Sam Cormier’s reel - Accompaniment by TopScoreMusic Academy Declan Plummer

 Once a week, every Tuesday, Declan Plummer of TopScoreMusicAcademy, brings his live stream on youtube where he tries to work out an accompaniment to a tune he hasn't accompanied so far. The latest tune he worked on was Sam Cormier's Reel, composed by Denis Lanctot. 

He always uses Video recordings by Fiddler Olivia Barrett. She plays this Reel in E, which seems to be the key in which Denis Lanctot composed it, although it seems that most musicians play it in D. 

Here you'll find the short version of Declan playing Whistle and Bouzouki 

This is the whole video, it's very long but it's interesting to watch how he developes his accompaniments.

I made a tab out of his ideas which you can download here. First Line Melody from thesession, second line Declan's accompaniment.

Pigeon on the Gate Reel - Practice Irish Traditional Music With Me - Tuesday 10 March - Declan Plummer

 This weeks tune in Declan's "Practice with me" series is the reel "Pigeon On The Gate", in E-Dorian. Watch Declan finding an arrangement for this tune. By the way he shares some tips and tricks on finding counterpoint melodies.

The Otter's Holt Reel - Practice Irish Traditional Music With Me - Declan Plummer

 Declan Plummer offers regularly practice videos where he shows his approach to accompanying tunes. They usually last for about two hours, a long time watch. But worth it. He also shows the software he uses and gives a lot of insights. This time he uses the Reel "The Otter's Holt", a well known session favourite.

As audio he uses a video by Olivia Barret, who kindly gave him permission to use her videos. Maybe you want to have a look at her bandcamp site.

Declan's Top Score Music Academy can be found here

At 1hr 14sec he tries out some countermelodic parts

When watching the video I found a passage where he is reminded of the song "Hotel California" and shows some chords for the song. Here they are: