Monday 29 October 2007

Saturday 27 October 2007

The Kitchen Musician







A great site with lots of songs and tunes. Best of all: The chords for accompanying are written down, too. Great site to learn some more tunes.

http://www.kitchenmusician.net/pages/kmmusicalpha.html

Guide to accompaniment for Irish traditional music

Some good tipps and advices for the accompaniment of trad Irish music to be found on this site. Just have a look at it:
http://www.tiompanalley.com/index_files/tunes/accompan.htm

Here you can find some tunes, some with mp3 to listen to:
http://www.tiompanalley.com/index_files/tunes/TunesLst.htm#HandOut

David James is the 2002 All-Ireland Champion, the only American to win solo senior All-Ireland Championships in the Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann (Festival of Irish Traditional Music) on the hammered dulcimer. He received a Master Folk Fellowship award from the Indiana Arts Commission in 1990, and another Individual Artist Award in 2000. He has won many US Midwest Fleadh titles on the dulcimer, fiddle, in trio competitions, in traditional singing and newly composed song categories.

David has performed and conducted workshops from California (e.g., Lark In The Morning Music Celebration, Mendocino) to Maine (Song of the Sea, Bar Harbor). Recent standouts were the 2005 Goderich, Ontario, Gaelic Roots Week, 2005 St. Joseph County Firefly Festival, the 2004 Evart, MI Funfest (over 150 workshop attendees), 2002 Cork (Ireland) Dulcimer Festival, 2000 and 2001 Kentucky Music Weeks where he taught dulcimer and fiddle, and the 2001 Indianapolis Irish Festival where he and partner Kim Hoffmann demonstrated Irish music and song styles with over 300 children.

Irish Flute Tunes

I came across this site by accident. I was looking for the notation of Crowley's reel and found this great site. Lots of Flute tunes to be found here. Michael plays them on his flute, once slow and then faster. Great work, if you don't have a flute player just capture his playing and accompany him. Good for trying different backings. Sounds better than playing to midi flutes on my sequencer.

http://irishflute.podbean.com/

Saturday 20 October 2007

Saturday 13 October 2007

Chordmaps

Music theory isn't a simple thing. That's a field I'm always working on, so many things I don't understand. Here's a website that can help a lot.

http://chordmaps.com

The chordmaps you can find there are very interesting. Starting with simple chordmaps, until you find very complex ones. You can work on chord progressions, and suddenly you understand a lot more than before. How does a chordmap work? Just start your chord progression with Chord I. Then jump to any chord on the map and start your way back to chord I using the arrows. Try it out.

Monday 8 October 2007

Kasir: Killavil jig - The Cicada - The Paper Bird

What a discovery. Kasir from Denmark play a lively mix of celtic music.

Web: http://www.kasir.dk/index-eng.html
Myspace: http://www.kasir.dk/index-eng.html

Oisín - Eckerman bodhrán
Rune - Borsini Accordion & Colin Goldie Overton whistles
Aske - Martin Guitar, Moon octave mandolin, Kasuga mandolin


Sunday 7 October 2007

Joseph Sobol and David DiGiuseppe - cittern and accordion

East Tennessee State University professor Joseph Sobol on cittern and Chapel Hill, NC accordionist/multi-instrumentalist David DiGiuseppe playing a short jig. Great playing!

Fred Morrison, Michael McGoldrick and Donal Lunny

You gotta see this. Real fantastic playing. What a band!

Medley - Farewell to Uist, The Lochaber Badger, RIP the Badger:

Fred Morrison - whistle and pipes
Michael McGoldrick - whistle and pipes
Donal Lunny - bouzouki
Jerry Douglas - dobro

Dolores Keane - Craigie Hill (1982)

Craigie Hill performed by Dolores Keane and Reel Union.

John faulkner - Bouzouki
Mairtin O'Connor - acordion
Sean Keane - flute
Eamonn Curran - whistle

Unfortunately you can't see too much of John's zouk playing. Nevertheless a real gem.

Saturday 6 October 2007

Lord Franklin

A song about Admiral Sir John Franklin (April 15, 1786 – June 11, 1847) who was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. He mapped almost two thirds of the northern coastline of North America. His last expedition disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic. The entire crew perished from starvation and exposure after Franklin died and the expedition's icebound ships were abandoned in desperation.

I first heard this song from Pentangle long ago. Two years ago I bought a record from a group called Arcanadh. On this there is another great version of that song. Listen to it, if you get a chance. http://www.arcanadh.com/

The bouzouki I'm playing on this video is made by Stevens, Munich, Germany. I bought it secondhand some years ago. Look at: http://www.guitars.de/

Lyrics and Tab: http://insel.heim.at/jamaica/320453/bouzouki_songs/Lord_Franklin.pdf

Tab made with Tabledit http://www.tabledit.com/


Friday 5 October 2007

Andy Irvine - The Ballad Of Tom Joad

performed at a Woody Guthrie tribute show in Whelans, Dublin - 3/10/07. Not high quality, but better than nothing.

The maid that sold her barley

There are many versions of that song, but I prefer the recording of the group Déanta. Whatever happened to these great musicians? PDF with lyrics and chords at: http://insel.heim.at/jamaica/320453/bouzouki_songs/maid.pdf


The bouzouki I'm playing on this video is handmade by Heiner Dreizehnter, Leutkirch, Germany. Unfortunately he died about two years ago. RIP!

{t:The Maid That Sold Her Barley}

It’s [Gm]cold and raw, the north winds blow
Black in the [F]morning [Gm]early
When [Gm]all the hills were covered with snow
Oh then it was [F]winter [Gm]fairly.
As [Gm]I was riding o’er the moor
I met a farmer’s daugh[Dm]ter
Her [Gm]cherry cheeks and coal-black hair
They caused my [Dm]heart to [C]falter.  

I bowed my bonnet very low
To let her know my meaning.
She answered with a courteous smile 
Her looks they were engaging. 
"where are you bound my pretty maid 
It's now in the morning early?"
The answer that she gave to me 
"Kind sir, to sell my barley."

"Now twenty guineas I've in my purse 
And twenty more that's yearly.
You need not go to the market town 
For I'll buy all your barley.
If twenty guineas would gain the heart 
Of the maid I love so dearly
All for to tarry with me one night 
And go home in the morning early."

As I was riding o'er the moor
The very evening after
It was my fortune for to meet
The farmer's only daughter.
Although the weather being cold and raw 
With her I thought to parlay
The answer that she gave to me 
"Kind sir, I've sold my barley."

Thursday 4 October 2007

Yoyotimmy

Yoyotimmy brings us two instrumentals on his zouk. First Lark in the morning, a 4-part jig


Next Brian Boru's March


Lament on Con O'Leary's Wife's Death



Fine work, yoyotimmy, love this a lot!