Need of first tune book

[Roydw3]

Howdy,
I have been playing for a few years but have been spending almost all of my time learning fiddle tunes, old time, and bluegrass primarily.

I would like to get a book or two that has a lot of good simple celtic tunes that I can learn and play to get into this style of music.

What are your suggestions?

Thanks
Denny

[Avi Ziv]

Denny,

Here are some options, in no particular order of priority

1. Play along with an Irish Traditional Session here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/) They have both sheet music and live music to follow. It's fun and will give you an idea of what an Irish session might sound like

2. Some free tune books online here (http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/#pdf)

3. You can browse thousands of tunes at thesession (http://www.thesession.org)

4. If you really want printed books you can order some from Comhaltas (http://comhaltas.ie/shop/archive/C57/)If you browse on this site, you will find free recordings of almost all the tunes that are in the books as well as some sheet music

5. Simon Mayor has some very interesting books. I don't think that you need his books in order to learn tunes. However he gives good insight on arranging tunes on the mandolin for very effective solo playing. You can get his books from places like Elderly

I think this will get you started

Good luck and have fun!

Avi

[twaaang]

I was on the point of directing a friend to the John Walsh collection, a very sensible array of tunes well presented and downloadable for free. Go to http://www.ceolas.org/pub/tunes/tunes.pdf/SessionTunes.pdf and you should be in business! -- Paul

[twaaang]

Improziv beat me to it! #The link I gave is off one of the sources he gave you. #-- #Paul

[Avi Ziv]

No matter. It's good to get some additional confirmation

Cheers,
Avi

[Martin Jonas]

Good links above. Also check Nigel Gatherer's site (http://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/tab.html) for a great selection of tunes with standard notation and tab. If you have a name for a specific tune, but can't find the music, use the search engine at the ABC Tunefinder (http://jc.tzo.net/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind).

Martin

[Caleb]

I recommend Allan Alexander's book Celtic Music for Mandolin. It has helped me greatly.

[Barbara Shultz]

I find we use our O'Neil's Music of Ireland book quite often!

[mandogerry]

I second the recommendation for Allan Alexander's book. Good selection of Carolan, and also some lesser known Scottish tunes which I find are really lovely. The CD that comes with it is beautiful on its own (but no human being I know could duplicate the tremolo, so don't lose heart!). Most of the tunes are pretty straightforward, a few are a great learning experience. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Jacob]

O'Neill's Music of Ireland (http://www.oldmusicproject.com/oneils1.html), The Complete Works of Turlough O'Carolan and more.

[Martin Jonas]

Regarding the Allan Alexander "Celtic Music For Mandolin" book, I should say that I highly recommend his books except this one. The playing on the accompanying CD is lovely, but (in my view) entirely non-Irish in style. The mandolinist is a classically-trained Russian player, and she plays the tunes as classical pieces, which they are not. I'm missing the typical light Carolan bounce, and the overabundant super-smooth tremolo really grates on my ears. The actual tunes are frequently in non-standard versions which one can't play at a session, and most of them have Allan's own variations integrated, which certainly nobody at a session will know. It's almost all slowish airs, mostly Carolan, plus some lute pieces that are early art music more than any kind of traditional music. That tune selection makes it very unrepresentative of Irish and Scottish traditional music (incidentally, the same is true of Simon Mayor's Celtic Mandolin book, which is beautiful in its own right but doesn't teach you Celtic mandolin). So, although the book does have its merits (like all his books, it's beautifully produced), I feel it is not suited as an introduction to Irish or Scottish traditional music on mandolin.

Martin

[JeffD]

I'm missing the typical light Carolan bounce, and the overabundant super-smooth tremolo really grates on my ears. #The actual tunes are frequently in non-standard versions which one can't play at a session, and most of them have Allan's own variations integrated, which certainly nobody at a session will know. #It's almost all slowish airs, mostly Carolan, plus some lute pieces that are early art music more than any kind of traditional music. #That tune selection makes it very unrepresentative of Irish and Scottish traditional music
I would have to agree on all counts.

I recommend O'Neills (the yellow one with 1850 tunes in it), but there are many many good ones out there.

Also that web site The Session has a lot of great stuff.

[Roydw3]

Thanks for all the help. Now with thousands of tunes at my finger tips, where do I begin? I picked a few tunes at random and played through them but of course it would be nice to hear them too. When I clicked on many of the midi files, the didn't play for me.

With that in mind, tell me some essential recordings that I should listen to or cd's that I should buy to get me going in the right direction on tempo, fell, and so forth? What are some of the great groups to listen to for a beginner?

Thanks again
Denny

[JeffD]

Essential?

Any thing by Planxty, Patrick Street, or if you can find them, The Bothy Band. Any Kevin Burke recording anywhere, any time. Any Andy Irvine recording. Altan.

Just my opinion

[Roydw3]

I just mean by essential, those key groups or tunes that shape the music. For instance, in bluegrass, you would have to put Bill Monroe, Flatt and Scruggs, THe Osborne Bros., Jim and Jesse, Del McCourey, Lawson, Seldom Scene, etc. Newgrass for sure would be Same Bush. Blues Yank Rachel. And so on. Who is some of those who shape the music and would be great to listen to get a feel for the music? or maybe there is a new group that embodies and personifies the music.

[twaaang]

The beauty of the John Walsh collection which I recommended is that it narrows things down considerably -- of the several sessions I've sat in on, most of these tunes would fit well and be recognized. And, the arrangements are quite straightforward.

If you hope to start sitting in on local sessions, I strongly recommend you kibbitz a bit, and ask the players the names of tunes you especially like. Then you can practice with some assurance that your learning will "fit" with the local repertory. -- Paul

[Avi Ziv]

Here is a link to an old posting on the IRTRAD-L mailing list. It's a list of 100 cd's for your basic Irish Traditional library, put together by Philippe Varlet - fiddler, musicologist, and owner of celticgrooves

Like all such lists, it's subjective. However, I like the depth and breadth of ground that it covers.

Basic Library according to Philippe Varlet (https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0112&L=IRTRAD-L&P=R293&D=0&T=0)

oh - and I too think that John Walsh's collection of tunes will serve you very well in most sessions. That's where I started as well until I switched over to learning by ear from other musicians and recordings.

Avi

[twaaang]

Avi, thanks for that basic library posting. Some other folks have helped to a good start, I see, but there's so much more! -- Paul

[Caleb]

Regarding the Allan Alexander "Celtic Music For Mandolin" book, I should say that I highly recommend his books except this one. #The playing on the accompanying CD is lovely, but (in my view) entirely non-Irish in style. #The mandolinist is a classically-trained Russian player, and she plays the tunes as classical pieces, which they are not. #I'm missing the typical light Carolan bounce, and the overabundant super-smooth tremolo really grates on my ears. #The actual tunes are frequently in non-standard versions which one can't play at a session, and most of them have Allan's own variations integrated, which certainly nobody at a session will know. #It's almost all slowish airs, mostly Carolan, plus some lute pieces that are early art music more than any kind of traditional music. #That tune selection makes it very unrepresentative of Irish and Scottish traditional music (incidentally, the same is true of Simon Mayor's Celtic Mandolin book, which is beautiful in its own right but doesn't teach you Celtic mandolin). #So, although the book does have its merits (like all his books, it's beautifully produced), I feel it is not suited as an introduction to Irish or Scottish traditional music on mandolin.

Martin
I agree that the playing on the CD (while COMPLETELY amazing, technically) does not sound one bit "Irish", but sounds way more classical. But I think that's the thing that I like about it. They took some old Irish tunes and kind of dressed them up a bit, in my view. I think there's a bit too much tremolo on the tunes though. I emailed back and forth with Allen Alexander and, while I cannot speak for him, his philosophy seems to be to take the road less traveled, and I think this book/CD is an example of that. There seems to be plenty of stuff out there for trad. Irish tunes, and he's turned his into something different.

The reason I normally recommend it is because the arrangements are completely playable for someone just learning (like I was a year ago). His books have taught me to play some amazing sounding pieces that make me sound way more advanced than I am.

I know this is blasphemy in certain circles, but trad. Irish music all sounds the same to me for the most part. I normally can't tell when one tune ends and the other one begins. Perhaps I just don't have the "ear" for it. Don't get me wrong, I love to hear it played well, but after a bit it all starts to sound the same. I think Allen's book mixes things up a bit if nothing else and provides some more flavor for the genre.

YMMV

[Jim MacDaniel]

I agree with both Martin and Caleb regarding the Alexander book: it will not prepare you for session play at all, but it can provide you some fun and satisfying solo pieces. (And the rest of his books are also a lot of fun in that regard, and quite literally will provide you a world full of music adapted for mandolin, and from Renaissance through current traditions.)

I will also echo everyone else's on-line recommendations linked above. (And thank you to Jacob for providing the O'Niell's link -- I formerly used sosyourmom.com as the gateway to that resource, but the sosyourmom site is no longer up.)

[brunello97]

I have an old (now completely unbound) copy of Robin Williamson's "English, Irish, etc. Fiddle Tunes" (he of Incredible String Band fame.)

Apparently it is still in print. I've learned a lot from it and his tune histories (real or imagined) and Scots wit commentary are worth getting the book for alone. I highly recommend it.

I agree with Martin viz AA's 'Celtic Music'. I think it is a beautiful selection of tunes, however, but you do have to provide your own 'Irish bounce.' (Something I've never been accused of lacking-even in the most inappropriate of situations, musical and otherwise.)

Mick

[SMHibbs]

My favorite source is the Portland Collection by Sue Songer and Clyde Curley, available at www.theportlandcollection.com. These two volumes are full of hundreds of tunes for contra dancing and contain most of the Celtic standards along with a well-chosen collection of old-time, Quebecios, and newer tunes. I haven't found anything else with a higher density of great tunes from a well-rounded set of genres. The books themselves are in a great format for players, too. Very readable, compact, and they lie flat on your music stand. SMH

[itinerate one]

I'm like a broken record here, but I think any of the Waltons 110 Irelands Best series is hard to beat (I think they're now produced by Mel Bay). The clincher for me is the included cds for each series. I do agree with SMHibbs of Markleeville, the Portland collection is great. Couldn't find a source for Teviot Bridge, there it was in Portland # 2.

[Jim MacDaniel]

If you really want printed books you can order some from Comhaltas (http://comhaltas.ie/shop/archive/C57/)If you browse on this site, you will find free recordings of almost all the tunes that are in the books as well as some sheet music.
I finally visited the Comhaltas site just recently, and I am glad I did. One thing that I really like about their books and CD's, is the fact that they are arranged in sets.

[Bren]

I would really recommend the Ho Ro Gheallaidh (http://www.amazon.com/Scottish-Fiddlers-Session-Tune-Fiddle/dp/1871931479/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203122732&sr=1-9) books by Anne Hughes and Christine Martin (vols 1 & 2 are combined in one edition now)
Although they are called "session tunes for Scottish fiddlers" they both contain a section of Irish tunes commonly played at Scottish sessions, so you get a very good introduction to a manageably small set of Irish tunes to learn that are actually played at sessions, as well as all the wonderful Scottish and Shetland tunes that go so well on mandolin.

There is no part of the UK & Ireland that is so fond of mandolin as Shetland and their music shouldn't be overlooked by aspiring Celtic/Nordic mandolinists

[mjpetrie]

The Five volume set of Irish Dance Music "Ceol Rince na hEireann" , Brendan Breathnach. I picked up the 5 volumes while in Ireland this summer. It's an impressive collection of tunes. I would recommend you check out "Custy's Traditional music store" in Ennis, County Clare. Their nice folks. Exchange rate...not so good.