the irish march from planxty’s words and music as played by o’flynn
i think i am going to have a go at this one having come across the notes at session.org but am feeling very apprehensive as it’s such a big tune and o’flynn’s rendering of it is masterful
… to learn by sheet music is not the straight way. Do you have a computer? What I often do is to record it with Windows-Audio-Recorder (=<XP) or Audacity (Win 7 and others) and slow down to half speed which is exactly one octave. In audacity you can slow down as you want and leave it in the pitch as it was.
The better notation on the session for this tune is the ammended version in the Comments section - amongst other things, putting the rests in, and having a better layout of the last 16 bars or so of the tune. The first version is OK as far as it goes, but it is not a pipery version.
Neither version gives all of Liam O’Flynn’s little tricks to lift it to what it is, a great interpretation of Willaim Byrd’s piece for verginal. Software to slow down the tune is a good idea, especialy for the killer last sixteen bars or so, to know what is going on.
No reason Not to take on and practice the tune. Those last sixteen bars will tax any moderate piper, but once under the fingers, ‘moderate’ that piper will no longer be. Take it slow, keep at it.
I am still practicing it myself, by the way, some ten years on from when I started. There is one bar of those ‘sixteen’ that still defy me.
Pwt
if you really want I could write it down for you. How can I send it? I would set up as sheet music, not ABC