I only know about twenty tunes, so I don’t have a ton of possibilities for making sets. But does anyone have a link to a list of sets? or is there a general rule for putting two tunes together that sound good together?
I think this must be a question a lot of learners want to know the answer to. I’ve certainly seen it plenty of times. I also think it’s an interesting question. It’s almost impossible to answer.
I’ve been playing almost all my life, and I’m coming up to 54. I keep learning new things about set-building. Sometimes, I like to put tunes together because they are contrasting. Sometimes I like to put tunes together because, although they may be in different keys, they are otherwise similar in some way. Sometimes I like to put tunes together which are in the same key but are otherwise dissimilar, and sometimes I like to put tunes together which are in the same key and are also similar to each other.
In a session, I very often like to start a tune and just go into whatever I fancy as the next tune in the set, and sometimes it’s fun to pass off that decision to another player, by a gesture or meaningful look.
Sometimes you find out that a favourite tune, which you may have been playing for years, is, in some geographical area or other, ‘always’ played with some other tune. This happened to me just last month in Ennis, when Michael Kelleher told me that Eileen Curran was followed by The Fair of Ballinasloe. But I had been taught Eileen Curran many years before by John Kelly, who put it with Lord McDonald’s. Both combinations work really well.
My point in all this being that you never stop learning about this art of which tunes go with which. But I’m not sure I can explain it.
However, if you want at least some ready-made sets, try the Foinn Seisiún series of recordings over at the Comhaltas website.
The sets on the first three CDs are listed in these links:
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/1227
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/1587
http://www.thesession.org/recordings/display/2998
If you ask me, the most gratifying thing is to put your own sets together to find out what sounds good together and what doesn’t. But as a starter the Foinn Seisiun CDs/books (the links in david_h’s post) are a good place to start to get a feel for how sets are put together.
You could do much worse than learn from those (and unfortunately, lots of people do). Even if you use the Foinn Ceol sets as a starting point and then start swapping out tunes for others in the same keys, you’ll learn what makes the arc of a good set, and that’s so important. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m often more enthused by a well-assembled set than I am by its individual tunes!
Ossian also publishes some great books of tunes in sets, and with nice settings, too. I believe at least the Orange Book has been recorded by Sheila Garry and Brid Cranitch, and may even be on iTunes. There are also Red, Green and Blue Books of tunes; the Red Book is edited by Matt Cranitch and the Green Book by Geraldine Cotter. Me, I think everyone should have these; they’re really helpful for improving your set-building acumen:
http://www.ossianusa.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ossian&Product_Code=00683-BK
Well I guess its unfortunate if you know hundreds of great tunes that the experienced players like to play. But if one only knows a couple of dozen tunes its fortunate if lots of people know them and, in an appropriate context, play them.
I think that’s, essentially, what Cathy was saying, David … re-read it …
Well, yes, I sort of thought that, and understood the positive tone of Cathy’s post. It just seemed a little cryptic.
Also my ears tell me that many of the ‘well known’ tunes get played rather more than might be expected from what one reads of the forums. (e.g. a recently mentioned youtube clip from Drumshanbo 
) [edit to make reference to link more cryptic…]
dem Cats can be pretty tricky
Ah, now, if you’re talking about Neilidh and me … well, neither of us know more than about 5 tunes …
Thank you for the ideas. I’m listing below the tunes I know well. I’d be open to suggestions on how a few of them go to go together to make sets, meanwhile, I’ll be trying to try out your ideas.
Maid behind the bar
Sligo maid
Earls chair
Rolling in the rye grass
Cup of tea
out on the ocean
Merrily kiss the Quakers wife
kesh jig
Miss mcleods reel
Garret barrys jig
pipe on hob
Lark in the morning
Cliffs of Moher
Fermoy Lasses
Banish Misfortune Jig
Dunmore Lassies
Harvest home
Rights of man
Off to California
The butterfly
Fig for a kiss
Kid on the mountain
Morrisons jig
Sent from my iPod
Sent from my iPod
Which Pipe on the Hob? I’m asking because, although I’d normally put each of them with different tunes, the two actually do go together reasonably well.
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/81
Hopefully this link works. Just hit the “sheetmusic” tab on the page.
OK. Try this one then:
Some people say there are only 5 tunes anyway. Everything else is just variations. 
And then there’s the John Skelton theory: every tune can be turned into Cregg’s Pipes (don’t ask me how, but the bit of demonstration he gave was pretty funny).
BTW david, I wasn’t making any judgment on individual tunes, popular or otherwise, or on anyone’s learning style. I was saying that the Foinn Ceol books are good templates for putting sets together; I think they’re also very reliable sources for tune settings. As one who hardly lives in Irish Music Central, I’ve certainly found them to be better options than some other avenues (including people who maybe sort of half-remember a tune or perhaps have some extrapolated Sharon Shannon setting); the settings there seem to hew more closely to a lot of the recordings I listen to (and as anyone who knows me can attest, I’ve got a pretty deep listening library).
Sorry if I confused anyone.
You may be surprised as you increase your repertoire how many sets make themselves; you’ll be playing along and it will just come to you. Something in your brain will click and you’ll associate the tune you’re playing with something else and you’ll launch into it spontaneously 
One typically effective device for putting sets together is going major / minor / major, though I’m equally fond of keeping it all major or minor… really, almost anything goes if you do the transitions well and leave the last one with a sense of resolution.
Looking at your list, Rolling in the Ryegrass is one of those reels that I never have managed to keep in a specific set. I tend to keep in mind to throw spontaneously on the end of a set of reels to take it home when the group is in good form - one of those energetic ones that many folks know and can play confidently (and it can bear repeating even four or five times if you feel it).
before I venture into any tuppence worth suggestions, would you please specify which version of sligo maid you play?
For instance,
*the one I like to hear is gapped with no C in it at all
*then there is an ungapped one notated in G signature and correctly described as A Dorian
- and then there is an A Mixolydian one with all C# (but which has been notated in G key signature with all the Cs being shown as accidental C# and then wrongly described as A Dorian when in it would be more logical and user friendly to notate it D key and avoid the redundant accidentals)
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/399
Dear Talasiga,
I’ve been playing the version of Sligo Maid in the link above. By the way, you mentioned gapped and ungapped…what does that mean?
That version has the following notes from A:
A B C# D E F# G then octave etc
Thats all seven notes of a diatonic scale.
The version I like, which, IMO, is less “baroquish” and more earthy,
has these notes
A B (no C or C#) D E F# G etc.
Thats only six of the seven notes of a diatonic scale.
Therefore from a full scale perspective it is a scale with a “gap” in it.
There are umpteen things we could talk on about gapped scales but I won’t get into that just now.
I hope you find this explanation helpful and thank you for clarifying which version you play.
The other Pipe on the Hob would be really nice after Garrett Barry’s. Anyway, here’s a crack at a few off the top of my head … I used the standard three-tune number, but some of the longer tunes might be nicer in two-tune sets. A general rule of thumb I use is to look at whatever note the first tune ends on and then pick the next tune based on whether the last note of the first tune would work in a chord with the first note of the next tune. i.e., if I had a tune in Em that ended on E, I would think about an Am or A major tune next; if I had a tune that ended on D I might look at a tune in D, G, Bm, or Dmix, etc. I also like stuff that goes up a half-step, say, from a D tune to an Em tune or a G to an Am tune. These are just a few ideas – I took the liberty of mixing up tune types (I think it’s good for you in practice if not in session – unless there’s discussion first), and apologies about the redundancies; apparently I have quite a fondness for the Sligo Maid as a set-ender, but it’s in a good useful key and has great lift
Garrett Barry’s_Banish Misfortune_Lark in the Morning (aka the Stamina Set)
Rights of Man_Kid on the Mountain_Quaker’s Wife
Harvest Home_Rolling in the Ryegrass_ Sligo Maid
Rolling in the Ryegrass_Earl’s Chair_Sligo Maid
Fermoy_Sligo Maid_Rolling in the Ryegrass
Out on the Ocean_Kesh_Morrison’s (or swap Kesh & Morrisons if you want a happy ending)
Banish Misfortune_Out on the Ocean
MBTB_Fermoy Lasses_Miss McCleod’s_Sligo Maid
MBTB_Dunmore Lasses_Sligo Maid
Fig_Kid_Quaker’s Wife
Harvest Home_Off to California
Cup of Tea_Kid on the Mountain_Garrett Barry’s
Cup of Tea_Earl’s Chair_Rolling in the Ryegrass
Rolling in the Ryegrass_Cup of Tea_MBTB
OK, there you go. I think the biggest thing to keep in mind when you’re building sets is what kind of mood you want to create – i.e., what kind of journey you want to go on, and especially where you want to leave the listener. Happy? Pondering? Moved by beauty? Standing on a barstool flashing the “horns”? (admittedly the last one’s a little ambitious for most of us)
Have fun and think of the tunes like colors. What do you think would make a good picture?
c.
(BTW, you might want to look into learning a nice G major slip jig like Little Fair Cannavans or Give Us A Drink or something to brighten up your Eminor slip jig collection)