Please give some light on playing a guitar in ITM. I play the pipes and am not a guitar player but have friends
that want to play along. Many sit there an struggle never quite making it into the tune.
I have heard that:
ITM is not played by chords like country or many American folks songs.
That if a guitar player asked “What key is it in”, they are not ready to play the tune!
Please give some helpful advise I can pass along to my guitar friends.
Thanks… Ed
There are a couple of issues here: familiarity, and style.
Let’s take style first. There are many ways to skin that cat, but if they want to do backup in a fashion that stylistically fits the music, they have to start traditionally, really, before they can start breaking the “no jazz” rule and get away with it. The only way to do that is to find sources to listen to, and then actually listen to and learn from what the great players are doing. Ged Foley, Dáithí Sproule, the late Mícheál Ó Domhnaill, and Arty McGlynn are good and well-known starts. There’s a lot out there to draw inspiration from.
Next is familiarity. Arguably this should actually be first. You can’t back up what you don’t know. Ask any newcomer or one who doesn’t really listen to the tunes to back up a simple (by Irish standards) tune like The Black Rogue, and watch ‘em put up the white flag; or if they don’t do that and insist anyway on giving it the ol’ college try, their getting it right will be nothing short of a miracle. It does happen, but almost never. In many cases, unless they’ve heard and absorbed how those who know what they’re doing color such tunes, they probably just won’t get it. I had one session of working with a jazz guitarist, a brilliant man of seriously enviable ability who was convinced he was equal to the task, and he fell flat on his ass and he knew it, and had the grace to give up, realising he would have to buckle down and immerse himself in this genre, for as long or short as that might take, to get it right. He hadn’t the time, because he hadn’t that much interest in it for the additional work he’d have to do, and he wasn’t bitten by the ITM bug himself. So the point of this is that just because your skills are such that you can play the thing backward in your sleep, it doesn’t mean you are good to go.
Once you’re familiar enough - and this will not happen overnight - backup on the fly is a possibility, but without listening? Nuh-uh. It ain’t gonna happen. In ITM the melody rules, after all, and anyone who thinks they can get around that is already out of the game. If your guitarist friends are serious about this, they will have to invest time and active listening. There’s no other way. If there were an easier out, I’d hand it over on a silver platter, believe me. So, sorry if it sounds daunting - I hope not - but that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it. I wish them enthusiasm, a good ear, and the best of luck. 
Hi Denny
Dennis Cahill is nice, but don’t forget the Australian version of accompaniment 
Vinnie Kilduff, with Steve Cooney on guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJheHR0y-Uw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUTwJSzVqAc
Or how I first saw him live in the early 90s - the man with the swiss chese guitar
Seamus Begley and Steve Cooney
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiVSvvYfMU8
David
that Willie feller has one like that!