Okay, I’ve got my mandolin sounding and playing well now, and I’m scraping the rust off the (very few) Bluegrass/Old time tunes I know, so it’s time to start learning some IrTrad tunes on the mando. I see there’s a ton of good Jig and Reel Tab over at the Cafe, and now I just need some suggestions on where to start, since I assume a tune that’s easy on the flute or whistle, might not be the easiest on a stringed instrument.
So, anyone care to share their favorite “EASY IrTrad tunes for mando” lists?
I like the hornpipes… “Off to California”, “Boys of Bluehill”, “Liverpool Hornpipe” come to mind. Others: Spancil Hill, The Leaving of Liverpool, Star of the County Down, South Wind, Si Beag Si Mor…temolos in the right places does wonders. Don’t know if these fit the bill as far as ITM but they’re what I have fun with.
Life is good. I’m staying busy, trying to do music when and where I can. A friend from Omaha and I are getting together semi regularly to play music and that’s helping my playing by leaps and bounds.
Getting ready for a trip to Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon for May. Thank goodness for whistles that are light and portable.
If you make it through the midwest anytime, let me know. I’m somewhere between Omaha, Des Moines, and Kansas City.
Glad to hear you’ve got a playing buddy, that certainly helps.
Ahh, the Grand Canyon, cool! I’ve still never been, I hope you’ll share some pictures after your trip.
I’d like to say I might by in your neck of the woods some time soon, but it seems unlikely for now. Never the less, we’re bound to catch up in person one of these days!
Actually alot of whistle tunes can be played quite easily on mandolin (and fiddle) The trick I guess would be teaching yourself to read music for the mandolin but if you could do it for the whistle the mando shouldn’t be too hard. A good book that is intended for multi-instrumentalists is ‘121 Favorite Irish session Tunes’ by L.E. McCullough–it’s thru Homespun Tapes but you can probably get it cheaper thru amazon or try froogling it for a lower price. It comes with 4 cds that have all the tunes.
Any of the Irish session books I think are meant to be used this way–there’s another published by Walton’s called ‘Ireland’s best Session Tunes’ This one has 2 cds with all 110 tunes. If you can’t find it try Harp and Dragon online store.
I’m coming to the party late on this one, but I try to start students off on jigs. One big reason is to help them overcome any ingrained Bluegrass habits and elminate “square” playing-- the kind of playing that makes experienced players cringe at just the sight of a new mandolin player at a session.
Scatter the Mud, Connachtman’s Rambles, Mug of Brown Ale, Fraher’s-- these are the kinds of tunes I like to start folks on. They’re not hard to play, suit the mandolin well, and “sound Irish”. By the time a new player has these down he’ll be accustomed to the down-up-down picking pattern and if he’s a student of mine, will understand a jig’s not “duh-duh-duh, duh-duh-duh”. Morrison’s is another good one if a player’s not brand new to the instrument and can handle the double stop E-B.
Lots of folks gravitate toward polkas at first because they appear to be simpler tunes. I try to steer them away from that for a couple of reasons-- for one thing polkas are definitely fiddle/box turf and mando’s sort of an also-ran there (though many would say mando is an also-ran in ITM anyway), but also because most folks in my neck of the woods really don’t understand what’ supposed to be going on rhythmically with polkas. They’re not dumb, they’ve just never been around set dancers. So they’ll have the notes right, but their polkas sound either like some kind of hoe-down or something off a cartoon!
Hey mon, I thought you were already playing triplets on the Silver Spear!
Polkas are easy on mando…and there’s a ton of them.
Here’s some fun ones on mando (I didn’t say they were all easy!) - Julia Delaney’s (Dm), Silver Spire (D), Abbey Reel (Em), The Whistler D), Farewell to Erin (A), Mick Finn’s (D), The Congress Reel (Am), Far From Home (D), Martin Wynn’s (Bm), The Earl’s Chair (Bm), Maid Behind the Bar (D), Ships are Sailing (Bm), Star of Munster (Am), Rakish Paddy (D), Lark in the Morning (D), The Bucks of Oranmore (D), Flogging Reel (G), Big John McNeill’s (A), Navvy on the Line (D), The Musical Priest (Bm), Denny Delany’s (D), Bull at the Wagon (A), Sweeny’s Polka (A), Jackie Coleman’s Reel (D), Connor Dunn’s (F), Old Hag You Have Killed Me (D), Pigeon on the Gate (Em), Cooly’s Reel (Em), Mason’s Apron (A), High Reel (A), Wash’s HP (A), Old Torn Petticoat HP(Am), 42$ Check (D).
For a couple great old timey tunes, try the Woodchoppers Reel or Miller’s Reel. They fit the mando quite well. Music for a Found Harmonium fits pretty well too.
Lorenzo, check out the date when this thread was started, back when I first got my mando about 6 weeks ago. I’m a MASTER of the instrument now,
Actually, I’m surprised no one gave the obvious answer “Start with the tunes you already know on another instrument”, which does, I’m finding make things easier - having the tune well in my head makes learning it much easier, even if the “fingerings” are more difficult than for tunes I don’t yet know. At least that’s my experience so far, as one who has mastered the instrument
P.S. I never went to check out that old Gibby Lorenzo, it might have been too tempting, and it’s time for me to focus on tooling up for flute/whistle making, so I’m more likely to be selling instruments I own, rather than buying new ones now.
Aha! I never thought to look at the post date! Hey, I thought maybe you knew them all! Still, you’re doing amazingly well in just a few short weeks.
There are some tunes that just seem made for mando…and that makes them a lot of fun. Most of the fiddle tunes work great. It’s surprising how many tunes seem to be built around fiddle/mando fingering. The Silver Spear (the first half), I think the middle finger can stay down throughout…except the last little lick. The Mason Apron seems built around the first two fingers (mostly) which makes it a easy natural feeling mando tune.
Another cool mando trick, for droney type pipe tunes, is to tune the high E string down to D and the low G string up to A for an ADAD tuning. For tunes like The Old Bush or the Bucks of Oranmore…it takes all the work out of it, plus you can hit all the open strings (cross-picking) for your own droney accompaniment while playing the melody.
(tuning G up to A not recommended if your instrument has heavy guage strings)
cross tunings are also a good excuse for MAS… i need another mandolin to keep in ADAD tuning… and then another for the “Get Up John” tuning… one for Black Mtn tuning… and then…
