Celtic music

[Kevin Briggs]

Folks,

I'm looking to get into Celtic music a bit more. I know there are some good books/CDs/instructional materials out here.

What do you recommend? Also, I'm willing to PM about trading for whatever you have.

[Gutbucket]

Tim O'Brien has a good one with octave mandolin included.

[Bruce Evans]

I hang out with the Hammered dulcimer crowd, which is bigger in Michigan than any other state. They play a lot of Celtic stuff. The definitive work is The Ruffwater Fakebook compiled by Judy Morningstar. It's not entirely Celtic, but there are a few hundred tunes in standard notation. I bought my copy about 7 or 8 years ago for $20. If you are interested I can hook you up with Judy.

[JEStanek]

While I don't have this particular one of his, judging by the others I have bought (Medieval, Renaissance, and Christmas), Allan Alexander's Celtic Mandolin Music book and CD (http://home.earthlink.net/~guitarandlute/celtic_mandolin.html#top) might be a good resource. Tunes in standard notation and tab with a CD. They can be not too hard for a beginner and serve as starting points to work off of for more advanced player. NFI for me, I just enjoy the books of his I do have.

Jamie

[foldedpath]

If you're interested in solo arrangements for the mandolin, I recommend Simon Mayor's "New Celtic Mandolin" DVD, featuring selected tunes from his CD of the same name:

Simon Mayor - New Celtic Mandolin DVD (http://elderly.com/videos/items/521-DVD046.htm)

This is strictly solo instrumental music, with a focus on drones and tiny idiomatic embellishments that would probably disappear under the noise of other instruments in a typical Irish session. Simon's own CD's are carefully arranged so this doesn't happen: he multitracks most of the instruments himself, so each one has breathing room. If you're interested in this approach instead of typical sessiun backup, then it's a great DVD resource.

[JeffD]

There are many many Irish and Scottish fiddle tune books, current jam tunes as well as great oldies, and tunes for performance.

Any tune written for a fiddle exactly fits on a mandolin.

There are several good penny whistle tune books as well, and most of those tunes fit on the mandolin quite well.

Of my collection of tune books (I have TBAS), a good 40%percent are Irish/Scottish, and even the general books have a large percentage of celtic tunes.

[Tim2723]

It's good to keep an eye on all manner of instruction books.collection regardless of the instrument they're for. Whistle, flute, fiddle, mandolin, all contain great tunes.

I'll also second The Ruffwater Fakebook. A top notch resource. You'll get more tunes from it than $100 worth of other books combined.

[JeffD]

Fiddlers Fake Book, Scottish Ceilidh Collection for Fiddlers, Robin Williamson's Penny Whistle Tune book, O'Neills Music of Ireland, oh there are many many books out there.

[Jim MacDaniel]

Waltons.ie has several excellent book/CD pairs in their "110 Irish Tunes" series that will acquaint you with many common ITM tunes, including 110 Irish Mandolin Tunes, Vol. 1 (http://waltons.ie/waltonsshop/product_info.php?cPath=106_201&products_id=11060), recorded and transcribed by superb Dublin mandolinist Paul Kelly (http://www.malgamu.com/htms/Pkcddet.htm).