This tune by the Shetland fiddler, Samuel Ian Rothmar Burns (known as Ian Burns (1932-1995)) looks tricky but is very popular because it’s much easier than it looks. Good practice for G major and fun to play. The only difficult bit to remember is where you are in the tune as the second half of the A part is repeated at the end of the B part. I’ve tried to write it out so you can see the similarity (and differences) between the parts which I think also makes it easier to learn, however, my software doesn’t let me put repeat marks inside a bar, so I couldn’t add the upbeat to the repeats. I hope you can see how to manage this.

The name, Spootiskerry, comes from the Burns family farm and a “skerry” is a Shetland term for rocks only visible at low tide. There is a book, Back Tae Burns, of his collected works, but unfortunately hard to find at the moment.

As always, it is better to listen than just read, especially as you can get a nice swing to the beat in many of these recordings:

Stringers’ Ridge (banjo, guitar and bodhran)
Nice slow fiddle
Mandolin tutorial
Jolly band
Flutes and bouzouki
Fiddle fingering (but slightly different version, but listen to great bowing)
Banjo and guitar (but no video – starting at 1.10mins)
Accordion and guitar (starting at 1.50mins)
Piano and fiddle (cool arrangement)

pdf here