator and founder of
Kalymi Music.