Hi All,
I would describe myself as an intermediate guitar player, and would love to start learning some irish trad songs. I wonder which songs would you recommend I learn? Something lodic and pretty well known would be great!
You could try
https://thesession.org/tunes/search?type=&mode=&q=Charms.
A nice waltz: i have played it in G major.
This one
https://thesession.org/tunes/6788
Somewhat depends on your style.
If you like to play with a solid kind of offbeat, a jig might work well, with the main rhythm being on the “3-1” part of the 1-2-3, 1-2-3. If you want to do something more melodic and less rhythmical, one of O’Carolan’s airs might be nice -- there’s a ton of them on the Interwebs, played in different styles (but most, I’m guessing, use DADGAD tuning.)
So it depends where you want to go…
Hi Prolle, your question is a little confusing because it’s not clear if you’re looking for songs or tunes. In Irish trad, “songs” have lyrics, “tunes” are instrumental. This website is dedicated to tunes, not songs, so in that spirit some tunes you could start with (the most popular tunes selected on this website) are:
Drowsy Maggie (a reel in 2/2 or 4/4 rhythm)
The Kesh (a jig in 6/8 rhythm)
The Butterfly (a slip jig in 9/8 rhythm)
Cooley’s (a reel)
Morrison’s (a jig)
You can find this info and links to the tunes here:
https://thesession.org/tunes
You might also check out some of the wise words from a guitar player on this site, Al Brown, on his profile page:
https://thesession.org/members/7960
Best of luck!
*Core Session Tunes*
"What follows is a list of 60 bog standard tunes which all session musicians at any level would be expected to know at any session anywhere in the world. There are certain tunes that get played in sessions for the purpose of involving everyone, whatever your level, and these tunes perform that function since it’s expected that everyone present will know them…
So please make sure you *at least* have these core tunes under your belt. These have been picked from a list of hundreds of session standards, and believe me it was very hard to cut it back even to 60."
https://thesession.org/sessions/1311#comment241459
posted by Dr. Dow November 30th, 2006
Thanks for the responses, very helpful. I mean “tunes” rather than songs. Also, I mean tunes that I can play solo on guitar, ie, for now, I am not interested in learning accompaniment. The likes of “the maid behind the bar” - that seems like a great tune that I could learn and that it would sound good on the guitar alone. Is there any good dvd that I could buy as a start? Or even good youtube links?
Thanks!
You might start out by searching YouTube for clips featuring players from “Masters of the Irish Guitar”
https://thesession.org/recordings/1993
and see if you find anything useful. Although some of those players use DADGAD or drop-D tuning.
And here’s one of my own personal favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzE439U5iMI
You should speak to member Tony o’rourke. He teaches tunes on the guitar. I think he has a downloadable book and he has a podcast.
Good job, Prolle--learning the melodies first, and backing later is a great way to go. I second Reilly67’s suggestion of tapping into Tony O’Rourke. Tony is top class. Tony’s member page is here:
https://thesession.org/members/36981
This is a nice solo guitar album by Donal Clancy, it’s on itunes:
https://thesession.org/recordings/2216
One of my favorites is…
https://thesession.org/tunes/612
