Irish Tunes?

[Bigtuna]

Anybody have any good suggestions for one or two to learn. Any tab would be great as well. There are just so many out there, I'm a little overwhelmed. I was able to pull off a rough version of Danny Boy last night, but I'm looking for a little something more intermediate. Thanks, have a happy St. Patrick's Day!

[woodwizard]

How about "Irish Washerwoman" ?

http://www.mandozine.com/music/searc...ableEdit+Files

and/or "Whiskey In A Jar" an old Irish folk tune ... Dawg & Garcia did a great version.

[ahollan]

If you need a couple of tunes for tonight, you might take a look at Nigel Gatherer's page. He has standard notation, tab and chords (on many of them). And, he occasionally contributes to this board.

[mrmando]

The great irony of "Danny Boy" is that the lyrics are by an Englishman, Frederick Weatherly, who never set foot in Ireland ...

[Bigtuna]

So, far I've got Farewell to Ireland, Molly's Reel, Rakes of Kildare, The Ships are Sailing, as well as Irish Washerwoman. After the Washerwoman suggestion, I found a ton of others at the mandozine page. This should keep me busy for know.

[Womandolin]

I hear Harvest Home and Rights of Man a lot.

[tango_grass]

The great irony of "Danny Boy" is that the lyrics are by an Englishman, Frederick Weatherly, who never set foot in Ireland ...

and from what I hear, the tune is Scottish...

[woodwizard]

Scottish ... Like... the Flowers of Edinburgh. Edinburgh's in Scotland. For a long time I thought this was an Irish tune until an Irish fellow I work with cleared that up for me.

[man dough nollij]

Scottish ... Like... the Flowers of Edinburgh. Edinburgh's in Scotland. For a long time I thought this was an Irish tune until an Irish fellow I work with cleared that up for me.

I spent St Pat's day with a hardcore Scotsman and a former Royal Army soldier from Belfast. A bit of a history lesson, and quite a different take on the holiday. Not to mention the quantity of green gin...

[Jill McAuley]

For some jigs, maybe "Out on the Ocean", as well as "Gerry's Beaver Hat", another jig. Or "The Eavesdropper" or "The Rambling Pitchfork". "The Humours of Ennistymon" is a nice jig as well. For some reels, "The Humours of Tulla" or "The Mountain Road"

Cheers,
Jill

[Jon Hall]

"The Swallowtail Jig" is a nice one in E minor. A great song, with vocals, is "The Star of the County Down".

[Eddie Sheehy]

I spent St Pat's day with a hardcore Scotsman and a former Royal Army soldier from Belfast. A bit of a history lesson, and quite a different take on the holiday. Not to mention the quantity of green gin...

And the original title is "The Londonderry Air"...

That's 3 strikes ... throw it out!

[Nigel Gatherer]

Here are some cracking Irish sets:

Reels:
Tom Billy's Reel/McMahon's (aka The Banshee)

Jigs:
Richard Brennan's Favourite/The Idle Road

Polkas:
St Mary's Polka/Church Street Polka

[BBarton]

Sooooo many tunes, so little time -- 'hard to know where to start!! If you're just starting out to learn Irish music, you might want to check out Mel Bay web site -- there's a series of lessons going back to '06 (all downloadable with audio) on beginning Irish music for mandolin, as well as a Mel Bay book on that out recently (authors: Carr & Gregory). If you just want tunes (and can read the music), books with Irish fiddle tunes will suit. Similarly, there are a few books out for Irish tenor banjo that include tab, many of which are readily adaptable to the mandolin.

[JeffD]

If you are picking tunes for a local Irish session - go to the session and see what is being played and popular. Bring a digital or cassette recorder and a scrap of paper and pencil.

If you are looking to get up to speed prior to a jam - check out http://www.thesession.org/

[Christian Flanagan]

Another great site for tunes is http://www.banjolin.co.uk. The link will take you to a search engine. You can seach for tunes by instrument type and origin (Irish, Scottish, American, etc.). All music comes in PDF tab format. Nice thing about it is that some tunes are grouped together in sets as they were played at one of their sessions. I know little about how tunes are grouped. Perhaps that's good discussion string to start.

[Jill McAuley]

One recommendation that comes to mind - do try to hear a version of the tune you're wanting to learn so that you get an idea of the feel of it. Nigel Gatherer's site has midi versions up, and Aidan Crossey's site www.paythereckoning.com has loads of mp3's of tunes as well. Youtube can be a decent resource for this as well, though you might have to weed thru some dodgy versions of Irish tunes put up by learners who most likely haven't actually heard the tune themselves yet - jigs played speed metal style with zero feel, emphasis in the wrong place or not there at all etc.

Cheers,
Jill

[chasray]

http://elderly.com/books/items/604-2.htm
This is one of my favorite songbooks. No tab, standard notation.

[JeffD]

One recommendation that comes to mind - do try to hear a version of the tune you're wanting to learn so that you get an idea of the feel of it.

Very important.

[BBarton]

Further to earlier note about the new Mel Bay book on Beginning Irish Mandolin, here's links to recent lesson site and the book site.

http://www.mandolinsessions.com/feb09/Gregory.html

and

http://www.melbay.com/product.asp?productid=21546BCD

PS - I have no vested interest in this, just want to pass it along as another resource FYI.

[tango_grass]

I've been working on Port na bPúcai. Brilliant Air, but very hard to give it just to what an uilleann piper can do with it!