Hi, I am new to these boards and am hoping to soon be a contributing part of them. I have played the tin whistle and many other celtic instruments for a few years now and am receiving a set of Uilleann pipes tomorrow. I have played the pipes before and am hoping I can pick them up quickly enough before I head to Ireland. I am going to Ireland, just outside of Belfast, the end of July and I wanted to know in your opinion what tunes for the Uilleann pipes must I have in my repetoire just incase I want to join in on a few jam sessions I may encounter?
There’s no real way to answer this. Pick whatever tunes you like and learn them.
If you want to join a session, session etiquette would probably require you to attend that session once or twice, note (or record) the tunes and the settings they play at that session, learn them, practice them and then WAIT to be invited to join the session (that can be the hardest part).
I don’t know if you have much experience of sessions, but the better sessions are not impromptu affairs. Do a search for session etiquette and see the various opinions of session participants.
All of them! Seriously, though, on a practical level you might do well to play the tunes that you already have learned from your playing on other instruments. Good luck! My experience has been that “cramming” for a session seldom works out well. Your mileage may vary, of course.
I understand that cramming isn’t a great idea but I’m just looking for 10-20 popular tunes to add into my tune list. I’m going back for a family reunion and I’m sure I’ll be playing some songs. So I’d like to find some popular ones that my relatives would know.
Ah! In that case, I’d just ask them what their favorites are and go from there. That situation seems considerably different than walking into a session as a complete stranger.
A month ago in my session some one started playing My Love is in America a Tune which had been on my to do list for some time when a fiddler said to me, “you don’t know My Love is in america? Thats a pipe tune you should play it” So I dutifully learned it. Now the reason it is a pipe tune as opposed to a fiddle tune is interesting. The tune contains many aspects which can be best exploited by the idiosyncrasies of the pipes.
I would be interested in hearing from our esteemed body in chiff land which tunes are the classic pipe tunes