Guitar Accompaniment for Whistle Reels/Airs /Hornpipes etc

Whistle
1

Hi all. I’m currently trying to work out some guitar chords to set my friend up to accompany me on some traditional whistle pieces, however am having no luck. Nothing sounds right!

Is anyone aware of a web-site that would provide matching guitar chords for accompanying traditional irish whistle tunes such as Cooleys Favourite, Pigeon at the Gate, McGoverns Reel, A Donegal Reel, the Reaper of Glanree etc (These are all tunes from LE McCullough “The Complete Irish Tin Whistle Tutor”)

Prima Facie, it seems that the logical choice of chords would be in the key of G or D, depending on which key the piece is in, but the chords just aren’t matching up. :confused:

What are your experiences with this??

2

Try JC’s ABC Tune Finder: http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind

When you’re looking down the list once you’ve searched for your tune, the ones that have speechmarks will have accompanying chords.
(In the band I play in, the guitarists have been appreciative of this website on more than one occasion!)

PS - Yeah, there’s a lot in G and D, but watch out for E dorians and stuff too.

3

and the double tonic ones! G+F, D+C, A+G mostly, and the first of each group can be either major or minor (i.e. Gmaj+Fmaj or Gmin+Fmaj) - the well-known 2-chord trick!

it’s good to have a bass drone, so if you play standard tuning, drop your 6th string to D for D+C tunes (and just play the C chord against a D drone - pipers do it, so why shouldn’t you?)

capo up for the other keys

good luck

b

4

http://www.intermix.freeuk.com/

has a good grasp. I recommend simply copying the first 20 or so patterns till you have a better understanding before trying to figure out your own.

5

I got made aware of this site just last week and added it to our link list then… http://www.martindardis.com/ which has quite a lyrics and chords collection of tunes on there.

There are more links that I collected over the years and are “whistle related” also with music sources here

Greetings
Brigitte

P.S. I still have not figured out how to hide the url behind just “here” or such… :blush:
P.P.S. thanks a lot for the tip :party: now I only hope I do not forget how to

6

I removed the square bracket ([) so you can see the text on the page. I sometimes have to fiddle with the text, so I have not got a perfect solution, but it works in general.

SQUARE_BRACKETurl=www.etc]words you want as link[/url]

HTH

7

Thanks for your replies.

I’ve just got back to this thread and read the last 4 posts, so I’ll check those sites out shortly - thanks.

This last week I’ve found http://www.thesession.org a gold mine for new tunes, with chord progressions

Cheers

[ Fixed URL. - Mod. ]

8

Err… thesession.com sends you to a domain for sale site. Could you have that wrong??

9

Yep, it’s dot org. Fixed.

10

Yeah, The Session’s good for tunes, but not so much if chords are what you’re after…

11

Whistler from Oz, have you looked into getting Band in a Box software?

It lets you create chords at any tempo to play along with using included actual instrument sound files (including various guitars). Works great. :slight_smile:

12

A common question, but maybe worth asking in the strings/other forums as well as here?

13

If you go to thesession.org, click on users, and then search for user name AlBrown, you will find a little essay I wrote on getting started at accompanying The Music. It won’t tell you exactly what chord to put where, but it should give you some of the information you need when starting out. And it does point out some other references that you will find valuable.
A word of caution, it gives you enough information to be dangerous in a session, new accompanists in that world should always approach the endeavor with a great deal of humility!
Enjoy!