Shave & a Hair Cut, 2 Bits!
In Ireland during years long gone, the riff occasionally appeared at the end of pub songs. The singer would sing “How is your old one?” to the tune. The pub audience would respond “Gameball!”. Irish slang for the American “okay” is “gameball.”
I take this appearance of Shave & a Hair Cut, 2 Bits in Irish pubs to justify using the riff as the basis for a bodhrán pattern!
These days the seven-tone riff known as Shave and a Hair Cut, two bits is strongly associated with bluegrass music. But, the riff came about much earlier - late in the 19th century. The first documented appearance of the riff was 1899. The riff decorates Charles Hale’s minstrel song At a Darktown Cake Walk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dZNQnpiWfk
The melodic riff morphed into a comedic expression. Listen to Billy Murray sing On the 5:15 in 1915. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssayMedzy2o&list=RDssayMedzy2o&start_radio=1 The orchestra ends the song with Shave & a Hair cut, 2 bits.
Amateur radio operators at times signed off with the code:
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The UK doesn’t seem to have “bits”. They sometimes sing. Shave and a Hair Cut, 5 Bob. That would have been in a time before decimalization of the British currency when a “Bob” was worth 5 new pence. 5 Bob would be roughly equivalent to an American Quarter which is, of course worth 2 bits. A bit was one-eighth of a silver dollar, or 12.5 cents. That value is roughly equivalent to the Spanish real – a silver coin.