Does someone play ITM on piano?
I’ve been learning the piano (ok, keyboard) for about 3.5 months. I’m still self taught.
Today it was the first time that I tried to play something traditional and here are the results (forgive my mistakes, after 20 takes my fingers were sore 
)
http://www.box.net/shared/vjyuzb39xq
Cheers,
Martin
Nice … You sound like Michael Coleman’s accompanist! 
Seriously, I don’t think there’s been much use of piano as a melody instrument in Irish dance music that way. Pianist Pádraic O’Reilly has made several CDs, the first of which - [u]Down the Ivory Stairs[/u] - I have and like very much. Another is my sometime playing partner [u]Barbara Magone[/u], who is equally at home in Irish and Cape Breton music, influenced by Scottish piano style. She has recorded with Alasdair Fraser, Gearoid Ó hAllmhuráin and others.
Once at a CTL concert here Joanie and the girls were late in arriving. So Barbara leapt on stage, commandeered a piano, and played a furious set of jigs and reels for 20 minutes until the Ladies showed up. Very effective.
It seems to me that the key (no pun intended) is to develop a very fluid right hand style, much as a piano accordion player might use. Add a suitable left hand technique - subtle chording, a bit of stride piano - and you have a sound that is suitable for attempting solo ITM.
Good luck with your piano learning, Martin. For any kind of music, keyboard technique is an invaluable skill IMO.
Thank you very much for the information! You’re a big help, as usual.
Cheers,
Martin
I don’t know why, but the left hand accompaniment
sounded decidedly Russian to me. I like it a lot, but
it’s not what I’m used to hearing in the small sampling
of Irish piano accompaniment that I’ve heard.
LOL, that’s funny. When I was learning it, slowly, I thought: ‘‘Cr$p, this sounds like a polka, not like a reel’’. After that, I tried to play along an accompaniment of polka, that comes in the keyboard, and it sounded great.
The chords are right because I learnt them from a sheet music, but maybe because I played the tune kind of ‘‘chopped’’ it sounded like that.
Anyways, as I didn’t intend to play like a real irish piano, mainly because I don’t have a piano, I have a keyboard, and second, because I don’t know about piano playing in ITM, although I’d like to learn
I’m glad you liked it!
Cheers,
Martin
I love good piano-playing in ITM, and if I could find a really good accompanist in north Cornwall I’d do another CD with just me and a pianner. For a fantastic example of great piano accompaniment, have a listen to either The Willie Hunter Sessions or Leaving Lerwick Harbour, on which the superb Shetland fiddler Willie Hunter is accompanied beautifully by Violet Tulloch. 
Hi Martin!
Check out Brendan Dolan who is a brilliant flute and piano player. I’m sure there are a number of recordings of him playing piano in an ITM setting out there, but the only one I can recall at the moment is the great CD “Live at Mona´s”
There are some sound samples on the web page.
Cheers!
/MarcusR
Brian McGrath and Caoimhin Vallely are both great piano players (an both play other instruments as well), but they’re very different stylistically
On the great fiddle player Frankie Gavin’s fantastic flute CD, Up and Away, he has the great fiddle player Charlie Lennon behind him on piano. Not too surprisingly, Frankie plays a mean flute, and Charlie a mean piano…
He writes a good tune too. We love Dance of the Honeybees at our session.
Playing Irish tunes on the piano isn’t unheard of but it’s done seldom enough that I don’t know of an established style. With my left hand, I mimic what I would normally do when backing a tune. I play a bass with my pinky and a chord with my index finger and thumb. It sounds like that’s what you’re doing except you’re doubling it. In the space I would fit bass/chord, you fit bass/chord/bass/chord. The right hand is where I think most pianists get it wrong when trying to play tunes. They approach it from the view of a pianist and say, “This is what I can do and it sounds cool.” I prefer to imitate people who knew what they were doing. I would suggest listening to Irish fiddlers from the 20s and 30s, particularly Sligo style musicians such as Packie Dolan, Michael Coleman, Paddy Kiloran, James Morrison, etc.. and trying to copy their rhythm and ornamentation. Here’s a couple of links where you can find their music online.
http://www.juneberry78s.com/sounds/ListenToIrishDance.htm
http://www.rocheviolins.com/html/traditional_irish_music.html