Looking for some resources for fingerstyle guitar arrangements of faster tunes (esp. reels) in standard tuning

I’m talking about actually playing the melodies, not accompanying them. I’m not looking for slow airs, I’m looking for stuff that’s typically played faster, especially reels. Flatpicking would probably be fine, too, as long as it’s still in standard tuning.

I’ve been doing this myself lately but it’s helpful to have examples and I’m just having a heck of a time finding anyone at all, and I surely can’t be the only one that wants to do it. Everyone I can find is DADGAD or similar tunings.

I think I had a CD by a classical guitarist with some jigs and reels on it years and years ago that was mostly standard tuning, but I can’t for the life of me remember who it might have been.

Tony McManus has produced two tutor CDs (maybe more) on Celtic Fingerstyle Guitar: I think they were published by Stephan Grossman’s Guitar Workshop (Ref. GW960 and GW961). I found them a bit advanced for my playing, but I’d be surprised if there’s much that is better for those with the skill and application to benefit from them. I’m not sure how much of the material is in standard tuning. The notes refer to various tunings that he uses in his examples: maybe the closest is dropped-D, but there are others besides DADGAD.

Dick Gaughan’s album, Coppers and Brass, from 1977, contains fast melody playing of numerous traditional Irish or Scottish tunes on six-string guitar. He does use some alternate tunings, but I think there are a few in standard tuning as well.

I would suggest trying arrangements in Dropped D if not DADGAD. The reason DADGAD is used for many arrangements is that it is so much easier to play fingerstyle in that tuning

I bet you’re thinking of David Russell. He had an album of Irish tunes. I remember it had Bucks Of Oranmore on it.

Arthur -- that’s it! It was indeed David Russell. Thank you, it’s been bugging me for weeks trying to remember. 🙂

dfost -- thanks for the recommendation. I’d only ever heard Gaughan’s singing, I didn’t realize he was a monster guitar player. His recording of “The Thrush In The Storm / The Flogging Reel” really sounds like standard tuning to me, there aren’t any characteristic “harp” note overhangs. It’s flatpicked but at least there’s some ideas to cop.

Bazza -- All the videos I could find of Tony McManus were in DADGAD, but I’ll look around for some of his drop D stuff just just see if I can pick up the books. No one’s playing melody notes on the lowest string anyway. I was referencing him for techniques, though, like his single note triplets.

Don’t fingerpick in dadgad. Drop D is better. Arty McGlynn is great but he flatpicks.

Donal Clancy had some on his website. Some are flat picking though.

https://www.celticguitarmusic.com/celgitreview.htm

I have learned several of the tunes in this book, I really enjoy the arrangements. There are both standard tunings and DADGAD tunes 😀

I wrote up a bunch of tabs for standard tuning a few years ago in advance of a mixed-plucked-strings workshop…I’ll see if I can find it for you.

This may be a good resource.

http://banwarth.free.fr/engindex.html

Though almost exclusively flatpicking, I would recommend two great Scottish guitarists
Anna Massie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jNZuwqbrdc

play video

and Jenn Butterworth
https://www.facebook.com/ScottishMusicAcademy/videos/-lesson-of-the-week-/1535530713317877/

Thanks for all the recommendations! What a great community. This can easily keep me well occupied for a long time :D

Just checked out this clip of David Russell playing the Bucks -- fantastic! https://youtu.be/XZdM9Rp_e0o

play video

I’m biased toward flat picking for faster melodies, if only for the triplets.

but I LOVE me some David Russell, had no idea he did a record if Irish music. will check it out.

I’m back. Just listened to Russell. Ick. Hated it. Sounds exactly like a classical musician making a tune sound like classical music. I’ll stick with his albums of classical guitar repertoire!

this is kind of *why* I’m shy of finger style tunes; it’s pretty rare for someone to make them sound like tunes and not just “guitar music.” lovely of course for slower things, but if it’s a dance tune, it needs to sound like it.

IMHO of course.

Hey, Matt, I can respect that interpretation. I think Russell’s playing is beautiful, but I can absolutely agree that he plays the melodies the way a classical musician would: The arrangements tend to be done as “variations,” and his ornaments are clearly derived from classical guitar music and not from pipes or flutes or fiddles. (Or in the case of DADGAD guitarists, I tend to hear them as maybe imitating harps?) His rhythm isn’t focused on sounding like dance tunes either (including using rubato in places).

On the other hand, I hear Tony McManus play, or the example someone gave of Gaugan, and I can pretty clearly hear the influence of pipes. In McManus’s case or Steven Wake, the fingerstyle is to be their own accompaniment, and they both do the triplets with their fingers. In both of their cases they’re using classical tremolo techniques to play them but it’s clearly a “Celtic” ornamentation when they do it, sounds just like a banjo player. So there must be some sort of happy medium here between just banging out the melody using my fingers and sounding like a classical guitar piece.

In my case, me and a friend are putting together a project with just me on guitar (mostly) and him (mostly) on whistles, and we didn’t want to limit ourselves to a single instrument carrying the melody, not to mention I have a lot more practice time than him and would like to throw in a solo tune set here and there.

I don’t play guitar with a pick very much these days and my string skipping is has suffered a lot, so ironically my speed is significantly worse with a pick though I could probably sacrifice other practice time to get good with it again. (I was better with a pick when I was playing a lot of mandolin.) And I’ve tried hybrid picking for years but I play mostly TIM fingerstyle (in like folk rock bands and stuff) and my ring finger isn’t particularly cooperative. Kind of leaves me in a position where it’s easier overall for me to work on a challenging fingerstyle arrangement than it is to work on what might be a simpler flatpicked arrangement.

Yeah, Tony M is one of the few folks I hear who plays fingerstyle and really makes the rhythm and ornamentation work. I do love arrangements where the guitar does some melody as well, that record Tony & Alasdair Frasier made a million years ago is great. good luck on the project!

I forgot to mention in my earlier comment to check out the Scottish guitarist Stephen Wake. His arrangements are beautiful and expertly played and he provides pdf downloads of the sheet music! Enjoy and happy playing!

https://stephenwake.bandcamp.com/

Yup, I’ve got some Stephen Wake in my Bandcamp cart after finding him a couple weeks ago. Even though he’s DADGAD, I like his rhythm and his single-note triplets are really great, too, I spent some time slowing his videos down to half speed trying to work out whether he was doing two or three fingers for those triplets (in most cases it looks like it’s two) :D

Oh, I also found the McManus and Frasier album Matt mentioned on Bandcamp, definitely getting it this Friday. I love it and I sent it to my friend as a good sonic reference -- the tunes aren’t played at breakneck speed (which will make both of us happy), and even though it’s fiddle it’s a great mix of a primary tune carrying instrument and the guitar doing a bit of both. Plus the playing from both of them is beautiful.

https://alasdairfraser.bandcamp.com/album/return-to-kintail-2

Not standard tuning, but this album is purely solo fingerstyle trad guitar.

https://frisbeerecords.bandcamp.com/album/contemporary-traditional-irish-guitar

On this album fiddle and piping ornaments are adapted to nylon string guitar. It’s not a classical guitar album like David Russell, it’s a trad guitar album on nylon string guitar.

Also there’s Steve Cooney’s beautiful album of harp music on guitar

https://stevecooneymusic.com/album/1362087/ceol-arsa-clairsi-tunes-of-the-irish-harpers-for-solo-guitar

And Dennis Cahill always used standard tuning. Here’s some of his lovely guitar arrangements

https://youtu.be/Qhfm8OHU75k

play video

https://youtu.be/J3zHtwlwhOQ

play video

https://youtu.be/CBMPdHYJQyI

play video

Beautiful stuff, thank you for those IMO.