Again thank you for all your replies to my most recent discussion pertaining to mandolins.
When I pick up my mandolin this week I’ll be ready to start learning a few tune to play. Do you have any suggestions to airs, laments and slow reels I should concentrate on first and learn as a “Struggler”.
Typo correction “ learning a few tunes to play”
https://thesession.org/tunes/651
Boys of Bluehill (hornpipe).
Thank you for your suggestion. Boys of Bluehill was one of the tunes that was presented at my recent tune learning class with Sean Murphy. “Inisheer” was another.
Concentrate on tunes played in A and D. Once you learn a few of the tunes (boys of bluehill a good early choice) you can work on double stopping, playing the root note of the chord on the open string and working out the melody on the higher string.
A few Carolann tunes wouldn’t go amiss.
They aren’t too difficult and even the very hardened and bitter session players think they’re lovely. 🙂
Lord Inchiquin-That’s a Carolan tune as far as I know
I love that tune
anybody know where the word planxty comes from?
How about working through the tunes Nigel Gatherer uses for his beginner class: http://www.nigelgatherer.com/mando/begm.html ?
planxty?
Is it not to do with the Irish labourers of the previous century in England…when they stepped on a plank of wood in among all the mud, it was something solid, they could relate to? So they said “Planks to you” - which got corrupted down to Planxty…
Only joking I think it is a corruption, but of Slainte, ie, Cheers! or:
Salute! Irvine or whoever
Carolan tunes suit the mandolin, I know lots of them, but do not play jigs or reels, as I don’t have to.
Mind you Mr Llig is right because jigs and reels and other tunes are just up and down a scale. I picked out “The Silver Spear” the other night in a matter of seconds, and I am not good on the mandolin.
Just average.
Airs sound lovely on it.
If it’s Andy Irvine you mean, I wouldn’t trust a word he says as to the origins of anything. Lovely fella, fine singer and musician, but the web of pixie dust he spread about the origins of “The Lakes of Pontchertrain”, for instance, are without any facts to back them up.
Entertaining, though, yes.
men of ulster
galtee ranger, fermoy lasses perhaps, reels that stay in the first position.
i have to admit that i played nothing but jigs for ages when starting ( and still do ) getting the dud dud down.
I started re-learning mandolin this year. In my opinion airs, laments and things aren’t great on the mandolin because the notes don’t last long and I’m not a fan of trilling (can’t remember the correct term for plucking over and over!). If you’ve been guitaring in sessions you probably already know loads of tunes in your head so I would suggest trying to pick them out on the mandolin and seeing where it takes you. You can start slow until you get the hang of it.
Some of my suggestions -
The Home Ruler (Hornpipe) is lovely on the mando
Some jigs are great on it too, and easier to pick up than the reels I think -
Haunted House
Miller’s Maggot (you can play this slow and it sounds great on the mando)
My Darling Asleep
Reels I can’t think of any, could do with a few suggestions there myself 🙂
Question, all:
MIght our mandolin student gain from going to the Virtual Session at BBCs site, and listening and playing along, with dots included to keep up with?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/swf/folkmenu.html
I cannot speak for the settings of the tunes, or what a true scholar of the traditionas would think, but, basically at least, most of them are as heard at the sessions i have attended here in the USA.
Just looking to be helpful --- whatcha think?
I think polkas are grand on the mando. Two good ones are Maggie In The Wood, and Peg Ryans. Also, The Maid Behind The Bar isn’t too hard of a reel. If its a jig ye want, Calliope House in G is a great tune and quite simple for mando.
amongthelilies- The term you’re looking for is tremolo picking, quite similar to trilling on a whistle. A lot of players pick like this really fast, but in a slower tune its often nicer to do a slower tremolo. Granted its not Irish, but there is a video about this on MusicMoose.org
Britches Full of Stitches.
It’s on page one of any Irish Mandolin book.
the bbc virtual session is suggested all the time for beginners but for me anyway, it was still way too fast to play along with.
for a jig, they don’t come much easier than bill harte’s.
good luck with your playing, after nearly 5 years at it myself, i’m still wick but its the first thing i pick up in the morning and the last thing at night, its easy to become obsessed.
check out http://www.slowplayers.org/
old johns jig is an easy start, i was able to get it down in a few hours…
Good luck with the mando
T Maguire
Pardon me for saying, but it doesn’t look like slowplayers.org has been updated in a while. I’ve sent a few e-mails to various people listed as contacts in my area and have never got a response.
???
I sure could use some help getting a session started locally. I usually only get a couple folks to show and they’re usually just there for the the beer. Then they see me with my mando, guitar and bodhran then borrow one of my instruments and what happens doesn’t even sound like ITM.
I’m happy to send a few suggestions/tunes via email and I’m thinking of putting some tunes for beginners on youtube or similar. Let me know if yer interested.
As to the origion of planxty I once read it was an attempt by an English writer to get his toung around Fáilte. It’s as good as any I’ve heard. When I lived in Amsterdam folk would regularly write in to the BBC WS to request Irish tunes just to hear “the experts” make a mess of Gaelic. Tabber dumda Lanabv was a favourite!! 🙂
Peter