Okay…I don’t have any tune books and I’m wondering what everyone suggests. I’m really interested in airs or tunes that I could play in church with guitar and or piano. Also, if anyone knows of some good music for 2 whistles or whistle and violin, that would be awesome cause I’m having a real hard time finding that. Thanks!
Go check out www.thesession.org - TONS of tunes there. Everything is solo stuff as far as I know, though.
Pat
If you trawl through the postings you’ll find references to various tunebooks. There are even threads that relate to Church music. Going through the Hymnal for suitable tunes is probably your best bet.
Irish Traditional does not do “harmony” in the way that music is classically taught. You can make up your own harmonies, if you like, but it ceases to be traditional. Pianos don’t usually put in an appearance at sessions (as far as I know) and there is a great deal of discussion about whether guitars playing backing chords are acceptable or not. The fact is that whatever instruments are playing are expected to play much the same tune - in fact, much the same notes.
There are exceptions. For instance, the Slip Jig “The Butterfly” is in three repeats, and can give a pleasant effect if it is performed as a round, with three whistlers (or whatever instrument player) take the three separate repeats starting at at a different repeat from the others.
Another exception is “The Winding Road” which I know as “The Cordial Jig” where the pair of “C” notes is played as a pair of “A” notes by a second whistler.
You could experiment with tunes having the piano playing the B part while the whistle plays the A part, but I think they would sound a bit same-y.
Backing Irish Traditional tunes with chords is not the simple matter it might appear. It is not something to do on the fly if you are used to other genres of music. I’ve heard experienced musicians come to discordant grief over this.
The Northumbrian Pipers Society has had a duet book out for years. The tunes are are very do-able on whistles.