I just put up a couple of new pages at my website. The first one is “My Disney Connection”, and the second one is an online tunebook of twenty tunes with mp3 audio and sheet music. I originally had these tunes as part of an instructional CD-ROM, but now I have them available at my website (see the www link below).
Commentary for Tunebook
I have selected 20 tunes for this tunebook. Not all of them are Irish tunes, but they are all tunes that I have played in a contra dance band (playing second fiddle and guitar) and tunes that I like. I think that they are all quite suitable for the Irish or simple-system flute. I tried to choose a fairly even sampling of reels, hornpipes, jigs, and waltzes and airs. Originally I had planned to play each tune on the Irish flute, but I opted, instead, to record the melody of the tune in step time with a midi piano voice and do the accompaniment with guitar in real time. This freed me from having to be so precise with my playing (I am out of practice), and with recording in midi step time I had the freedom to record at my leisure, print sheet music, and alter the tempo of the piece after it had been recorded. So I don’t think of the tunes in the tunebook as performance pieces, but as learning pieces in slow tempo for the beginner to learn the tunes and to play along with the music. It is easy to minimize your audio player and follow/play the tunes as you are viewing the sheet music. A fingering chart, easily printed, is provided on a separate page. Here is a list of the tunes in the tunebook.
Westfork Girls (Old-time reel)
Rose Tree (Traditional Irish reel)
Mari’s Wedding (Scottish reel)
Farewell to Whiskey (Traditional Irish reel)
Margaret’s Waltz (Modern waltz by Pat Shaw)
Young Jane (Old-time waltz)
Danny Boy (Irish folk song)
Si Bheag Si Mhor (Irish waltz by Turlough O’Carolan)
Star of County Down (Traditional Irish waltz)
Westphalia Waltz (Old-time, New England)
Swallow Tail Jig (Traditional Irish Jig)
Little Burnt Potato (New England jig, dance tune)
Lanigan’s Ball (Traditional Irish jig)
Off She Goes (Traditional Irish jig)
Road to Lisdoonvarna (Traditional Irish jig)
The Kesh Jig (Traditional Irish jig)
Boys of Bluehill (Hornpipe, British Isles)
Rights of Man (Traditional Irish hornpipe)
Harvest Home (Hornpipe, British Isles, New England)
Jacky Tar (Traditional Irish hornpipe)
