I recently purchased the auto accompaniment program Band-in-a-Box and I’ve had a lot of fun and learned quite a few tunes playing with MIDI files. The great thing about MIDI files is that they’re easy, and fast, to download and transpose to any key you wish. A good solution for those of us with limited access to, or funds to buy, Irish music CDs.
Does any one have any links to Irish MIDI files that they’d like to share?
I think just one decent CD will be more helpful to you than MIDI files if you want to learn the actual tunes. And these days nobody has limited access—money is the only limiting factor.
MIDI files are useful to drill yourself on general musical skills tho, and for ear training. For example you can randomly assemble melodies, listen to them, try to play them and check your work. But this is drill work, and should not be taken as a way to learn the tunes themselves.
Caj