Daoiri Farrell and Donal Lunny - The Creggan White Hare

 Daoiri and Donal together. What a great version of this classic.

Andy Irvine - Live stream from Cyprus Avenue

 On Jan, 24th Andy played this live gig at Cyprus Avenue Cork. 

The Road To Drumleman - Eoin O'Neill backing

 

While searching for songs which are backed by Eoin O'Neill on bouzouki I came across this lovely CD by singer Noirin Lynch.

https://nirinlynch.bandcamp.com/track/the-road-to-drumleman

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried to tab the backing for the first verse to study Eoin's playing. Here is my humble attempt. It is for the tuning of ADAD. But as the A-string is rarely used it is also possible for GDAD with the exception of 2 notes in bars 13 and 16, it has to be 2nd fret on G-string which gives the needed A.

 

 

Down By The Sally Gardens - Eoin O'Neill Backing

Last October I took part in an online workshop with Eoin O'Neill. 9 video lessons, each around 20-30 minutes long he produced for the O'Flaherty retreat 2020. What an inspiration. Since then I play bouzouki in ADAD most of the times. It's much fun to back tunes in ADAD. But when singing I still use GDAD.

During that workshop he backed the singer Clara Buteler when singing "Down by the sally gardens". Now I tried to tab the accompaniment of the first verse. So here it is. Unfortunately I can't post the video here.

The Tab is for ADAD, but if you use GDAD it is nearly the same. Only one note is played on the low string, so you just have to play this D-Note on the 7th fret instead of the 5th fret which is notated for ADAD.

 

Matt Heaton - Playing Counter Melodies

 A new tutorial from Matt Heaton. A very in deep tutorial how to play counter melodies. Basic rule to this: you have to know the tune you're accompanying very well. Otherwise it might clash with the melody.

Daoiri Farrell - Live Online Concert for Festival of Oulu

 Daoiri did lots of online concerts during the pandemic in the last months. Here is one he did for the Festival of Oulu which took place Nov. 19th - 21

I think, I don't have to say anything about Daoiri, I first met him in 2011 in Germany and and within these years he has achieved a well deserved success. Alway great to see him. 

Matt Heaton - Accompanying Tunes in Am with Capo 2 (Gm-Shapes)

So Matt did it again. Another great tutorial for bouzouki. He explains how to accompany tunes in Am. He uses the capo at 2nd fret and plays Gm shapes.

If you watched this you might be interested in my posts about accompanying in Gm. Here they are:

https://irish-bouzouki.blogspot.com/2020/05/accompanying-tunes-in-am-with-gm-chords.html

https://irish-bouzouki.blogspot.com/2020/01/chord-shapes-in-g-minor-also-usable.html

Eoin O'Neill - Bouzouki Online Workshop

 Well, I'm a bit late with this information, but better late than never ...

Eoin O'Neill offers an online workshop for Bouzouki at the O'Flaherty's Retreat 2020. It runs from Out. 18th until Nov 8th, so it is already online. It cost 150$ and you'll get 9 Lessons each lasts around 25 - 30 minutes You can register here:

https://oflahertyretreat.org

The online workshops are available until December, so enough time to learn from/with Eoin. I'm so happy to have the opportunity to learn the way Eoin plays. This might be the only good thing about Corona.

Andy Irvine - Live in Kuhstedt (Germany) 4th of November 2010

 Found this now 10 years old Video on my hard disk. I filmed it at a concert in a small village in Northern Germany. The concert was sold out and I had bought no ticket in advance. Luckily they opened up the room and let me and some more people in. Btw. I drove more than 700 km to see Andy there, well, to be honest, I also wanted to visit my sister who lives there ;-)

Matt Heaton - Bouzouki Workshop #3 - Accompanying in Em

 Matt's workshop for this weeks is all about accompanying in Em without capo. He gives some ideas to play in Em which might be useful when accompanying a set of tunes in different keys.

This time no chord diagrams necessary, just watch the video.

Matt Heaton - Bouzouki Workshop #2 - Chords in the key of G (mostly)

 Matt just released the second workshop in his Backer Corner series. Here he gives an overview of useful chords in the key of G. 

I made a chord-chart with the app guitartoolkit (highly recommended) so it is easier to follow him.

If you'd like to donate to Matt you can do it here: PayPal button -- https://tinyurl.com/wqofe4b

 

Matt Heaton - Workshop Right hand technique

Matt offers his first bouzouki tutorial. This one is about right hand technique. In this way he shares my opinion about accompanying tunes on the bouzouki. It sounds better if the bouzouki is played different from a guitar.

The Heaton's youtube-channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2jJahEPFofYItznRtMNCaQ

And don't forget to tune in to the Heaton's slow session on youtube every Saturday, and maybe donate some money to them if you have something spare:  PayPal button -- https://tinyurl.com/wqofe4b

Accompanying in A: Matt & Shannon Heaton - Haunted House

At the last Slow Session Matt and Shannon played the warmup jig first in G and then in A.  It's a nice idea to change the key during a tune. Works very well for the Haunted House. 

 So far I avoided playing in A. I always used the capo on 2nd fret and played G-shapes. So I found it very interesting how Matt manages playing in A.

Here's the video: Jig starts at 2:45, Jig in A starts at 4:54.

Btw. if you like what they are doing or if you like my tabs please consider to donate any amount you like to the Heatons virtual tip jar:      PayPal button -- https://tinyurl.com/wqofe4b

 

This is the tab I made for the first round through the tune: Hope it is nearly correct. If you find any mistakes please let me know.

In the last bars of the tune (2nd round through) Matt uses a nice chord progression:

A, Bm, F#m, D, E, A

A: 2240

Bm: 4450

F#m: 6670

D: 7790

E: 99110

A: 2202

Matt & Shannon Heaton - Jig in G - Haunted House

 A new Slow Session from the Heatons last Sunday. The warmup Jig played on bouzouki. First in G, then in A. It's a nice idea to change the key during a tune. Works very well for the Haunted House. Here's the video: Jig starts at 2:45

Btw. if you like what they are doing or if you like my tabs please consider to donate any amount you like to the Heatons virtual tip jar:      PayPal button -- https://tinyurl.com/wqofe4b

 

This is the tab I made for the first round through the tune: Hope it is nearly correct. If you find any mistakes please let me know. I will post a tab in A later.

Well, as Matt uses some interesting chords and rhythmic variations in the third round through I made a tab for it also. So here it is:

Trials of Cato

 For all lovers of odd rhythms and modern Folk here's a relatively new band from Finland. Alex, a reader of my blog reminded me of them, many thanks for that. I once listened to their album when it came out but forgot about them. So I gave it another try. Fantastic musicians. 

Here's their website: https://www.thetrialsofcato.com

And here are some live videos. Some songs of the EP are on youtube as well.