I’ve been dilligently working on a few tunes “the Banshee”, The Maid Behind the Bar", “The Silver Spear”, “The Butterfly”. I also have been sight reading others to see which of the more common tunes I like and put a sort of working study repertoire together. Most of these songs have several versions both in printed music and recordings. Some are radically different from each other. I’m not talking about the basic ornamentation but melodic differences in the basic melody. My question is; how do I know which version to learn? The one I like best? My own variation? 
The answer would seem to be the most common version but how do I know which that is?
The answer depends on what your goal is. If it’s to play for yourself, learn the one you like the best. If it’s to play along with an album, learn that version. If it’s to play in a session, figure out which version they play (ask the attendees about recording the session) and learn that one.
Yep, what he said. Or learn all of them, so you can pull the “right” one out when the need arises. Players often know multiple versions of tunes.
For “most common” … The settings on the Fionn Seisiún online recordings from Comhaltas are pretty bog standard as reference settings, and give you something to compare. Of the tunes you mentioned, all except the Butterfly are on Volume 1.
http://comhaltas.ie/shop/detail/foinn_seisiun_book_volume_1/
Yes, your own variation is actually a great goal down the road, but maybe not at this stage. 
Yes there’s a more or less universal concept of what’s the ‘standard session version’ for many (most?) tunes, and at the same time each session tends to have a particular version that they play, which might be different from the ‘standard’ version.
Yes it’s best to learn all various versions you hear, which gives you flexibility and the ability to vary the tune as you go along. Sometimes a number of versions are compatible and you’ll hear them being played simultaneously at a session and it sounds fine. It’s one of the things that can make tunes heard at a session sound (in my opinion anyhow) better than the cleaned-up homogenized lockstep playing heard on many albums.
Sometimes versions have irreconcilable differences, such as the Hand Me Down The Tackle that uilleann pipers usually play, and the Frankie Gavin version that many fiddlers play. Parallel 2nds just don’t sound that good.
I myself sometimes feel the urge to extract something like the basic melody from various versions. However, I soon realised that a much less laborious and probably more natural way is to just learn a version you like (unless it’s a particularly tricky and playful one) and adjust the setting if necessary. Any versions from tradschool, tradlessons, flutetunes, fionn seisún etc. are all good starting points IMO. After all, if you learn a tune from someone else directly you don’t question this version either; the main thing is that you get the tune. 
PS: When learning from internet clips which are not explicitly made for learning purposes, I think it’s always good to look for non-solo performances. These necessarily feature versions on which at least the performing musicians agree.
Thanks for everyones help. Flutetunes is where i’ve been getting most of my copies from. Also thesessions.org and the BBC radio2. The tradlessons videos from Michael Eskin and the videos from Ryan G. Duns and the irish music academy have been very helpful too. That’s when I noticed the differences. The youtube videos seemed more alike than the various sheet music. Most of the time they work together anyway but sometimes not. I will check out the other links too.
Good observation, and one of the foundational truths of traditional music: how’s it’s played trumps what’s written down. I think sheet music has its uses and merits (let’s not open that can of worms), but interpretation by traditional players (as individuals and as a community) is where the music is. (And part of the fun is discovering various versions. Sessions iron these out a bit so we can play together harmoniously, but even at sessions, little variants will still stick out and add a bit of spice.)
True. Music is an art form that only exist while it’s going on. The sheet music is just another way to record the event. Useful as a learning tool and as a reference.
Just not wanting to stick out like a sore thumb
Here’s an example of a tune I have been working on. The Banshee. Actually the easiest so far to work up to a decent speed.
Heres some youtube examples:
Trad Lessons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wd-CGiOPgs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX_tKZ-6Lx4
Looking at the first two phrases of the song, Michael Eskins version seems the more common although I like the second one better and thats more how I have learned to play it, at least the first two phrases.
I assume at a session I would just listen and adapt.
If you’re serious about Irish trad you owe it to yourself to seek out good sources of tunes in the early stages. Just because something is on YT doesn’t mean it’s worth your attention. Later on you’ll be able to listen to clips like those two and be able to judge them reliably, having heard the tune in question played by many good players over the years.
I wouldn’t recommend either of those clips, myself. Michael’s use of that passing F# in the first bar of what is essentially a pentatonic tune is like fingernails on a blackboard to my ear. The other fellow doesn’t commit that infelicity but instead of repeating the long G that is the main opening motif of the tune plays a long A instead. Less common, as you say.
Yes. That little diatonic riff bothers me but most of the version I’ve heard on you tube are like that. The song is basically g pentatonic with a few F#s. The second version was perhaps not perfect but demostrated the melody closer to what I am doing.
This is the version I am playing and I like it well enough
I would love to have a collection of tunes in their most correct/least ornamented fashion to learn until I know them backwards and forwards in there simplest form and then take it from there by listening to other players and recordings. In jazz circles people use the real book. Although far from perfect it does give everyone the same platform. Is there such a “Real Book” for irish music. A standard teaching book that has been used forever.
I learn whichever version I like the best. I think there’s very few times where you’re going to run into a version of better-known tunes that will really conflict with someone else’s. I have a pretty wild version of the Banshee and the Frost is All Over, and they still blend nicely with what others are playing. The only trouble I’ve ever had was that some people play Colonel Frasier’s doubled all the way through, whereas Packie Duignan plays some parts singled, and it’s his version I like best, so I adapt.
Really though, learn the version you like, and if there’s a conflict, trust yourself to be able to be flexible in the moment.
Not sure what a ‘correct’ version would be but in this case, compared to you written version above, it’s probably better to play :eaag egge dBBA B… in the second part. You could also invert the efge and efgf into edgd and avoid those passing Fs. There are several other phrases in that notation that I’d approach in a different way as well. To heed Steve’s advice and look up some versions by good players who know what they’re at would seem the right move here.
I would agree that the best thing for it, when playing with others, is to be flexible and be able to adjust to what the company is playing. As for playing on your own, consider some of the great stylists and note they often have a consistent way of approaching tunes, they play them as they ‘hear’ them (I know that could probably do with some clarification but you’ll have to excuse me for now).
[edited for minor early morning brainfart]
Essentially pentatonic? The A part could be pentatonic, but the B part seems to have some F#s, from what I see as notated versions (for instance thesession.org: The Banshee (reel), or hear uploaded to youtube. This is confusing!
What about Ian Walsh’s take here (2:58): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p9q7XwMoQo
He is using F#s in both the A and the B parts. Sounds close to the second transcribed setting on thesession.org page.
And this take by Liz Carroll (2:38): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up9kKmov6Z8 ? A bit fast to follow along for me, but it sounds gorgeous, and she varies the tune. She seems to use F#s as well, or not?
Yes, Hans I maintain that the Banshee is essentially a pentatonic tune. The kind that fits so well on the whistle or flute in G: you can keep your B finger down the whole time and keep your E and F# fingers “taped together” as a unit. There are loads of examples.
Now generally in Irish music the pentatonic or hexatonic nature of gapped-scaled tunes is being eroded, and that’s both inevitable and OK. But some players are careful to preserve the older feeling of such tunes and not let them carelessly slip into a modern mould by filling in gaps all over the place. Try playing the Banshee without any F#s or Cs – you might like it better, using Mr. G’s suggestions for the second part. If you don’t like it better, no problem. (I’m not going to tell Liz Carroll what to do )
Strangely enough there are quite a few tunes that have pentatonic first parts but turns or second parts in which additional notes seem to be well rooted (and more difficult to avoid than the f#s in the turn of the Banshee). Why the second part should diverge from the mode of the first is a mystery, unless it is a case of a song tune being adapted for dance and having a turn added by a musician who is careless of the structure of the first… or has a taste for the element of surprise given by these notes.
From what I can gather The Banshee is a fairly modern tune, written by flute player James McMahon, originally from Rosslea, Co. Fermanagh (born circa 1900) (when did he die, or is he still alive?), and also known as McMahon’s Reel [ http://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:McMahon’s_Reel ].
And I do not see it written as pentatonic, only as hexatonic (gapped scale without C or C#).
For instance http://tunearch.org/wiki/McMahon’s_Reel
or http://www.novasession.org/Tunes/bwreels-9.pdf
As a more modern composition, and published as notation in various books, there should not be much argument about a possible pentatonic origin, even though the A part especially is tempting to be played purely pentatonically without F#s.
Cathal McConnell, Fintan Vallely & Mary Coogan (Catskills 2012), The Banshee @ 1:28:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3w5TG4lHh0
or is he still alive
Well, if you do the math, what are the chances?
Not sure what the earliest recorded version is but the version in Ceol Rinnce na hEirreann vol 2, taken down by Breandan Breathnach in 1968, is probably close to being the earliest published version. It is pretty much a pentatonic tune in his notation.
O’Neill’s Music of Ireland has been around for over a hundred years, but I don’t think any session players take those settings as gospel.
IMO most of O’Neill’s settings are particularly curious, actually. Maybe Bulmer & Sharpley’s “Music from Ireland” would be more appropriate for somewhat standard settings, but AFAIK these books are out of print.
FWIW, I like John Walsh’s Session Tunes as a nice little collection with rather unobtrusive settings.
IMO these settings are particularly curious, actually.
That could be up for discussion. The versions are often different from the shape they have taken on now. The settings do however represent the various styles of the players O’Neill took tunes from. And I suppose the yshould be taken as such.
The notation of Banish Misfortune for example was considered ‘odd’ by many. It turned out, with the re-discovery of O’Neills collection of recordings, it’s an accurate representation of the glorious playing of the tune by Edward Cronin.
Yes, good point.