Irish Traditional Music Anyone?

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Eldarion

New member
Hi everyone,

Does anyone like Irish traditional music here, is interested in learning it or playing it?

Just in case its not clear here are some examples of Irish trad: (clickable links below)

Caoimhin O'Raghallaigh on a hardanger fiddle and Mick O'Brien on the Uilleann Pipes
The Bothy Band, a popular band from the 70s.
Kieran Collins, an Irish tin whistle player
Claire Keville on the concertina and Pat O'Connor on the fiddle
Two greats of the past, Peter Horan and Fred Finn
Two 1 hr concerts of a contemporary styled Irish band, Lunasa

I play this music and am looking for people who also enjoy it. :) Do drop me an email or a message if you're interested in playing together or learning it.
 
Hmm.

Hail, son of Aragon! :lol:

Irish music lover here too. Wanna check out good local Irish stuff? Go to Molly Malone's Irish Pub 56 Circular Road on Tuesday evenings and witness the fantastic Gerry Cox and his pals in action. :wink:
 
Hey there,

I'm currently learning mandolin, got into it through listening to bluegrass and old-time, which I'm pretty sure has it's roots in Irish music. I'm not that great at it, simple scales and chords so far but I'm working on it. Let me know if you think we can try something out.

Over a pint of Guiness, for authenticity's sake. :lol:
 
Hi guys, thanks for the replies..

Crawldaddy: Thanks for the recommendation. I have seen Gerry Cox play/sing before, and entertaining as he may be we're playing quite different kinds of music. (although in general everyone likes to give it all the nebulous and rather generic label of "Irish music") Not sure if you checked out the links, but those are more in the line with what I play :)

BloozeGit: Hi there, bluegrass and old-timey music does indeed have its roots in Irish and Scottish trad music. These traditions share quite a few tunes actually, although played slightly differently. Have you tried the fiddle before? The mandolin can be amazing in bluegrass but it can be very challenging to make the instrument suit the style of Irish trad music. Let me know what you think though..

Most people playing Irish trad normally start out learning a tin whistle (aka pennywhistle) because its fairly cheap, plays easily and allows one to learn the music and its idiosyncracies without having to worry about how to make a tone. Basically blow and there's sound, fingering is pretty intuitive as well.

Here's a website devoted to the instrument:
www.chiffandfipple.com
I got a tinwhistle after being infected by that website's contagious enthusiasm and quirkiness. It just happens that the main sort of music usually played on the tinwhistle is Irish trad so thats how I got into it. The better I got at the music, the more I was hooked and eventually it has led to me going from the tinwhistle to the "Irish" wooden flute, and after a negligible brush with the fiddle, I'm now committed to the uilleann pipes which is my main instrument.

I love the music but here in Singapore its a bit hard finding like minds with a similar passion. I'm willing to assist anyone who is truely interested though, and hopefully 10 years later who knows we might have a community of Irish traditional musicians in Singapore.
 
Hi, I'm VERY interested, although I'm not in Singapore at the moment (working overseas). But I've always been interested in writing Irish music. I've attempted once - and not too good. I use samples. One reason I didn't do too well at the last try was because I didn't have the whole range of Irish instruments at my disposal. The other reason was because I just don't have the foundation. Anyway, now I have the samples I need: low to high whistles, Uillean pipes, highland pipes, fiddle, and a number of other european instruments that may not be related to Irish, like the hurdy gurdy etc.

I need somebody to teach me Irish music form and structure. I need better foundation. Not to play it - but to write it. Any suggestions where to start?
 
Hi Cheez,

I'm not sure if you're refering to Irish traditional music, but writing Irish traditional tunes does not require a range of instruments on your computer to sample from etc. What is required is a deep understanding of the the music itself and I would say that there is no way one can gain this insight without getting your feet wet and learning the music on real instruments. It also involves the thorough knowledge of many tunes so as to familiarise yourself and absorb the idom of the music. People who write Irish trad tunes usually come equiped with decades of playing experience, and even so their compositions may not withstand the test of time. (by being perpetuated by the collective of ITM musicians)

Maybe you are referring to composing arranged music like for the musical "Riverdance", which isn't really Irish trad. If so I'm not exactly sure how to help you specifically. In any case I would think it involves familiarity with the traditional idom as well as having generic Western music compositional skill.
 
Actually, I want to learn Irish trad. Granted, many arragements has a tinge of Irish blood in them. Yes, I may add Irish tonality to some of my orchestral arrangements. But I gather I will always get stuck unless I go down to the root of it all - pure Irish traditional music. Only when I'm familiar with it then I could mix it with other arrangements. Otherwise, it will just be one "nice sounding mess" which makes no Irish sense. I wonder if I'm sounding more confused...

Anyway, I find time an issue. I agree - the best is to get my hands dirty and get those instruments and learn them. But I don't have that time, unfortunately. Do you think I can still learn the basic foundation of Irish music by a mere understanding of the instruments and their characters? Any suggestions on how I can start to learn writing it? Any recommendations on albums I can try listening to first?

By the way, how would you categorize "Riverdance"?
 
Hehe you can't have the cake and eat it and not get fat, as a friend of mine likes to say. If you don't invest the time, how to get results...

Learning the basic foundation of Irish music, and understanding the instruments and their characters involves playing the music if you ask me. It is more intuitive and provides deeper insight. Yes it is possible to get some superficial understanding of how everything sounds but likewise your compositions will sound superficially Irish.

Riverdance music is largely orchestrated music partially based on traditional Irish melodic and rhythmic motifs.
 
what's irish tradition music? music with celtic theme?

does it share similarities with scotish music or are they the same? something like brave heart ost?
 
Hi there, if you try clicking on the links on the first post of this thread, it should show you some examples of ITM.
 
Hi Eldarion,

The Bothy Band video you recommended shows them using what I believe to be an octave mandolin, in more of a rhythmic backing role rather than playing complex melodies with the fiddle and pipes. Would a mandolin fit in well in this context?

In any case, I'd be mighty interested to hear it being done live, do keep me informed if you're going to be playing anytime soon! I'll PM you my email address.

As for my musical background, I play guitar and I'm mostly into blues of all sorts, from uptown Chicago and West Coast blues to the raw Delta sounds and Missippi hill-stomp. From that grounding I started exploring country, rockabilly, zydeco, Cajun, bluegrass and the old-time Appalachian hill music. You may have just gotten me started on Irish trad :D

Just one more question: are you local?
 
woots, i love irish instruments, especially the whistles, flutes n pipes :D... i dont really listen to irish traditional music, but if you know the game composer Yasunori Mitsuda, some of his compositions are celtic/irished influneced , especially his xenogears - cried arranged album haha..
 
Bloozegit: I replied your mandolin question in Private Message as its quite long. As for your other questions hehe I think I'm on a public performance hiatus, mainly because of a lack of fellow musicians to play with. No intentions of doing a solo performance :lol: . Which brings me back to why I'm posting in musician forums. Anyway I'm just woodshedding at home nowadays for me to dong shan zai qi someday. And yes I'm local, pure born and bred Singaporean.

Teraslasch: I'm glad you like the instruments, hopefully the game soundtracks will inspire you to pick them up someday hehe.
 
Hi Eldarion, although what you said is true somewhat, but it can be quite impossible for a composer. When I write for an orchestra, I know each instrument more or less intimately. I don't have to learn how to play the violin, viola, cello, double-bass, all the woodwind and brass, all the percussion, harp etc to be able to write. No one can do that! However, I do need to know, for example, how many positions there are on a violin and the limitations (like it's impossible to tremelo on a perfect 4th interval).

Writing and playing go hand-in-hand, but playing is not 100% necessary for a person who compose. But we do need to know the instrument well from a player's perspective.

But in this case, what I need is even more basic than that. I need to understand Irish music from ground up - what makes it, what defines it etc.

I performed with one of my friends sometime in the past. He was a fiddler. 2 of us - meant to be jazz. But we were bored so we threw in Irish. Piano is not Irish at all, but it was fun. It was also then I reaslied I need help in Irish music.

Any suggestions? If you think Irish music is different from others in that the composer needs to be able to play each of the instruments, I don't mind learning Irish instruments as my 4th and 5th instruments. But then again, I don't know how easy it is to get Uilleann pipes.
 
Hmm.

Ah, that is why I recommended the Tuesday evening sessions, which are usually unplugged and pretty much feature his friends who play traditional irish music with stringed instruments. :wink:
 
Cheez: I replied your post via PM as its fairly long. In short I'm getting the impression that you're thinking of James Horner compositions like for the Braveheart/Titanic movie than Irish music as depicted in the links above. I can't help you much there because western art music composition is out of my expertise.

Crawldaddy: Ah I think I know the group you're talking about. I've yet to drop by although I have played with them sometime in the past - I remember it was quite a guitar dominated session. The music we play differs though, but I might just drop by sometime.
 
Its not difficult to learn the whistle.. the first thing is having to get one though. Do check out www.chiffandfipple.com for a list of vendors as well as lot of other whistle related info. Learning wise I'd be willing to help anyone who's interested, no problem.
 
Irish fiddle tunes

Hi, great to fnally read about someone interested in playing Irish Music. I've been playng fiddle in Sydney in various "Bush Bands" with jigs and reels for the money in my student days and later just for the fun of it. Spent five years in K.L. teaching violin and voice and went along with a student of mine to an expat folk club. I've been looking for something like this in Singapore for ten years and haven't come across anything. Strange that K.L. would have more to offer. We'd get together there to just play once a month with the occasional gig at the Irish pubs. I've been in Singapore for 10 yrs and can't find muxh folk music and certainly not Irish trad here. May be interested in getting together sometime to see what happens. Would be great if some sort Irish Folk Club came out of it.
 
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