Friday, February 24, 2012

An Buailteoir Aerach

Here's a reel from the same set as the last tune I learned (The Enchanted Lady) on Caoimhìn Ò Raghallaigh and Mick O'Brien's album Deadly Buzz. I dropped the strings down a major third to play along with the recording.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Enchanted Lady

Here's a tune off of Caoimhìn Ò Raghallaigh and Mick O'Brien's latest album, Deadly Buzz. Many of their tunes are played with the fiddle tuned down a major third, and this is one of them. (So G is tuned down to Eb, D to Bb, etc.)

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Bridie's Joy

Here's a reel I learned off of Ronan Browne and Peter O'Loughlin's album "The South West Wind." I love this sweet little tune.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Walk Along John to Kansas

I learned this old-time tune off of Tatiana Hargreaves' album. Tatiana is a young but awesome fiddler. This tune is an old tune, and I don't know much about it except the ibiblio says it comes from "the south."

Sunday, February 19, 2012

The Golden Castle

Today I learned a tune off of sheet music, which I don't ordinarily do. I prefer to learn tunes by ear most of the time. However, there's this free collection of hundreds of tunes you can download (for free!) by following this link. I got the whole thing printed out and from time to time I like to browse it for new tunes. Anyway this hornpipe was written by Junior Crehan, a Clare fiddler.

Friday, February 17, 2012

The Gooseberry Bush

Today I'm finally getting around to doing a tune. The next few weeks I expect will be like the last few: insane. Well. I'll still try to average at least 4 tunes a week. Here's an old Irish reel I learned from the playing of Joe Burke, Matt Molloy, and Ann Conroy Burke on the live recording Geantraì.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Foxhunter's

This is a cool little slip jig I learned off of a recording by Duncan Wickel and his aunt Beanie Odell. The two of them play twin fiddle on the album Red Wellies.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Paddy Fahey's

Galway fiddler and composer Paddy Fahey doesn't name his tunes, so there are several dozen tunes floating around the world now, all dubbed Paddy Fahey's. Here's one of them, a jig I learned of Yvonne and Liz Kane's album Side by Side.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

The Shoemaker's Daughter

Ed Reavy writes excellent tunes. Here's one of his reels in G. I learned my version from a youtube video and from a collection of Ed Reavy's tunes in abc that my friend Jim,,, sent me.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

The Starry Lane to Monaghan

Here's another Ed Reavy tune (finally!) I got this one from the Kane sisters' album Side by Side. Their liner notes say he wrote this in honor of a starry night when he looked down the lane and saw the nearby county of Monaghan, where his mother was from.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Newt Payne's Tune

Here's a pretty tune for you. I learned this from a video of Adam Hurt and Stephanie Coleman and another video of Rhys Jones and John Herrmann. I love the B part. Also, oddly, it's played AAABBB.

Friday, February 3, 2012

3 Deer and a Hare

I ordered Liz and Yvonne Kane's album Side by Side recently, and it arrived in the mail yesterday. So today I learned one of Liz's compositions from this album.