IRISH TRADITIONAL MUSIC
A site dedicated to introducing you to the world of Irish traditional music and all the details on how to get involved.
TAKE A LOOK, THEN GET OFF THE WEB AND START PRACTICING!
Irish Music School
(Boston area, but contact CCE for local to you. Alternatively, post an inquiry on thesessions.org):
http://www.ccebostonmusicschool.org/
There’s one in Chicago, another in Seattle, one in SF, and one in the DC area (northern VA) that are pretty easy to find on the web. There must be others.
Best Place to Get Irish Flute, Whistle:
https://www.irishflutestore.com/newsite/index.php
My recommendation:
Whistle: Jerry Freeman Tweaked Mellow-Dog D ($36, great tone & response). This is by far the best inexpensive whistle on the market. Great musicians make the cheap $8 whistles (like the Feadog D and Generations) sound good, but if you are just starting off and want every advantage you can get, trust me, get the tweaked Mellow Dog.
If you are ready to move to the next level, I have two recommendations – The John Sindt whistle ($120) is really fantastic to play and its at a great price. Wonderful tone, it really takes the edge off those squeaky notes. It is a noticable improvement over lower cost models mentioned above. You can find him on the web if you search a little bit. I also own a Pat O’Riordan ($500), which has great tone with that real woody sound. Unfortunately, they are not made anymore. Every once in a while you see a used one show up for sale. Chris Abell also makes a fine sounding blackwood whistle. A friend of mine has one and really enjoys playing it.
Two old sayings come to mind - ”a good carpenter never complains about his tools” and “a good instrument does not make a good musician.” Keep these in mind as you start out. Eventually you’ll want to see what type of music you can make on another instrument. You’ll know when the time is right to start making some serious investments.
Flute: Arguably one of the best lower cost ($500) flutes is M&E’s Delrin model (see link on side). Just a fine sounding instrument without the $1000+ investment. What’s especially attractive is it’s fingering (the easier to handle Rudall and Rose style, as opposed to the “vulcan death grip” Pratten fingering pattern) and the consistent tone. I also own a Copley & Boegli blackwood keyless D which is just an excellent sounding flute (about $850) and a pleasure to play (large holes, a great tone). I noticed C&B also now make a lower cost Delrin model, which I trust will also sound great. If you’ve got more to spend, take a look at the McGee’s. Check out Terry McGee’s weblink in the sidebar -lots of interesting discussion on Irish flutes.
I probably don’t need to say this, but absolutely stay away from all those Pakistani flutes on ebay.
‘Doc’ at the IFS will set you up with the best flute or whistle for you and he’ll even loan you a few to try-before-you-buy. It’s great to do business with him.
On whether to start on the flute or whistle – the flute is a harder instrument to play and more expensive to purchase. The finger stretch and the embouchure (lip tightness/placement) are a little different that what you’re probably accustomed to. I’d start on the whistle, but if you have the cash, do both. It would be good to learn the tunes and some of the ornamentation on an easier instrument, but you want to start early on the flute as it will take longer to master. They both have different sounds and are both pleasing to play.
Music Books & CD’s (for learning):
Part of the tradition of irish music is to pass down tunes by ear*. It doesn’t hurt however to have at least one book to help you along on your path. Don’t jump in thinking you need to buy Larson’s book, any of the MelBay books, or any other instructor manual or CD/DVD you find on Amazon.com, you simply don’t need and they are a distraction from practicing.
Another part of the tradition is the blessing of having so many different variations of each tune in circulation. It’s imposssible and totally unacceptable to have one ‘standard’ version of anything, so no single music book exists that everyone turns to. With that said, the following two (of a three set series) come close. Layout is clean and easy to follow for any instrument, the versions seem to be the one’s pretty typically played, and generally speaking, it is the student book used at the Comhaltas music school (at least up here in Boston).
*Keep in mind also that Irish traditional music generally cannot be notated exactly the way it is meant to be played. Ornamentation is often best transfered through the oral tradition.
These 2 books are the best all-around for any session: (you just need book 1 and 2 to start, also get the CD’s)
http://comhaltas.ie/shop/archive/C57/
Here is an index I put together for the old version, not sure if it fits the new version (could be off by a page, happy to update if a problem). Note, you can tell if the tune is in bk1 or bk2 by the number in from of the CD reference.
Comment on the CD’s: great to use to help get a sense of how the tunes are played. Musicians are excellent. Only downside is they put the microphone right next to the accordian player and it drowns out any fiddle or flute sounds.
Slowing down tunes to help you learn – no problem using standard old window’s media player. Go to View/Enhancements/Play Speed Settings (or Play/Play Speed for default slow). If you have a newer Ipod, you can do it on that as well.
FREE SESSION TUNE BOOKS
Here’s a free session tune book: bstunebook
Here’s another: sessiontunes
Also, see the sheet music links on the side.
This website: http://irishflute.podbean.com/ is a great resource for hearing the flute version of most of the tunes. A fantastic job.
Another websites worth knowing about (this is one of the largest web communities for ITM): http://www.thesession.org/
And these whistle Tutorial websites:
(I’ll post some fiddle ones when I have a chance):
http://www.tinwhistler.blogspot.com/
http://whistlethis.com/
http://www.tradlessons.com/
http://www.whistletutor.com/
Youtube also has thousands of irish music videos, just type in the tune you what to learn and chances are you’ll find it.
Local Sessions
(only helps if in the Boston Area):
Just show up and start playing! Just be cool about mucking about in a tune, if you don’t know it, don’t play it or play softly – but do try. Half the reason for holding these sessions is to have fun and help you to get better.
Hibernian Hall (Fiddler’s Green Pub), Worcester, MA : 2nd and 4th Sunday, 4pm. (see schedule). Worth the trip. http://www.fiddlersgreenworcester.com/events2.html
Green Brier, Brighton, MA. Every Monday night, slow session starts at 7pm. Always a good time. http://www.greenbriarpub.com/greenbriarpub/index.htm
John Stone’s Inn, Ashland, MA, Tuesday, 8pm (not a very inclusionary session) http://www.stonespublichouse.com/music.htm
The Skellig, Waltham, MA, Tuesday, 8pm (usually top tier players) http://www.theskellig.com/music.html
The Bull Run, Shirley, MA (formerly the Groton Session, also formerly the one recently held at J.P. O’Hanlon in Ayer), Wednesday, slow session starts at 6:45pm. http://www.thegrotonsession.com/index.html
Mulligan’s Taverne on the Green, Westborough Country Club, Westboro, MA: Thursday at 8pm. Another good one, but they tend to play a bit faster. http://www.westboroughsession.com/
Irish Cultural Center, Canton, MA, Friday, 7pm. This is the best learning session in the area. Sheet music allowed.
http://www.irishculture.org/about-us/icc-pub/
Suggested tunes to prepare for your first few sessions:
The links to the right to the Green Briar, Groton, and Westboro sessions have plenty of information on what you’ll likely hear getting played. Here’s more of a summary:
Jigs (these are very easy): Kesh Jig, Lark in the Morning, Road to Lisdoonvarna, Saddle the Pony
Hornpipes (these two are very easy): Off to California, Dingle’s Regatta
Reels: Maid Behind the Bar, Maid on the Green, Cup of Tea, Cooley’s Reel, Sheehen Reel, Wise Maid, St. Anne’s
Slip Jigs (this are a bit harder): Kid on the Mountain, The Butterfly
The Nothern Virginia session group posts a playlist that looks pretty universal: http://www.novasession.org/playlist.txt
More to come…
