Building Session Repertoire

Whistle
1

I play whistle and flute and want to start building my tune repertoire.

I would like some help.

Please list three tunes that you like that would likely be in many session “play lists”. Please limit the tunes to Reels, Jigs (including Slip Jigs), and Hornpipes as those seem to me to be the most popular rhythms.

Important:

If your favorites are already mentioned don’t repeat them, just pick three new ones. I am hoping to come away with a nice list of good tunes to start with so I don’t have to consider the thousands of tunes in circulation.

Many thanks in advance,

John

2

The Otter’s Holt.
McMahon’s (aka The Banshee)
The Drunken Landlady.

They are all reels.

David

3

Jigs :

  • Jimmy Ward’s
  • Morrison’s jig

Reels :

  • Cooley’s reel
  • Congress reel
4

Jigs:

  • Merrily kissed the quaker('s wife)
  • I buried my wife and danced on top of her grave (that one’s fun!)
  • The Kesh (it’s a standard and nearly everyone knows it, sometimes you’ll be yelled at when you start it, but hey…)

Reels:

  • The gravel walk(s)

  • The star of Munster

  • Morning Dew


    …and some more (sorry, three tunes is simply not enough):

  • The trip to Pakistan (reel)

  • Out on the ocean (jig)

  • The kid on the mountain (slip jip)

  • The butterfly (slip jig)

  • Teetotaler’s reel

  • Mason’s Apron (reel, can be played in A and G, it’s fun)

  • Silver Spear (reel)

  • The golden keyboard (reel, tricky, but great on flute and whistle)

  • St. Anne’s reel

Those are widely played at german sessions. Another good hint is to check the “Tunebook” tab on thesession.org’s Member page.

Have fun!

5

Here are some that get frequent play here (built around a tune list Jennifer Felio recently put together):

Jigs & Jig Sets:
Banish Misfortune / Smash the Windows / Off She Goes
Father O’Flynn’s / Saddle the Pony / Tripping up the Stairs
Road to Lisdoonvarna / Morrison’s Jig
When the Cock Crows It is Day
Munster Buttermillk
The Lilting Banshee / Dusty Windowsills
Coach Road to Sligo / Rakes of Kildare / Ten Penny Bit
Sliabh Russell
Cliffs of Moehr
Kesh Jig
The Star Above the Garter
Gander at the Pratie Hole
Haste to the Wedding
Blarney Pilgrim
Out on the Ocean
Old Favourite
Atholl Highlanders

Reels and Reel Sets:
The Red Haired Boy
Merry Blacksmith / Swinging on a Gate
Silver Spear / Sally Gardens
Old Copperplate / Peeler’s Jacket
Cooley’s
The Traveller / High Reel
The Morning Star
The Maid Behind the Bar
Christmas Eve / The Gravel Walk
The Earl’s Chair
The Green Mountain
Rolling in the Ryegrass / The Wind that Shakes the Barley
Dunmore Lasses
Ships are Sailing
The Banshee
Miss Lyon’s Fancy
Drowsy Maggie

Hornpipes & Hornpipe Sets:
Off to California / Harvest Home / Boys of Blue Hill
The Rights of Man
The Galway
King of the Fairies
Soldier’s Joy

Polkas and Polka Sets:
Murroe / Maggie in the Woods
John Ryan’s / Dennis Murphy’s
Britches Full of Stitches
Egan’s
Salmon Tails

Slow Stuff:
Planxty Fanny Power
Planxty Hewlett
Ashokan Farewell
The South Wind


–James

6

Scarse O’Tatties - http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/95
Green Cockade - http://tinwhistler.com/sheet.aspx?code=green_cockade
Drunken Piper (leading tune for SC dance “Reel of 51st Highland Division”) - http://breqwas.net/img/drunken_piper.jpg (abc here - http://community.livejournal.com/shady_tunes/13694.html )

7

Check out the Comhaltas sets. Their blurb: “The Foinn Seisiún books and CDs were created in order to give players of Irish Traditional Music a good grounding in standard session sets. Though we’d never claim that this list of tunes and sets is authoritative, learning these will be enough for you to sit in on many sessions around the world.” Sounds like what you’re looking for.

http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_cd_volume_1/
http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_cd_volume_2/

You can buy the books and CDs, or you can listen for free off of their website.

BBC’s Virtual Session is also a good place to start:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/

I know this isn’t what you originally asked, but I hope it helps nonetheless.

Jennifer

8

Donnybrook Fair (jig)

Tobin’s Favorite (jig)

Rattlin Bog (polka)

9

This is currently one of my favorite jig sets:

Patsy Geary’s/Eddie Kelly’s #2/Lark on the Strand.
I picked up Patsy Geary’s from the Bothy Band 1975 album, Eddie Kelly’s #2 from a fiddle player I know and Lark on the Strand from the first Chieftains album.

One of my favorite reels is/will always be The Musical Priest; it’s a three part reel in B minor.

10

Here’s a list that comes highly recommended out there:
http://www.thesession.org/members/display/4763

11

Errr… did you mean to post a link to a list of Northumbrian tunes? Nothing against them (I’m particularly fond of Willy Taylor’s “Pearl Wedding Reel” myself, and 3/2 hornpipes are cool), but they’re not likely to be common session fodder in many places outside of Northumberland…

12

Thanks everyone !

Keep 'um coming.

…john

13

The Bucks of Oranmore
My Love is in America
The Battering Ram

14

Maybe you meant this - thesession’s Greatest Hits. Click on the Tunebook tab:

http://www.thesession.org/members/

15

I use this tune list:
http://www.irishtune.info/session/played.htm

It is still a pretty large list but it helps narrow things down.

16

Thanks again for everyone’s help !

I still need about 25 more tune suggestions of YOUR favorites that are session favorites too.

What 3 tunes get you pumped up when they are played at the session ?

Keep up the good work!

…john

17

Sean Ryan’s Polka

18

The Maids of Mt Kisco
The Maid Behind the Bar
Banish Misfortune

reel, reel, jig :slight_smile:

19

Three fantastic Ed Reavy tunes:
Maudabawn Chapel
Lad O’Beirne’s Hornpipe
Hunter’s House

And since Maudabawn Chapel is such a pain to play on whistle, I’ll throw in a bonus (non-Reavy) tune, The Laurel Tree.

20

Some lovely tunes have been mentioned…. I especially like The Maids of Mt Cisco, The Star of Munster and The Morning Dew (the latter two being tunes I learned last year at a whistle workshop taught by Damian Stenson of Teada), but they’ve already been mentioned.

My favorite tunes seem not always to be common, so take these with a grain of salt. (I mean, they ought to be common session tunes somewhere, right? :smiley: )

Some favorite tunes (that I know the names of) are:

~The Ships are Sailing – should be fairly common. I think it sounds quite nice on the whistle.

~Up Sligo (one of the jigs; I learned it as the golden stud jig) – not too sure about how common that one is, but I’ve been playing it almost every time I practice for a while now.

~Garrett Barry’s Jig – don’t know how common it is but I love to practice crans with it.

Anyway, good luck learning tunes!
~Steffi

“When you’ve got the music, you’ve got friends for life. ~ John Joe MacMahon”