I’ve heard this version of Brian Boru’s March by Saltydog on SoundClick.com.
I like the tune and want to learn it, but every thing on JC Tunefinder does not match the key that Saltydog plays it in. Their version, by the way is much easier to play on whistle in my opinion.
Can someone please tell me what key this is in so that I can tell others in seisiun.
Here’s the link: http://www.soundclick.com/genres/chartssub.cfm?genre=world&Subgenre=247
Number nine.
Thanks,
Mike
i don’t think it’s in a funny key, so it must be D 
I don’t think it’s D.
I checked the sheet music in D and it’s not the same.
Anyone else?
Mike
it can be played along on a D whistle though
It’s either E minor (if it includes a Cnat) or E dorian (if it includes a C#). If it’s E minor, the key signature on the written music should have one sharp (same as G major). If it’s E dorian, the signature should have two (same as D major). The last note in the tune is E.
The last note in the Tune Finder versions listed as being in D is B, so they are really in B minor.
BarFly is an ABC player for the Mac that can transpose to any key. Some of the Windows ABC players can probably do the same. Then you can pick one of the Tune Finder tunes that comes closest to what you want and transpose it. You can also modify the ABC by hand, which I do occasionally, to get it closer to the recorded version.
Yes, the tonic is definitely E, and I think I caught a Cnat a couple of times so I’d put it down as E minor myself.
The last note in the tune is E.
The last note in the Tune Finder versions listed as being in D is B, so they are really in B minor.
The last-note rule is about 95% reliable, but not perfect. When using it, also beware of pick-up notes! 
BarFly is an ABC player for the Mac that can transpose to any key.
BarFly is wonderful!
http://www.barfly.dial.pipex.com/
Also note that the author it can be run on a PC with an emulator.
John
You’re right. I’ve run into a few ABC versions of tunes where the pick-up notes were added back at the end. Also, there are a few old-time tunes where the tonal center seems to be one thing, but it ends on, for example, the fifth, even though the chord structure isn’t typical of mixolydian, which gives a nice suspended feeling to the ending. (I seem to recall Dylan’s version of “Man of Constant Sorrow” as having been like that, ending on a D note, but on a G chord.) Don’t know if this happens much in Irish music. The avoidance of harmony makes this kind of analysis less reliable for ITM.
BarFly is an ABC player for the Mac that can transpose to any key.
BarFly is wonderful!
Yep. I liked it well enough that I added a description and a link at the top of my flatpick guitar page: http://www.coastalfog.net/flatpick/fp_main.html (And the same for the Amazing Slow Downer.)
If you are compiling programs of that sort, check out Transcribe! which (imho) is better than Amazing Slowdowner.
sorry about that 
didn’t mean to put you on the wrong foot, it’s in E after all.
Thanks. I’ve downloaded it and will try it out. It looks good–especially what appears to be note identification–even in chords.
You can never have too much sound-processing software. I’d like to find an OS X replacement for SoundMaker, too. That’s what I used to edit my guitar sound files at http://www.coastalfog.net/flatpick/tablature/tab_main.html – mainly for adjusting the volume and fading the beginning and end of each tune. It looks like Transcribe! may replace one of its uses, which is selecting just a small chunk of a tune to listen to over and over again until the detail penetrates my brain.
Okay, now the key is identified, so how do I get the sheet music in that key?
Is there a program that will take the MP3 and put it into dots?
Is there a way to get a midi that is in another key to be switeched to E and then put into dots?
My purpose in this is supply my fellow players in seisiun with the sheet music.
Any ideas?
Mike
Here’s how to do it by mostly by hand:
1a) If you have a Mac, go to http://www.barfly.dial.pipex.com/ and get BarFly.
or
1b) If you have a PC, go to http://www.gre.ac.uk/~c.walshaw/abc/#software and look under “abc software packages” for the suggestions “To convert abc to sheet music”. Pick one that will do transposing, editing, and printing.
Go to http://ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/FindTune.html , type in the name of the tune and hit return, then listen to each of the MIDI examples to find the closest one to the version you want to play.
Click on the matching TXT link, copy the ABC that comes up, and paste it into your ABC software. If it’s one of the Amin versions, transpose it to E minor. If it’s Ador, transpose it to Edor. If it’s C or D, transpose it to G. Check the last note in the tune and make sure that it’s E.
Make any changes needed to the ABC to make it more like the recording. I figured out how to do this by trial and error, but I’m not sure I can explain it. Just keep listening to it until it sounds about right. (Now that I look, I see that http://www.lesession.co.uk/abc/abc_notation.htm has a pretty detailed explanation.)
Print the sheet music.