Your favorite songs to play.

[Mutiny]

I've been wanting to learn some more traditional (irish) tunes and was wondering what every ones favorites to play are.
Mine would probably be:

The Red Haired Boy
Drowsy Maggie
Star Of The County Down
Flowers Of Edinburgh (guitar)

What've ya got?

[Keith Miller]

Hi,
I like,
Egans Polka
Donegal Lass
Lady MacKenzie of Coull
The shore Bar
and the Spey in Spate.
All learnt from Nigel Gatherers brilliant and free Tabs at:
users.argonet.co.uk/users/gatherer/music.html
Keith. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Mutiny]

Cool. Thanks for the link, I was messing around with Egans polka and it is definatly fun to play. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[jc2]

"the Blarney Pilgrim" is like a tongue twister for your fingers: great fun.
"smash the windows"........jig
"music in the glen"........reel
"Jim Boulton's Fancy"......hornpipe

[RolandTumble]

It varies, but right now:

The Boys of Malin
The Gravel Walks (these two make a great set...)
Petronella
The Bretches Full of Stitches

[John Ritchhart]

The Wind that Shakes the Barley is good. Also enjoy Miss McCloeds Reel. The Kesh Jig if you're into 6/8.

[kmmando]

FYI, MacLeod or McLeod is what you're after!
Kevin Macleod

[mancmando]

Some of my favourite celtic tunes....

Jennys Chickens (reel)
Give us a drink of water (slip jig)
The Coleraine jig
The Bunnys Hat (contemporary reel)
The shores of Loch Gowna (jig)
The concertina reel
The full rigged ship (reel)

have fun..... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[Jeff_Stallard]

My two favorites are "March of the King of Laois" and "Hewlett".

[John Ritchhart]

Sorry Kevin. No slur to your family name intended.

[Unseen122]

Morning Dew (Reel)
Merrily kiss the Quacker (Slide)
Lark in the Morning (Jig)
Waltz Version of The Star of the County Down
St. Anne's (Reel look for the Traditional Version)
The Sligo Fancy (Hornpipe)
Harvest Home (Hornpipe)

[Bluegrasstjej]

My favorites are:

The Otter's holt
King of the fairies
Haste to the wedding
Liverpool hornpipe
Fisher's hornpipe
Farewell to Ireland
Road to Sligo
Humors of Glendart

But I have new favorites all the time...

[CapnScarlett]

Merrily Kissed the Quaker
Fisher's Hornpipe
The Kesh Jig
Si Bheag, Si Mhor
O'Carolan's Draught
Planxty Irwin
The Maid Behind the Bar

[potatoe]

weavin way
irish polka
march of the king of leix
greenfields of america
shady grove
the skye boat song


any tips on how to play drowsy maggie well? do you play the hammer on/pull offs in the 8th and 12th measures?

[Mutiny]

Some of my new favorites:
Blackwood fiddle (reel)
Swallow's tail reel
maid behind the bar (reel)
Cuckoos nest (hornpipe)
Tripping up the stairs (jig)
kid on the mountan (slip jig)
Jerusalem Ridge (american)
Bryan O'lynn (jig)

[Aidan Crossey]

Yay ... Blackwood Fiddle by Brendan O'Leary, frequent poster at this place ... occasional visitor (from Scotland via Australia) to South East London where we've shared the occasional tune and cup that cheers (and inebriates!). Always nice to see a mate's tunes making it into someone else's repertoire. Nice one, mutiny and Bren!

[Mutiny]

yeah brendan, beautifull tune. I just wish I could right stuff like that.

[Jaws]

CapnScarlett, I like your choice of Planxty Irwin. My band played at a wedding recently, and when the bride and groom had their dance, that's what we played. What a great moment #http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

And my favorite tunes?

Fairmoye Lassies & Sporting Paddy.
and I'm working on a set off Turas that goes
Miller's Maggot
Calilope Jig
Out on the Ocean

[Miff Mole]

Teetotaller's (sp?) Reel
Fairy Hornpipe
Galway Hornpipe
Off To California (hornpipe)
Banish Misfortune (jig)
Star of Munster (reel)
Farewell to Whiskey (hornpipe?)
The Blackthorn Stick (jig)
Woodchopper's Reel...

...some of those might not be Irish...I can't always keep my fiddle tunes straight... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif

[Bren]

My list of favorite tunes is always changing, but you can guarantee that a lot of them can be found in the Ho-ro-gheallaidh (http://www.scotlandsmusic.com/session.htm) books and others on the Scotland's Music website. If you can read the dots, I can't recommend these books highly enough, along with the "Ceol na Fidhle" and ceilidh collections, if you want a selection of Scottish tunes that you might hear in sessions today.

Thanks to mutiny and Aidan for the kind comments about "The Blackwood Fiddle". I came to this board after asking Aidan to tab out some of my tunes, cos I was struggling with the tab format. I wanted my mates to try my tunes but they didn't read dots. Well, they never did but Aidan posted them up here so at least someone out there has tried it! I was also surprised and then delighted to find it on Alltabs.com (http://www.alltabs.com/mandolin_tabs.php?id=B), apparently tabbed and tidied up by Mike Stangeland, along with Aidan surely one of the unsung heroes of mandolin tab. Thanks Mike. Maybe I will get the chance to have a "cup of cheer" with Mike one day too. I might even be persuaded to pay for it if I can ... just ..find .. my .. wallet. Alltabs is another great resource.

There is a story behind the tune: it was written for a lump of Tasmanian blackwood I brought back from Australia to Scotland, so that Marshall Dow of Aberdeen could try it on a fiddle. But after it was written, Marshall made a mandolin instead. The story took another twist when a friend of mine in Perth, Australia bought the blackwood mandolin (c/w tune!) and recently moved with it to Pau, France. A very nice instrument it is too. The tune is (very) loosely based on "Waltzing Matilda" which was adapted from a Scottish tune originally.

[mandofiddle]

I've been really fond of Cherokee Shuffle lately. And I'm just learning Skagg's version of Amanda Jewel, so that's been getting played a lot.

I also like:
Jerusamlem Ridge
St. Anne's
Fisher's Hornpipe
Cuckoo's
Lonesome Fiddle

...and on and on. Too many fiddle tunes, not enough time.

[Unseen122]

Just realizing something these are all tunes.

[Mutiny]

Yes. I screwed up in the title.
I tend to mix the two up.

[Unseen122]

It happens I have done it before and so have countless others. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif