I kinda skipped it over Dana but I’m learnin it for the gathering. It’s not a real exciting tune and when I first encountered it, I thought "hmm,not like the song (which I do like). So I never did learn it. I don’t have it on any records to get excited about it. That usually makes the difference for me.
I do like simple reels though, like Geehan’s for example. Everybody can play along and have fun! I work on the fancier ones like Dionne Reel but nobody around usually plays it, unless you’re friends with Altan or somethin and without a band…well…
I think everybody learns certain reels for their own reasons, which is interesting in itself. I have a whole set that I play and enjoy, but when we have gatherings, it surprises me how different other folks sets are. Seems like the jigs, hornpipes and slips cross more common paths. Polkas and slides too.
Oddly enough, in Canada, seemingly everyone plays the Dionne Reel. I’ve seen it get trotted out a couple of times as an “everyone in the workshop will know this” tune, much like St Anne’s or Miss McCloud’s. And it is a blast to play…
Thanks for the ABCs, Colomon; I’m at work, now, looks furtively for the manager and it’s a bit hectic, so I won’t have the pleasure of getting to know them right away.
Right now I’m focusing on “Abram’s Circle,” as the Morris team wants to do it around the sixth graders at their graduation, so I have to have it solidly in memory. It’s not hard…just long (7 parts! Each repeated, of course!). I’m also working on getting a more solid rhythm on some jigs, working with a metronome (Kitty McGee, Swallowtail, The Frost is All Over). Oh yes…and I got my copy of Grey Larsen’s “Tin Whistle Toolbox” and I’m working on cuts with that (and, again, with my friend the metronome).
I’m working on Leon’s Waltz which I heard on the first Wooden Flute Obsession. Trying to make th High C natural, flow, ah… well, naturally.
I am also trying to learn Month of January for a Dolores Kane and John Faulkner recording. If anyone has ABC’s for this I’d really appreciate a post or e-mail. I looked everywhere I could and couldn’t find them. I do fine with the ‘by ear’ once I have the bones down, but have a terrible time working strictly by ear.
Littling Banshee, Monaghan’s jig, and Hobart’s tranformation are on my work list.
My overall progress has been slow for the last few months mostly due to lack of practice, but things are starting to pick up again.
I feel inspired, which for a songwriter is an amazing thing. I’m not totally happy with some of my recent songs, but in the last few weeks, several songs of pure inspiration have come to me. The titles may mean nothing to most, but might hint at what the greater consciousness is sending to me:
Save Me a Dance
The Road to My Heart
Say it Every Day
Reach for the Sky
When the World was Young
There may be other songs with the same or similar titles, but these are all my own original work, lyrics and melody. Song titles can not be copyrighted. Sometimes a melody feels so strong, it seems a certainty that I am copying an existing melody. Unfortunately, there is no reliable, easy way to find that out. Most suggest playing the tune for others that know a lot of songs and see if anyone recognizes it.
Pure inspiration is rare for most songwriters, writer’s block common. So I am enjoying this period of richness in my music. At some point I may upload to my Soundclick site or to Clips and Snips, but right now, the “blarney” is flowing and it is not yet time to stop and pause, to polish and record.
I picked a tune out of the reel section of that book . . . I’ve had this book/CD set for quite some time, but have not sat down with it. I bought it for the guitar chords . . . but the guitar sits in it’s case, and I sit in front of the TV or the internet. What a waste(not the chiff board). So, as insanely simple as it seems, I started off with a tune that had nothing but three chords that I know and now I’m trying to master those chord changes and build little callouses on my finger tips. Ouch.
So, I’m enjoying my evenings with “the High reel”, slow tune software, and a covered bird cage. Wish me luck . . . the conure doesn’t seem to mind to much.
mama, I gotta warn you: I don’t think the guitarist on the CD plays the chords notated in the High reel. I remember scratching the opening D out for the other Weekender. Or they are using DADGAD and have offered approximate standard tuning chords.
For the most parts, the chords in the book are okay but there occasional exceptions…or sometimes, you might just want to change em.
I found a set of tunes online in pdf format if anyone is interested. They print out pretty good. I hadn’t heard of any of the tunes except maybe a couple. Some pretty good ones though, at least in the first half or so of the book.
Currently I’m working on “the Battering Ram” out of McCollough’s, “St. Anne’s reel” out of the Walton’s and the “Galway Hornpipe” that I think I downloaded from the BBC virtual session. Besides playing them on whistle, I also bang out the chords on my trusty banjo, now if I could only learn to play both at once! My neighbors might not like it , but they haven’t said anything yet
My teacher has me going back and reworking on the 30 or so tunes I’ve learned for the purposes of polishing them up, now that I’ve grown since I started.
The most recent tunes I’ve worked on are Julia Clifford’s Buttermilk, Gallagher’s Frolics, Drowsy Maggie
right now I’m working on The Butterfly (slip jig), the Horse’s Brawl, and some Northumbrian dance tunes.
the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society tunebooks are a great source for new tunes, by the way, though you’re unlikely to hear many of them in Irish sessions.
Thanks for the tip. I’ll keep that in mind. So far, the chords sound right in this tune, but my guitar is tuned in DADGAD. I gave up with standard tuning when I couldn’t form a D chord without damping the other strings. Very annoying.
I felt that way about the tune for “The Journey”, my first original piece (completed in March), and a second tune I call “Midnight Meditations”, which I finished last month. I am in the process now of writing this second one down, eventually to be converted in ABC format.
Perhaps one of these days when my whistle behaves for the microphone, I might find a way to post these songs… but for now I’m just concentrating now on getting the smooth sound I want and that I hear in my head. I seem to get it when I have no audience, live person or microphone. But the instant I have one or both present, it just won’t happen.
Maybe it’s time again to bring up a tune that I’ve had in my head for at least a year or so, but can’t pin down. (I was playing it on guitar long before I took up whistle.)
I can come back to author Ray Bradbury’s dictum “do your work.” Performing for audiences, and recording can be a bit different from playing alone. Practice, taking chances, along with a myriad of other suggestions will allow an easier transition. For recording some suggest leaving the recording device on for long periods. The musician soon forgets that it is on.
For audiences, that deserves and has gotten it’s own topic in the past. Rehearsal, both physical and mental are helpful. Role playing is another excellent way to overcome stage fright. There are few things that can compare to soloing for an audience and knowing that each person is straining to hear each note.
For other songwriters reading along, I participate in the 50 song challenge. There are no prizes, no penalties, it is for personal growth, and mutual support. It is 90 days each year, July 4th to Labor Day (early September).
For those that think it an absurd concept to write 50 songs in 90 days, so did I. Before the challenge I had written 12 songs in about eight years. During the 2002 challenge I posted 37 songs, and in 2003, I posted 25 songs. The quality of my pre-challenge songs and my challenge songs is comparable. My post challenge songs show a great deal of improvement. I credit my participation in the 50 song challenge as a keystone.
I’m new to the whistle (low D) so I’m working on ‘everything’. Can only get through a few slower pieces now: Sally Gardens, Southwind, Amhran a Leabhair (badly), and some others I can’t remember. Have some parts going for an original but having some trouble getting them together cohesively. It may be there is more than one tune there. Working on cuts, taps, some rolls, have Larsens Toolbox book and need to get into a more disciplined practice routine - just having too much fun playing around and exploring this instrument. I’d love to someday be able to play something along the lines of Larsen’s rendition of Blackbird. Looking forward to getting up to speed for faster pieces.
Right now I’m kind of infatuated with the tune Port na bPucai. I’m thinking of digging my electric guitar gear out of storage and working on getting a piping effect on it. There’s just something about that tune that makes me want to try that … OK, I’m leaving now … probably other forums better suited to exploring that. ITM?
Now that the session season is over with for the summer, I have gone back to the tunes that I learned in the sessions this winter and am working on starting them, which is my weak point.
Some are Drowsy Maggie, Merrily Kiss the Quakers Wife, Cooley’s, Humours of Tulla, Mountain Road, Bonnie Lass of Bon Accord (?), Spootiskerry, Julia Delaney. A bunch of polkas and hornpipes.
Until I get the above strong enough to start without hesitation, I don’t think that I am going to be starting any new tunes.
My neighbors might not like it 
, but they haven’t said anything yet 
