Chord Scale Generator

Chord Scale Generator is a program for MAC, Windows and Linux which helps you to find Chord Shapes and Scales on many fretted instruments. You can create alternative fingerings for more than 80 chords. You can translate between musical notation, tablatures and chord charts. It even provides a reverse chord finder. A demo version is available on the website. Also you can find screenshot and video-tutorials. Please comment, if you try it. Price is 21,95 €. Well, I would love to have it on my iPad so I can take it with me wherever I go.

http://www.pluck-n-play.com/en/index.html

Information for player in GDAE

Terry Bell created a website with lots of information for beginners who want to use GDAE tuning. Have a look, you'll find some useful things there.
http://www.angelfire.com/mi3/drumhilla/bouzouki_chords.html

This year the "1st Paddy Keenan Uilleann Pipe Gathering" will take place during the Summer School. There will be lots of interesting Workshops (Uilleann Pipes, Flute, Fiddle, Tin Whistle, Gitarre, Bodhrán, Banjo, Mandoline, Concertina), Concerts and Sessions from August 5th until August 11th 2012 at the Naturfreundehaus in Elmstein.

More information at: http://www.irishmusicschool-elmstein.de/index.php/en/

Here is the promotional video:

The Irish Bouzouki Tutorial

It took a long time, but now it's available, the English translation of the Irish Bouzouki Tutorial, which was until now only available in German. Ralf P. Wackers did a great Job on that book. If you are new to the bouzouki or want to learn some more tricks have a look at it. It's made for all common tunings, GDAE, GDAD and ADAD.

As with the German version you can order it directly from Ralf on his website at:
http://www.currach.de/ralf/Bucher/Irish_Bouzouki_English/irish_bouzouki_english.html

There you can also view some preview pages.

The Ruby Sessions

I don't know exactly what the Ruby Sessions are, but they can be found at facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/therubysessions


Here are some videos in which Donal Lunny plays his lovely bouzouki:


The Factory Girl - Philip King and Donal Lunny:

Donal Lunny - Tribute To Peadar O'Donnell

Maria Doyle Kennedy with Donal Lunny and Kieran Kennedy

This is the youtube-channel of the Ruby Sessions:

http://www.youtube.com/user/RubySessions?feature=watch

Donal Lunny - Solo on Guitar Shaped Bouzouki

This is a video of Donal playing a solo on a guitar shaped bouzouki. Recorded in Smock Alley Theatre, Temple Bar, Dublin.

Fiddlefreak Folk Music Blog

Fiddlefreak is a blog on which you can find information about new recordings in the folk genre. Oftentimes with links to youtube videos or soundclips. A good way to inform about new music. You can find it here: http://fiddlefreak.com/

Gochords

GoChords is an easy way to create chordsheets for songs. But first you have to register. It's free, so don't mind. After that you can start with a new song. Just copy the lyrics from wherever you want and paste it into the screen. After that you can select the chords and put them into the correct place. Select font and size, and size of chord boxes and there you go. It's as easy as that.

Supported instruments are so far: guitar, different Ukuleles and Mandolin. No bouzouki so far. But don't mind. You can create your own chords. What I did is, I selected mandolin and defined my own chords for this instrument. So I select mandolin and custom chords and I can use my own chords. That's ok for me. I hope they will support bouzouki in the future as well.

Try it, I think you will like it.

http://www.gochords.com/

Now they offer a tablet version, too, but it's 5€ per month. In my opinion that's definitely too much. But everyone may decide for themselves. I think the free online version is ok.

Litha (2Duos)

Litha is the new name of the quartett formerly known as 2Duos. Aaron Jones, Claire Mann, Gudrun Walters and Jürgen Treyz just released their second CD, which they sold on their last tour in Germany.

My friend Peter known as barnacles posted a video from this tour on youtube. Have a look, it's fantastic!




More information:

http://www.myspace.com/2duos

http://www.2duos.de/


Herr Olof, Live in Ettlingen near Karlsruhe, 2011

Waltzes, Live Ettlingen 2011

Dónal Lunny

I found some new videos by Dónal Lunny on youtube which are really worth looking at:

Cúnla - Trio Dónal Lunny, Pádraig Rynne, Sylvain Barou


Siobhán Ní Dhuibhir - Trio Dónal Lunny, Pádraig Rynne, Sylvain Barou

Behind the haystack

This is one of my favourit jigs. I already posted several videos by Kyle25rs. This is his interpretation of this tune he learned from a video of Andy Irvine and Donal Lunny here on youtube. Infortunately I wasn't able to find it here. Maybe someone can post the link to it?

Foxhunters and Bucks of Oranmore

Kyle Borley (Irish concert flute) and D'Arcy Stearns (Irish bouzouki), from Winnipeg, Canada. website: http://www.borleyandstearns.ca

Yellow Wattle and another Jig in G (Paidin O Raifeartaigh?)

Frances and Sean Conningham from Whistletutor.com playing two traditional Jigs on bouzouki and flute. Awesome!


Hammy Hamiltons / Unknown Slip Jig


Launching the Boat and Lad O'Beirne's


Maids of Mitchellstown/With Her Long Dark Hair Flowing Down Her Back


The Old Favorite and the Maid at the Well

An Dorian

An Dorian are based in the southern part of Germany. They play a lively mix of trad tunes and songs. These videos were recorded at the Bobenheim Folkmeeting, September 2011. An Dorian are: Janna Kirchhof - voice, fiddle Christian Roch - whistle, voice Ulf Bangert - Irish bouzouki Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/andorianirishfolk The Lily of the west


Billy Taylor


Swallow's tail / Old Dudeen / Long drop (reels)

Michael McGoldrick and Paddy Kerr

What a combination. Michael on flute and Paddy on bouzouki perform Michael's compositions "Farewell to Whalley Range" and "The Honesty Bar" jig during a concert filmed at the Sligo Summer School in July 2011. Michael spent time as a youngster at the Summer School, where he studied under great local tutors. This year he returned 25 years on to impart some of his extensive knowledge to students at this year's Summer School. This concert was webcast on www.LiveTrad.com.



Here's another video from this set:




And another one