I’m fairly new to this whistle thing, and so far have just been trying
to learn the tunes that I happen to enjoy listening to the most. I
have never seen a session anywhere near where I live, and was
wondering what some of the more common session tunes were. I
don’t know if I will ever see a session in my area, but it would be
nice to know some of the tunes that are likely to be played, just in
case.
Thanks
Turtle
I think your first sentence has the answer. I wouldn’t mind betting that most of the good 'uns on this list started exactly like that. If you start by playing just what you enjoy your enthusiasm will be kindled and you’ll take it from there in who-knows-what direction. Just make sure you listen to the music constantly in whatever ways you can, even if it’s just listening to CDs. No need to confine yourself to whistle-players either. Get the music under your skin and the tune-learning will come naturally. Don’t bother (for the time being at least) trying to learn just tunes that you think might fit in this session or that. I “know” more than 500 tunes (the cognescenti around here will know why I put that word in quotes!), but the other week I went to a session outside my local area and I knew hardly any of the tunes they were playing. We still all managed to have a good time though!
Steve
Ps. If you really ~must~ have a list of tunes you could do worse that invest in a few tune-books. Some decent ones are:
From Dave Mallinson Publications:
100 Essential Session Tunes
100 Enduring Session Tunes
100 Evergreen Session Tunes
100 Irish Polkas
From Tony Sullivan (Halshaw Music): Irish Traditional Session Tunes, books 1-3
Don’t learn tunes exclusively from books though. You’ll end up being too rigid in your approach, you’ll get funny looks and I’ll get shot for mentioning tune-books!
TOo many gutless tunes in G-major, for starters. 
We’re OK in D are we?
Steve
There’s a collection of popular session tunes at the tunes section of Ceolas. It’s the collection by John Walsh.
I’m a hardcore mixolydian/dorian kind of guy. If yer playing G tunes, go listen to the Weather Channel!
In all seriousness, there ae some session standards that I find irritating, and they are typically in G major or D major. . . . I have absolutely nothing against G per se. . . some of my best friends are in G. “Feeding the Birds” is my current all-time favorite, in fact.
Wacky or what! 
Steve
What’s wacky about a mixolydian or dorian preference?
I admit a lot of it is probably a holdover from the Dark Ages, when I played GHB. A drone just sounds wrong against Ionian.
Where I play, you need to know Kesh Jig, Sally Gardens, Silver Spear, Morrisons jig, Cooleys, Sean Ryan Polka, all 3 Ballydesmonds, John Dohertys Slide number 1, Drops of Brandy, Butterfly, and a few others, to get you through the first half hour.
I would agree that this seems to be a pretty standard session diet wherever you may find yourself. Throw in a few hornpipes maybe (because those were the easiest for me to play). Off To California, Boys of Bluehill, (and another one that’s not coming to me right now).
Will O’Ban
Yes, we call a scale in the Dorian Mode - Kafi (pronounced Kaafi) in North Indian trad. Mostly afternoon and evening raags come under it. Not much Morning Kaafi, surprisingly. 
But I digress - please name 5 Dorian pieces for me in ITM and I will go look see. I too have a tendency against Ionian predominance in music.
Would appreciate your help. Thank you.
Typically, Anti-Ionics don’t go to bed early and rise with the sun.
They don’t eat a hearty breakfast and don’t enjoy the 9 to 5 honest day’s pay for an honest day’s enslavement.
Anti-Ionics work smart, not hard.
For anti-ionics love and sex has no foreplay for it is all PLAY all the way!
Anti-Ionics create their own timings and seasons for they are masters and mistresses of atmospherics.
And lastly (but not finally) DORIC anti-ionics know that a scale in the Dorian Mode is the ONLY diatonic scale that is symmetrical in its interval relationships (taking the 5th interval as the divider of 2 equal tetrachords)
ie. 2 1 2 (the 5th) 2 1 2.
I knew it! A fifth-columnist! 
Steve
Pick almost any tune you like that’s “in A minor/G” or “in E minor/D.” Excuse the guitar-man talk. There are hundreds such tunes.
Steve
Name 5 SS
Rights of Man
I don’t know if I’m just wasting time feeding the troll here, but Steve’s dead right these are easy to find. Because I’m very lazy, here’s a list of tonal center of A with F sharp reels from The Mountain Road tunebook sitting open next to me:
The Laurel Tree
Down the Broom
The Gatehouse Maid
The Flowers of Red Hill
The New Steamboat
Mind you, this tunebook is only 34 pages long, with about 60 tunes. This suggests that well over 10% of the reels in South Sligo are commonly played in A Dorian… and at least three of the ones here are very common session tunes.
Interestingly, I don’t see a single E tune in the book with a C in it, either natural or sharp, whereas all of the above tunes do have an F-sharp in them.
Actually, does anyone know any Irish tunes in A with F-naturals? I can’t recall ever trying to play one…
Thanks, I’ll check this out.
The only time you’re wasting is by conceiving me as a troll.
Of course, you are entitled to your conceptions as are the many music lovers who have befriended me here, many of whom are better musicians than me.
I’m an ITM beginner, but when I play tunes and airs on the guitar, I’m always conscious of the mode.
Here are several E-dorian tunes and airs that I’m familiar with.
Swallowtail Jig
Morrison’s Jig
Tralee Gaol
Road to Lisdoonvarna
The Dear Irish Boy
Amhrán Na Leabhar
Eanach Dhúin
Arran Boat Song
Crested Hens (also has Cnat and D# in the B part)
And the only A dorian I can think of off hand:
Port Gordon
Actually, does anyone know any Irish tunes in A with F-naturals? I can’t recall ever trying to play one…
That would probably be A minor, which seems unlikely. I think that all the minor airs I’ve learned so far are in B minor.
Most of the A mixolydian stuff I’ve learned so far seems to be songs:
She Moved Through the Fair
My Lagan Love
Paddy’s Green Shamrock Shore
And several Scottish songs.
I guess I’m overly attracted to dorian and mixolydian tunes, myself, but there are a couple of nice slow ones in G major:
Do You Remember That Night
Brid Óg Ní Mháille
Not to mention Ewan McColl’s great Lang a-Growin’.
Yes, I didn’t mean to imply that Irish music has no E-dorian tunes – I know a number of them, just as I know a number which are straight E natural minor. Just that I found it interesting that in particular tune book, no E “minorish” tune had a C which would allow you to determine whether it was dorian or natural minor, whereas every A minorish tune was clearly dorian.
Actually, does anyone know any Irish tunes in A with F-naturals? I can’t recall ever trying to play one…
That would probably be A minor, which seems unlikely.
Why? I mean, there are clearly tunes in E and B natural minors, so it’s not like the mode is unknown to Irish music. So why not A natural minor?
The only obvious reason I can think of is because it’s hard to play on whistle or unkeyed flute; but no harder than a lot of tunes out there which are beloved by fiddlers.