I’ve been playing somewhat sporadically for a few months now. I feel like I can decently play these:
Sally Gardens
Foggy Dew
Sheebag Sheemore
Planxty Hewlett
Stack of Rye
Off to California
As I Roved Out (Christy Moore)
Paddy West
… as well as several miscellaneous Christmas carols a popular simple tunes.
I think I may be ready for something a little more challenging. Right now, I think the most difficult tune I know is Stack of Rye. Am I ready for jigs?
If so, what are a few simple beginner-friendly jigs to start with?
Or, should I learn a few more hornpipes first? I’m sure I’m not quite ready to tackle a reel yet.
“Road to Lisdoonvarna” is a great suggestion (both the slide and the reel versions are fine tunes for beginners), but I would strongly suggest “Jim Ward’s” rather than “The Kesh” – it’s easier, nicer (IMO), and hasn’t been quite so wildly overplayed.
Jason, if you can play hornpipes like “Off to California” and “Stack of Rye”, you shouldn’t hesitate to try any form of Irish tune – there are lots of reels simpler than those! Just keep the tempo at a reasonable pace and you should be fine.
Wierd. Kesh was the first jig I learned, and and the first tune I picked
up by ear. I thought it was pretty easy. Of course, I wasn’t trying to
doing any rolls on the long notes, so that probably helped.
I know a lot of people who can keep up with Kesh but seem to get
bejiggered by the rhythm of Swallowtail or Morrison’s…
I think The Kesh is a very difficult tune if you fully ornament it.
A and B rolls were for me the most difficult thing to learn so far and i used The Kesh to really work them up. 6 of each in one run through, plus 4 low G rolls 2 high G rolls and 2 high E rolls.
Cutting the E and G in the third bar of the first two lines were also rather challenging to get nice as well.
I recently started on Whelan’s Jig which is a really sweet tune, and Donnybrook Fair i’m also really enjoying.
Hardiman the Fiddler is a wonderful Slip Jig. There’s a totally wonderful rendition of this on Steafan Hannigan’s 1st Bodhran DVD played on fiddle and box with guitar backing. There’s also an excellent whistle version on Brid O’Donahue’s album.
I think marches are neat. Perhaps they aren’t recommended for some reason. This website is a UP tutorial, but it has some nice beginner tunes. The first two are marches, perhaps they are not hard enough. If you put the pointer over “Beginners” you can click on some other fairly simple tunes, some of which are jigs. http://www.uilleannpipestutor.moonfruit.com/
It’s fun to play along with the pipes.
Just because it always amuses me how different these things are from place to place:
Have known it since not long after I started to play whistle, but rarely hear it these days (I think it was banned from our local session). Definitely “everyone” knows it.
the rakes of kildare
Never heard of it before.
the ten penny bit
I expect you mean this “Tenpenny Bit”, which I am told that everyone knows, but I only got around to learning it last summer to play for English Sword Dancing at a local festival, and I don’t think I’ve ever played it since then.
There is a completely different “Tenpenny Bit” which is a great jig which frequently follows “Scotsman Across the Border” – I’ve got four or five recordings of the pair, the earliest by Paddy Killoran. This “Tenpenny Bit” I absolutely love and play frequently, though it usually gets someone in the session to say, “What was that jig?”
PS I agree with everyone on “Donnybrook Fair”, which is a great old jig.
I can’t believe I forgot about Donnybrook Fair! It’s the very model of
jigginess… It practically swings itself. The only difficulty for beginners
might be crossing the bridge in the second measure (|Bee dBA|), and
maybe hitting the high b toward the end.
Father O Flynn is nice, and it’s also called Top of the Cork Road.
Tripping Up the Stairs is a nice little jig, not too hard, and it gives you a great chance to work on the swing on the repeated notes. We never play it at session though.
‘Out On the Ocean’ isn’t a bad beginner jig. Despite its simplicity, you’ll keep finding new things in it as long as you keep improving though.
Later try:
‘Banish Misfortune’
‘The Lark in the Morning’
‘Drowsy Maggie’ isn’t a bad reel to get you going.
…
I love them,like i said it was my first jig and i thought i could play it,but every time i revisit it i realise i was kidding myself,i find i play all versions mixed in and finish with the slip,not planned just the way it came out.The smiley face is meant to be key D.
The problem ive got is i have to like the tune and want to get to know it otherwise i struggle,Trip to brittany is a classic example i loved it first time i heard it and was playing it within an hour ,if i didnt like it i would be still trying to get my head round it,bro steves site helped me get used to learning tunes as im brand new to trying to play music.
clare jig and sunnyside jig came quite quick to me because theyre catchyish.the hornpipe humours of tuaimgreine was also quite easy to get it just seems to lift and swing all by itself and the faster i play it the more things happen i love it.
I agree. I suppose though, that if you are ever going to play reels, you have to start somewhere. On reflection, maybe ‘The Sligo Maid’ would be a better place to start.
Obviously, to play any of the above tunes expressively requires lots of practice and experience. I just think that they have good melodies and are therefore memorable, they aren’t impossibly difficult to finger for a relative beginner, and to play them with convincing rhythm means learning things that carry over to more difficult reels, jigs, polkas and so on. Also, they are well-known and well-liked enough to turn up at a session.
I’d be interested to hear from any experienced ITM teachers out there as to what typically gives new learners the least/most trouble. Rhythmically, I’d expect most students (outside of Ireland an a few other places) would find jigs, hornpipes and polkas MORE difficult than Reels. And since everything is played slowly as a beginner, tempo shouldn’t be an issue.
I could be completely wrong about this. Have we got any experienced ITM teachers out there who can comment on what they’ve seen in this regard? It’s an interesting topic.