5 new songs

[John Bertotti]

Can anyone list five good tunes for a five year beginner, maybe a beginning intermediate would be a good level, to learn. I woudl like upbeat, maybe something like St.Anne's reel? Is that a good first reel? I would like these to be reels and jigs. I don't need no slow and sad tunes now. Thanks!


I want to learn the whole song, right now I know riffs and bits of songs but I really want to start a tune library of songs, complete songs. I figure 5 in 3 months would be a good start, heck three months might be to much time. I don't know. Thanks Bertotti

[Eddie Sheehy]

Join the Song-A-Week Social group and take your pick of hundreds of tunes with Tab, Notation, and Videos.

[John Bertotti]

Not a possibility around here considering I travel most of the week. Weekends are reserved for the family.

[Eddie Sheehy]

I have no idea how to interpret that...

[Perry]

How about these:

Red Haired Boy - A
Whiskey Before Breakfast - D
Billy in the Lowground - C
Blackberry Blossom - G
New Camptown Races - B

These tunes continue to keep me confounded year after year!

BTW if you want good jam tracks to play/learn/practice these tunes to check out the Brad Davis
"Flatpick Jam" series

[Jill McAuley]

Reels:
-Maudabawn Chapel
-Humours of Carrigaholt
-Tie the Bonnet
-The Log Cabin
-The Duke of Leinster
-The Launching of the Boat
-The Sailor on the Rock
-Tom Ward's Downfall

Jigs:
-Dermot Grogan's
-Paddy from Portlaw
-Humours of Ballyloughlin
-The Old Favourite
-Strike The Gay Harp
-Sonny Brogan's Jig (a.k.a Lad O'Beirne's)

Cheers,
Jill

[Perry]

oops my bad I now see you posted your question in the Celtic section

I say go with commmon ones so you can join in on a session one day..these seem to come up in lots of "top Irish tune" lists:

St. Anne's Reel
Drowsy Maggie
Wind that Shakes the Barley
Ships are Sailing
Kesh Jig
Maid Behind the Bar
Star of Munster

[John Bertotti]

Well that should do it. I am going to write down all of these in order from ones I have heard before to the ones i have nevr heard and go from there. Thanks Every one.

Jill I like your list and Perry I am partial to your last list, these will be fitting exercises form my Oldwave A oval! thanks again! Bertotti

[John Bertotti]

Eddie thanks for the heads up. I joined the group. I, at first didn't understand it was a social group here. I get little computer time and didn't realize the cafe did that now. I thought you ment a social group in town of which I doubt one exists for celtic music around here, and would never have time for because of my work and the fact I let my Master talk me into teching combat hapkido again when I am in town. I apologize for the misunderstanding and look forward to having time while traveling to work on the social groups tunes! Thanks.

[Aidan Crossey]

John...

Just my couple of thoughts.

Firstly, and this may seem a bit pedantic, for which apologies. I appreciate that in some parts of the US the words 'tune' and 'song' are interchangeable. However for trad musicians playing in the Irish, Scottish or other related idioms, the word 'song' refers to something rendered vocally, ie with lyrics. It may seem a very pedantic point to make, but I've seen some musicians get totally flustered when somebody talks about a song and then starts to play a tune. Ah well, you say pot-ay-to and I say pot-ah-to ...

A second thing to bear in mind is that in Irish, Scottish and related idioms, dance tunes (ie reels, jigs, hornpipes, mazurkas, polkas, barndances, quicksteps, strathspeys and so and so on) are rarely played individually. They are structured into sets and it's one of the paradoxes of the music that while you generally need to learn a tune 'by itself', after you've got a fair few under your belt, you'll begin to start thinking about how you can combine them to create 'lift' or contrast, to pick the set up or to level it off.

Another paradox of the music - and you'll come across this hundreds of times once you start playing in sessions! - is that the common tunes often get short shrift from fellow players. There are loads of reasons for this, but a little piece of advice would be to learn a few of these common tunes, but to view them as starting points for developing technique, feel, etc. And then apply some of those lessons to the more challenging tunes which you'll learn in years to come.

So - having been singularly unhelpful above :-), here are a few suggestions for sets of fairly simple tunes which might help you along the curve.

JIGS - Lark In The Morning/The Kesh. Two bedrock standards. 'The Lark' is a four parter, with loads of scope for variation and I've often said to people starting out that it's a great tune for understanding just what a jig is all about. The change into 'The Kesh' is quite dramatic (Irish dance music generally doesn't 'do' pyrotechnics, so this is about as dramatic as it gets!). The Kesh is derided by many 'seasoned' musos, but if you get the hard word, then just say ... 'If it's good enough for The Bothy Band, it's good enough for me!)

Want to try something a tad more challenging? (You will! Believe me...) Try An Rogaire Dubh/Na Ceannabhain Bhana ... Here the interest comes from the change from a Dmajor double jig into a modal E slip jig. Both, essentially, very easy tunes for the mando but they are absolute classics and you'll likely get a nod of approval from fellow musicians!

REELS - Hmmm... From my perspective, one of the reels which, as in the case of 'The Lark' provides a baseline introduction to the 'essence' of as reel is 'Rolling In The Ryegrass' (Dmaj). It has many of the features associated with grand reels, but in a compact and easily learnable format. Try following it with a reel in G such as "The Banshee" - a highly melodic tune but one which has few close relatives that I've come across - or a tune like "The Milliner's Daughter" which is very much a 'blueprint' sort of tune.

Just some suggestions. Hope they help.

[Steve L]

Aidan's back!!

[John Bertotti]

And what a return!

Thanks! for the response also. I gues I do not care if it is a tune or song. I may not sing in public but the cats have other rooms to run to when I do at home, the dog can howl.

Anyway I like fun tunes or songs or just plain beautiful songs. If it makes me tap a toe or think I'll probably like it. Now I do not fully comprehend the differences between jigs and reels. I just here music and never thought of it farther then that, my foray into theory is very basic but hopefuly grownign and I never focused on learning entire pieces just playing around for fun but it is time to move past that. I want to be able to knock out some music with others if the chance ever permits! There is a small celtic festival in town here once a year or so so there are some players floating around I just need to find them. Now I have heard a lot of Irish trad music and celtic but I have no clue what the names of the songs are and herin lie another problem, people tell e this or that about a song but without the knowledge of the name I have no clue till i go find it on the net, this is improving with time.

Again thanks every! I really appreciate it!

[Rob Gerety]

One thought I have - at first it might be good to learn a bunch of jigs and get them up to a decent speed. The reels can be more difficult to pick cleanly at speed.

Oh, and I agree on the tune v. song thing. Not excessively pedantic at all. I have a tough time keeping quiet when folks use the "song" when they mean "tune".

[jc2]

Aidan,

Do you think the set thing (playing tunes in sets) is really part of the idiom or a relatively new thing based mostly in the performance mode. When playing tunes FOR people it becomes necessary to change up just to maintain their interest, but when playing WITH people it seems more common to explore more deeply a single tune. Maybe not for as long as those old-timey folks do, but still more than "three times and on to the next".

[woodwizard]

Angeline the Baker
Cattle In The cane
Fisher's Hornpipe
Old French
Wood Chopper's Reel
Uncle Herman's Hornpipe
Smith's Reel
Swinging On A Gate

[JEStanek]

I can't be specific on tunes but, Mandozine.com has a section of TablEdit tunes in their Celtic section, You can search them by playing level (Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced or ALL) I used ALL for the link. You can then learn the song/tune/jig/reel by varying the BPM with the midi and use standard notation or TAB as you prefer. Their link to the free TablEdit is dead so go here if you need it.

Jamie

[CES]

I'm a beginner (still, no lessons, etc) who's been playing about 5 years, too. I've recently been trying to focus on learning the fretboard, theory, etc, so that I really understand what i'm doing when I play a song, and also to make me more versatile when (trying to) play with others. It's slow going to be sure, but I think it's going to be worth it.

Anyway, check out "Celtic Music for the Mandolin." It's a book/cd combo that so far seems to be a pretty good introduction. Some of the tunes are pretty simple but there are definitely some more challenging ones, and they have guitar accompaniment which can be nice as well. Lots of O'Carolan tunes, but some others thrown in as well. The cd is key, though, because hearing this stuff seems to be as critical to playing it "correctly" as being able to pick the notes.

No objection to the lists above, either. Good luck!

[Jill McAuley]

Aidan,

Do you think the set thing (playing tunes in sets) is really part of the idiom or a relatively new thing based mostly in the performance mode. When playing tunes FOR people it becomes necessary to change up just to maintain their interest, but when playing WITH people it seems more common to explore more deeply a single tune. Maybe not for as long as those old-timey folks do, but still more than "three times and on to the next".

Not Aidan here, but just thought I'd chime in - not sure what your criteria for "new" is here (i.e. recent times?/20th century?) but I have several CD compilations of trad recordings from the 1920's and all the tunes are played in sets. Also bear in mind that trad music was and is a dance music, so it's not as if "playing it for people" is a new or modern contrivance. I've never felt that tunes played in sets are done so to maintain listener's interest, but rather that it's just plain good craic to go from one tune into another.

Cheers,
Jill

[John Bertotti]

Don't know if this is good but I am picking a tune and playing it then trying to play it other places on the board. Kind of tuff at first but then after I find a few spots that work it seems to get a bit easier.

[woodwizard]

Good practice?... you bet! Anytime you play in a closed position I think it's a good workout for your fingers and that's a good thing.

[rgray]

A great source of Scottish, Shetland, Irish, American, and miscellaneous tunes in ABC, tab, and standard notation is Nigel Gatherer's website. The tabs also show standard notation. Quite a few of those tunes come with one or more set recommendations. I have started paying more attention to the set recommendations when picking tunes to learn. As a beginning solo player I am becoming more interested in developing my own personal sets for the very reasons cited by Aidan:

you'll begin to start thinking about how you can combine them to create 'lift' or contrast, to pick the set up or to level it off.

And also to demonstrate the varied sounds and intricacies of Celtic mandolin music to my audience which currently consists of my dog and sometimes my family members through thin walls. (Note I didn't say I demonstrate my talent.)

[Eddie Sheehy]

You coul ddo worse than invest in Don Grieser's new album "Hillbilly Chambermusic". I'm absolutely amazed by it.

[Aidan Crossey]

Interesting question above regarding the playing of sets as opposed to individual tunes. There is a degree of academic debate about when and where this first became established practice. However, the first recordings which I've listened to, some of which date from the early 1900s, show that playing tunes in sets was already well-established as the norm. Indeed, if one were to play a single tune at any of the sessions which I've regularly attended, fellow musicians would be a tad perplexed, to say the least. (Unless, of course, the tune was an air or, perhaps, a big multi-part tune such as The Gold Ring or The Bucks... there are exceptions to every rule!)

As regards the "three times round and change" rule, this doesn't always apply, particularly where musicians are reasonably accomplished and wish to take the tune for a bit of a walk, to explore some of its possibilities. In one of the local sessions which I attend, 4 times around would be fairly standard practice nowadays. And if someone is bringing a new tune to the session, then it might - just might - be appropriate to play it, say, half a dozen times. Particularly if someone has picked it up on the fly after several repetitions or if a player suddenly realises that he or she knows the tune after all (not uncommon!).

However, the danger of spending too much time in a particular session on a given tune is that other musicians start to become bored. There is a chance of appearing to be self-indulgent; a cardinal sin which the Irish Traditional Music community has very little time for.

However - in one's own home, or playing with a trusted musical accomplice - then there are no rules. In such settings the player can play a tune any number of times; indeed these can often shine a light on possibilities to vary the tune which would not have arisen within the musical confines of the standard open session...

[Rob Gerety]

Also, in typical contra dance setting each tune is often played many more than 3 times - in a big dance hall you have to fill 10 or 15 minutes. On the other hand I've heard very good bands play just one tune for an entire dance - with lots of improvisation and rhythmic variety here and there. It can work out ok. Of course a session is not a dance.

[Ryk Loske]

Thanks all for the great tune ideas.

I'ld like to get back to the original post and the idea of St Anne's Reel. As close to Quebec as i am we play it alot ... and it never fails to get the room lit up. Just a great tune.

I wouldn't put that one on a back burner.

Once again .... thanks for all the great tune ideas! AND information!!

Ryk