Recommendations for recordings without chordal backing?

Hey everyone,

I’m working on my backing abilities, and I wanted to do everyone at the local session the courtesy of doing all my homework at home. It’s a bit of a drag (and a bit time consuming) to record myself playing a bunch of tunes and then explore backing ideas that way. I’d much rather have recordings of other musicians that I could play with, and naturally respond to, partly to get out of my own brain as well, if you get what I mean.

I’d be curious to hear your recommendations. Bodhrán backing is ok too, but without zouk, guitar, piano, overly ambitious 2nd fiddler… you follow me. Maybe there’s an archive full of tunes somewhere?

I’ve found a few tracks like this scattered across my record collection, but a lot of stuff definitely already has backing, and rightly so.

Maybe some other aspiring backers have had this thought too, so this thread might help someone else down the line.

Here’s one to get us started: Trotting to Larne/The Random Jig Thanks, everyone!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HTqm4irMow

play video

May be a little ‘clunky’ but you can play ABC files of tunes on a loop to practice/try out backings

We’ve got an archive for learning tunes where a reasonable chunk of them are the simple recordings you talk about. You can play the tune in a loop and slow it down which might be helpful. For example:

https://irish.session.nz/tunes-archive/abbey-leix/

I imagine that the Irish Tin Whistle Tutorial Books (with sound files/CD’s of course) by Mary Bergin would be good for this. Lots of tunes, and played simply on the whistle.

ABC playback is all well and good, but I suppose what I’m really after are really good players playing unaccompanied, stuff that’s got the nyah. Doesn’t have to be simple. Looking for some inspiring stuff to play with. Some of that stuff in the tune archive sounds good!

Well if you could back all the Mary Bergin tunes you’d be doing really well. When I said ‘simply’ on the whistle I meant simply THE whistle. She’s as good as you get. If you want a bigger challenge then try out Casey in the Cowhouse. That’s ‘simply’ (laughs to self) Bobby Casey on the fiddle in his cow house. It’s all free on youtube and elsewhere.

And then, of course, there are heaps of Fergal Scahill’s “tune of the day”s that he plays unaccompanied.

Thanks for the recommendation, Gobby! I haven’t listened to those Mary Bergin recordings, so I maybe have been making an assumption about their simplicity due to their connection with a tutorial series. She’s of course top notch.

7 years ago - several suggestions :
https://thesession.org/discussions/38603#comment783090

https://thesession.org/recordings/4464

This is an amazing recording and would be perfect for your backing practice

A chapter in history

There are loads of fiddle and other solo instrument tutorials on YouTube given by single players; they will often play the tune slowly first, then up to speed, so that gives you more chances of working out your backing.

if you work on a specific tune, punch it into youtube, solo melody versions are sure to pop-up, even for some obscure tunes, after the entire CDbaby music library was dumped to youtube. use youtube-dl & co to download videos to your computer. (apologies for suggesting the obvious)

but beware, some solo melody videos have quite wobbly/squishy rhythm, okey to listen to, but quite noticeable if you try to play along. if not sure “is it me or them?”, walk in time to the tune or use the “livebpm” speedometer app.

Mick Obrien and Caominh O something albums are the absolute gold standard. Deadly Buzz and KittyLie Over

Bobby Casey gets faster from start of tune to end on that album so not perhaps the best To practice with as a backer ….
This is one of the best albums . Every tradhead should have it!!! 🙂
https://www.allcelticmusic.com/music/786c876a-f86f-102a-8020-000f1f67beb1/Tobar_an_Ouchais.html

To seriously practice backing firstly you need a good grasp of the standards and typical patterns keys and changes . Then good albums if youve no players to practice with . Single tracks unless they are sets are not very helpful because one important skill is keeping it going as the keys change without fumbles . As you practice this it becomes second nature . Thats when you can sit in confidently .

Here are a couple that spring to mind:

Conversation at the Crosses (Patrick O’Connor and Eoghan O’Sullivan) — one of my desert island discs! https://thesession.org/recordings/3459

Na fir Bolg (Jack Talty and Cormac Begley)— another gem.
https://thesession.org/recordings/3997

You could try (some of) the tunes on abcnotation.com

-I’ve found that with some rhythms, this helps a lot. Strathspeys for example are very difficult to ‘get right’ and require a lot of metronome hammering. Tunes in 7/8 too.