Looking for some help....

[Medley12]

48yo, but fairly new to the mandolin. Loving it! Been learning a lot of traditional/old time songs that I was already familiar with. Pretty much learning with tab and some audio.

I absolutely love some Celtic/Irish music, and want to build a repertoire. The problem is, even though I love it, I don’t really know how to identify it.
Ex: I love Cooleys Reel and Swallowtail jig, but only because I happened to find them on mandolessons. I would have never known them otherwise, wouldn’t have known the names, and would have been lost looking at the tab without hearing them.

I KNEW I wanted to learn Red Haired Boy, Whiskey Before Breakfast, Cherokee Shuffle, etc. because I knew what those were.

My question, is what would be the best way to get going with Celtic/Irish tunes? The best way to obtain the tabs, and be able to hear them as well. Books used to come with cd’s and maybe even dvds, and that was great. Seems like that is hard to find anymore....

Any ideas for me?

[Aidan Crossey]

That's quite a question and for some of us who grew up with this music or who came to it many years ago, it's fairly difficult to answer.

I'd say the first port of call would be to immerse yourself in listening. Go through the spectrum from scratchy old 78s which have been digitised through to hyper-produced sleek new recordings. Solo players to groups. Tunes to songs. Different regional styles. Listening hard and listening a lot will help you identify the tunes and the styles which appeal to you, which give you goose bumps, which have you reaching for pen and paper so you can add them to your "must learn" list.

We all have our favourite musicians and favourite albums and it's a folly to attempt to list some sort of "canon" that you *must* listen to. But it's never been easier to find traditional Irish music than nowadays. Bandcamp, Soundcloud, YouTube are literally crammed floor-to-ceiling with fantastic Irish music... I've been attempting to pull together some recommended listening via my website. There's very little method to the way in which I've compiled the list. If I hear something and it moves me and I think it's worth sharing, then I save the link. Have a look. There's one list devoted to mandolin and other GDAE-tuned instruments and another which features tunes played on other instruments (and a few songs as well for good measure). https://theirishmandolin.com/recommended-listening/

I'm pleased you found Baron's MandoLessons site. It's a tremendous resource and I really like Baron's take on Irish traditional tunes. His mandolin style is clearly very heavily influenced by old-time playing. The pace at which he plays his "fast" versions of tunes is, on the whole, quite laid back and accessible. (A confession. In the absence of sessions I often find myself playing along to tunes at Baron's site. Once I've got the groove of his take on a particular tune, it's quite good crack to play along to the "guitar only" versions...)

Other resources which you might find useful are Jill McAuley's excellent videos on YouTube where she plays mandolin and/or banjo versions of a rake of tunes. Some pretty much session standards, others which are a little more rarely heard. A few hours spent trawling through Jill's YouTube channel will surely reap rewards. Check out https://www.youtube.com/c/bikemuttmando/featured

You might also get some value from my YouTube channel where I post sheet music, tab and sound files for Irish tunes. See link in my signature below. The YouTube channel is essentially an echo of the "learn some tunes" page at my website - link also in my signature. Which may be a more useful resource for you since it lists tunes alphabetically by tune type (jigs, reels, slip jigs, etc)...

Hope some of this helps. I'm sure others will offer their perspective shortly. In the meantime, welcome to a fascinating strand of music which I'm sure you'll enjoy immensely as you start to become increasingly involved.

Aidan

[Jill McAuley]

For another learning by ear resource check out the Wellington Sessions archive: https://wellington.session.nz/tunes_archive/ Loads of tunes there, some played solo by a variety of instruments (fiddle/mandolin/tenor banjo/flute) and some played in session settings - there's a handy feature that allows you to slow the tunes down easily too.

[Paul Cowham]

Are there any Irish sessions or similar close to where you live? I appreciate that at the current time, this is a fairly stupid question to ask, as collective music making has really suffered during the pandemic, but please bear with me!

There are a fairly small number of tunes that are very common in ITM. In my experience however, a particular session can often have some tunes which are commonly played at that session but less commonly played elsewhere - maybe a strong player at the session introduced them. I say this, as it may be worth focusing on the tunes that are commonly played at your local session (once it begins again). That way you have more chance and motivation to be able to join in, which for me at least, is an important aspect of the music. People at the session can probably let you know the names or you could also record a session. If you have no desire to join a session then feel free to disregard this advice!

Good luck and enjoy :)

[Medley12]

Thank you, all 3 of you, for your replies. I really appreciate it. I’m going to look into the resources mentioned here.

I look forward to being more active here, just need to get rolling a little. Will help when my new mandolin shows up....

I think I remember seeing a kind of Celtic Mandolin Encyclopedia. Is that any good?

[Jim Garber]

John Whelan is an excellent ITM button box guy and he hosts a free (tip jar donatable) weekly slow session (http://johnwhelanmusic.com/slow-session/) on Zoom on Wednesdays. He is in the Pacific NW US for time zone. Once you get on his email list he send out the tune list he picks from. All the sessions are recorded and you can download the audio for learning from the following week.

[JEStanek]

Welcome to the Cafe!

We have a set of tunes that you can download and use with TablEdit on a PC. You can hear them as well as see the notaion and the Tab.

https://www.mandolincafe.com/te/

Jamie