Music for beginners

Irish Flute
1

Trying to learn from sheet music is all very well - but nothing gives you a feel for music like hearing it. Besides, I never learned to read music at school, just sang by ear.

So - suggestions, please, for a listening list of tunes for beginners to listen to.

2

Trying to learn from sheet music is all very well

NOT in Irish music :smiling_imp:

Seriously, you can get the basic structure of a tune you like from sheet, then write the name of the tune on youtube and look for good musicians that are playing it. Check the different versions, and try to adapt your playing to theirs. If the tune it’s not on youtube, choose a more popular one. If the musicians on youtube playing that tune are all beginner-low intermediate players, choose a less popular one :stuck_out_tongue:

Here’s a list of popular tunes: http://thesession.org/tunes/popular

3

So I’m not being lazy/thick in finding this hard?

Thanks for the link to the session tunes.

4

I like the clips by Steve Ducke:

http://www.tradschool.com/en/tunes/

Also on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF09F0BD463F5B8F5

And then there’s of course the podcast by Michael Clarkson:

http://irishflute.podbean.com/

5

Heh heh. We had fiddle player Jack Canny, brother of Paddy Canny, living in Canberra. I remember someone playing a Scottish tune at the session, and Jack commenting afterwards, completely innocently: “Very good, that Scottish music. Very good for the beginners.”

6

Here’s a great resource that I’ve used many times.

http://irishflute.podbean.com

7

I don’t know if this has been mentioned here before, but there’s also the On-Line Academy of Irish Music that might be of interest to beginners in places far from the nearest flute teacher. I haven’t investigated the flute side of things, other than to note there is a range of flute courses on offer, from “basic” up to “expert”. The first few lessons are free, and after that they’re pretty cheap. I’ve been trying out the concertina lessons, and found them very useful.

Start here: http://www.oaim.ie/flute-basics

Note lower down on that page there is a list of the tunes taught in that series.

Note also, in the column on the left, there is the full list of all the courses on offer, including six separate series on the flute. Clicking on any of those gives you a list of the tunes and issues they cover.

Come back after you’ve ripped through them!

Terry