Road to Lisdoonvarna

I heard this one being played in a set with the Swallowtail, Kesh, and Morrison jigs, and it was easy to learn, so here it is. Also, I finally remembered to fix my phone's orientation. Portrait mode annoys me, but...it's just more intuitive, somehow, when I'm primarily filming a long, thin, narrow whistle. :P

The Blarney Pilgrim

Ooooh, now this is a nice tune. And one I learned a while ago, now that I think of it... But it's really pretty, flows well, and very melodic. I've gotten better at playing it since I recorded this video, so I'd like to post an updated one soon, but this one is still decent, so might as well. The squeak on the high G in the second part is painful, though. I've gotten better at that jump to the G since then. XD

EDIT:

Here's a newer, better version. I'm keeping the older video up as well so you can see the progress.

Cooley's Reel

Wow, can't believe I never uploaded this video. I learned it back with Rights of Man, I think...if not even earlier. It's painful at a slow tempo, and absolutely delightful at a fast one. I would like to learn some different variations of this tune, though. The version I learned is one of the more boring ones, I think. :/

The Wise Maid

Again, the high D is hard here. I can play the tune faster, and it's usually played MUCH faster as sessions, but...I get all my fingers twisted up when I try to play quickly and keep the tempo well. I'll try to upload a better version soon, but this is the best I've got on video so far.

EDIT:

Update with a newer, better version. Keeping the older version so that you can see the progress, though.

Drowsy Maggie

That high D drives me insane, especially on the Killarney whistle, but...I just have to practise it more.

More Updates

Soo...I've been busy. Clearly. No posts in over a month now, the shame. However, that doesn't mean I haven't been practising. I've learned a bunch of new session tunes, and I'll try to start uploading them soon. :D

But that's not all...

I've had three new comments on the blog! Which is great! I wonder where I can see how many lurkers have visited the site recently... But anyway, let me say a few things again here, in a more recent post, so that whoever stumbles upon this blog will be more likely to see it.

1) If there's a song you'd like me to transcribe, let me know. If there's a tutorial you'd like me to make, let me know. If there's a song you'd like for me to learn and THEN do a tutorial on it...let me know. I can't promise anything, but I need new songs to learn anyway. *Shrugs*
2) I'm bad at checking comments, and I might reply late. Since this blog doesn't get much traffic normally, I don't really expect comments too often. I'm sorry, and I'll try to be better about it.
3) If you have any comments or constructive criticisms, I would love to hear them. I know that I'm not very good and I have a lot to learn, so I would love feedback! Thanks!

Okay, now that's done, I'll start posting some of the songs I've learned over the past month and a half or so...

Note to self: Still need to upload The Scholar, The Old Bush, and Merrily Kissed the Quaker. Plus Fairly Shot of Her if I can clean up the B part...

Siuil A Ruin

Right, so this isn't a session tune, but it is the melody of one of my favourite Irish songs. I've been wanting to learn it for a while and couldn't find the notes for it anywhere, nevermind tutorials. But you know what happens with years of playing, and listening to, music? You get better at hearing notes! Picked this up by ear. ^_^ (That means there might be mistakes, but it should be pretty close...)

Swallowtail Jig

Been wanting to learn this for a while, and it's so easy... Fun to play with Morrison's. :)

The Rights of Man

I'm starting to think I really like hornpipes. :D I didn't love this tune when I first heard it a few months ago, but my opinion has definitely changed.

I've got two videos, one recorded shortly after learning it, and the second a little later, a little faster. I messed up a touch in all of the B parts in all the videos, but I swear I know how to place it. Recording just throws everything off... *Sighs*

And faster...

The King of the Fairies

I've been trying to learn this song for months, and it took several lessons with my teacher to get me through that complicated B part, but I finally learned it. :D It's such a lovely little tune. 

Not the greatest video, as usual, but it's still proof that I know it.

Also, yes, those are gunfire shots you hear in the background. No, I don't live in a really bad area, I'm just an outdoor shooting range. It was the only time I had to film this. :/ 

Updates

IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!
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Not really.
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But it feels like it...

In the last few weeks, I have learned: The King of the Fairies, Fairly Shot of Her, Cooley's Reel, The Rights of Man, The Swallowtail Jig, and, as a bonus, Siuil a Ruin. Oh! And The Blarney Pilgrim. Forgot that one, since I'm still brushing up on it. IT'S SO MANY SONGS! AHHHH!

For organisational reasons, I'm going to post each song in a separate post, and besides that, I only have four of those recorded. I'm not very good at playing Fairly Shot of Her or Cooley's, and I just learned The Blarney Pilgrim last Monday, so I'm a little slow with the B part still. That one and Cooley's do have a fairly good chance of making it onto the blog at some point, but only after I get a lot more practice in. Fairly Shot of Her...I probably won't post. B part sounds a little funny on the whistle to my ears. *Shrugs*

Next week, I'm to learn The Wise Maid and The Sligo Reel, soooooooooo this is the last date for a few weeks. Those two are hard. >.<

The Galway Belle

I had a spare 20 minutes today, so I learned this one quickly. It's a real cute little polka tune. Maybe not best for the tin whistle (it's lovely on harp or guitar), but I quite enjoy playing it. :)

Morrison's Jig

YES!!! FINALLY!!! I learned Morrison's! Ha!
Having a teacher again helped. :P
I know I'm not playing it well in this video, but I've literally spent all day trying to get a decent video, and each time, I either get nervous, or my wifi gives out on me, or something else. So...mediocre video it shall be. At least it's still proof that I know this song, at last. :D

Testing New Whistle

Right, so this isn't a new song. I know. I was away last week and haven't focused on anything properly music-related beyond ordering a new whistle (exciting! :D). It came in the mail and here's my video testing it. It's a Generation Bb, and very squeaky, but I'm not sure if that's because there's something wrong with it, or if that's because I'm not playing it well. At any rate...this will probably be my last post before school starts again, so I think I can call my Summer Project officially done. I didn't do as well as I would have liked, but I'm still happy with my progress. Here's my latest list of session tunes that I know:

Planxty Irwin Jig
Eleanor Plunkett Waltz
The Butterfly Slipjig
Jim Ward's Jig
The Snowy Path Slipjig
The Banshee Reel
Tobin's Favourite Jig
The Lilting Banshee Jig
John Ryan's Polka
Kesh Jig
My Darling Asleep Jig
Dunmore Lasses Reel

I'm pretty happy with that. :D

As for the song in this video...the first bit is just me playing around, and then the second is The Water is Wide. Should be recognisable.

Summer Project: Dunmore Lasses

FINALLY! A new song! I had a very...very...busy...last few weeks. >.< Life... *Shrugs*

Anyway...I hesitated a while before picking this song. I have many others on my list that I should learn first *cough* King of the Faeries and Morrison's *cough*, but I fell in love with this tune and found a few good resources for learning it, so I learned it quite quickly. It's my second reel this summer, and I'm looking forward to learning more later. Maybe Man of the House? I really want to learn the Swallowtail Jig too, but...not a reel, and that one seems harder... :/

Tempo's still off, especially on the bits that give me trouble, as I tend to rush through the hard points... I hope my teacher will be able to fix that once I go back to school in two weeks.

Also, my dog made an appearance in this recording. She's waiting very patiently for a walk. XD

Summer Project: Rebel Songs

I was away from home last week, so I couldn't properly learn any session tunes, but I did learn two little rebel songs that are really simple to play. Still working on tempo...but otherwise...I know them pretty well by now. My neighbour was on the English side in Ulster during the Troubles, so I feel a little bad learning songs that could have been sung by the people who were trying to kill her family. On the other hand...I'm all for a free Irish Republic...

Óró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile

Come Out Ye Black and Tans

The Lilting Banshee - Update

I learned The Lilting Banshee almost exactly a month ago, and I've been practising it a lot, especially playing it faster. I'm happy with my progress. :D

Summer Project: My Darling Asleep

Like a good little procrastinator, I sat on my hands and learned nothing this week, until Thursday came rolling around and I realised that I'm due for an update here... I scrambled for my list of song to learn and stumbled upon My Darling Asleep, which I've never even heard before today, but which is a simple enough song to learn, and, two hours later, here I am, with one more song in my growing repertoire. :D

I have mistakes in this video, especially in the B part, but it's still enough to show that I've (mostly) learned it. I just have to practice more, and honestly, I don't want to do that today. The hard part was getting to this point, and after this, it's just playing it a lot, and I can do that later. I will try to update with a better video once I'm more comfortable with the song, though.

UPDATE:
Here's a slight better version. Still off in the tempo, but I've got all the notes.

Summer Project: On Break...

The lack of an update yesterday was because I haven't learned anything new this week... :( To be fair, though, it was a particularly busy week. I'll try to maybe learn more of King of the Fairies next week, since I do love the tune to death, no matter how difficult it's being. I can skip a week... I just have to make sure I learn something next week.

Summer Project: Kesh Jig

This was not a good week for learning songs. -_- I'm still only half-way through King of the Fairies, and only learned the Kesh two days ago. I still need to work on it...a lot...but I've got the notes right, at least...mostly... I KNOW what the right notes are, but I still make mistakes on it a lot. Plus the tempo's off. *Sighs*

Today was busy and the only time I had to take the video was in the car with my phone. Sorry it's not a very good video.

An Observation

Hopefully you can't tell from my videos (although you probably can), but I have a problem with tempo. It's hard for me to stay on beat. I've been told that I should tap my foot to help with that, but it distracts me from my playing, and it's hard for me to coordinate my foot to beat in time, and for my fingers to play the melody correctly at the same time.

Today, however, I was practising with a metronome, and I was having a bit of trouble playing The Banshee to the right beat, so I tried tapping my foot... I didn't end up playing it perfectly, and my fingers were all over the place, but the issue of tempo suddenly totally vanished. With my foot moving to the metronome, the rest of me didn't have to think about it at all. I just played, and was on beat. It was a really weird feeling, like tapping my foot internalised the metronome in the most complete way. I really will have to learn how to coordinate myself better now that I see how my braid just switches off and plays when I tap my foot.

Now to just get it to not throw off my fingers... :P

I Don't Wannnnnnaaaaaaaaaa

King of the Fairies is long and confusing, and Drowsie Maggie is fast and confusing, and the tempo for Morrison's and Brian Boru is hard, and I don't wanna work on any of it. >.<

I think I'm getting lazy, spending all of my summer break so far in bed, watching The Office. I can't even be bothered to do my Irish language lessons... I think I did one since coming back, three weeks ago? One? Maybe? Ugh.

This is just me complaining, but hey, the downs are also a part of a music student's life, so...it's fair.

Summer Project: John Ryan's Polka

I first heard this tune as Hills of Connenmara by Gaelic Storm, and I've wanted to learn it for a while, so when I saw it on the list of tunes my teacher wanted me to learn, I got very excited. This is also the song from Titanic Party in Third Class, and is overall great fun to play.

This isn't the best I could do with it, and I might upload a better version later, but I hate rerecording myself every time there's a mistake, so I'm uploading the first video I got without mistakes. Well...timing's a bit off here and there, and it should be played faster, but that I can live with.

Summer Project: The Lilting Banshee

I hated learning this one. Endless problems, and I'm still not sure it's quite right. I still need to work on that high a in the b part... I'll fix that when I keep playing it in the future, but for now, I'm tired of resetting the recording every time I make a mistake, so this will have to do. Honestly, I must have spent at least a half-hour cancelling every video I started because of a little hesitation or mistake. I play so much worse when I know that I HAVE to play perfectly. When it's just for fun, making a mistake is no big deal, and, paradoxically, I don't make them... *Sighs* But I should get used to playing under pressure if I'm ever to play in sessions, so...good practice? >.<

Also, I'm ahead of time. So to summarize...
The Banshee had to be learned by April 28th
Tobin's Favourite had to be learned by May 5th
The Lilting Banshee had to be learned by May 12th

I'm a week early. And that's really good. I'm getting a little tired of hearing the whistle all the time. :P It's such a shrill instrument, and I love playing it, but there are limits to how many hours I'm willing to put into anything. So if I can get a few days off before learning my next tune, it'll be a welcome break.

Also, to brag a little, I sent my video of Tobin's Favourite off to my teacher, and she said it was great! I'm so happy to know that I'm making progress. :D Not many of my friends or family care one way or another about this hobby of mine, and that's certainly better than pelting me with rotten tomatoes whenever I play, but a little bit of praise is also appreciated. XD And all the more so when it comes from someone who actually plays the whistle, and plays it much better than I do.

Anyway, enough of all that. Here is my little Lilting Banshee.

Summer Project: Tobin's Favourite

This jig was harder to learn than I had expected, and I still need to check with my teacher to make sure I'm playing it correctly. All the same, I'm ahead of schedule, which will give me more time to learn my next song. I think I'll learn The Lilting Banshee...maybe... We'll see.

Summer Project: The Banshee

I'm finally broken of the habit of spelling it 'beansidhe', because The Beansidhe is not a reel anyone knows. So fine, The Banshee it is...

I'm learning two variations of it, but the one I know better is the one that my teacher taught to me, so I'll be playing that one for now, even if I like the other one more. I'm a little early with this upload, but it'll give me more time to work on Tobin's Favourite, which is a simple enough tune, but learning anything on my own is hard for me right now.

Anyway, here it is:

Summer Project Intro + First Song

I recently got a music teacher, but I won't be seeing her for summer, so my goal is to hold myself to learning 1 new session song a week. It's a lofty goal, and I don't think I'll hold to it 100%, but...the goal, at least, is there. I will also try to keep track of the songs that I know, and upload them here as I go. The original idea was a video diary of sorts, but I found a wonderful audio program that records in beautiful quality, and where I can play around with reverb and other effects, which is more fun for me, so I think I'll just be uploading songs that way.

I learned Ward's Jig a few weeks ago, and I'm cleaning up Snowy Path. This week's tune is The Banshee, which I aim to upload on Thursday (since Thursday is the day I would normally have my lesson.) And next week, I will try to learn Tobin's Favourite. After that...we'll see. :P

Anyway, as a precursor to the weekly tunes I'm supposed to learn, here's a recording of me playing Ward's. (With reverb. I'm excited. XD)

Since Blogger is being stupid, you'll have to copy/paste this link to listen: "http://vocaroo.com/i/s0mtD1CQCIsn"

The Hanging Tree - The Hunger Games

Notes taken from this video.

a b D E b b b a f#
a b b D E b b b a b
F# E D E D b a b b b a f#
f# a b D E a b b b a b
2x

I haven't played this yet, so there might be mistakes. If so, they're oversights, and I'll try to fix them later.