Description
Much more than just tune books, these book/audio collections each contains 150 traditional Irish tunes, with suggested ornamentation and breathing places for tin whistle and flute players. There are no tune duplications – i.e., together the two collections contain 300 tunes. Recordings of all tunes are contained in the downloadable audio files. Also included are three chapters which address the author’s ornamentation notation system, modes, and breathing and phrasing. While composed mainly of “wind-friendly” tunes, there are also tunes of non-wind origin and, in the flute collection, tunes that require the use of metal flute keys. In the whistle collection there are 28 tunes for playing on non-D whistles. The author addresses the issue of notes that go too low for the standard Irish flute and whistle, and options for making needed adaptations.
In these books, the author designed the sequence of jigs, reels and hornpipes such that good medleys result when you play consecutive tunes one after another. We’re not aware of tune collections by other authors that offer such medley suggestions.
Many of the transcriptions pay homage to recordings by famous Irish musicians and groups such as Matt Molloy (of the Chieftains), Mary Bergin, Kevin Burke, Martin Hayes, Sharon Shannon, and Altan as well as early 20th century recordings from revered Irish masters Michael Coleman, Willie Clancy, Bobby Casey, Paddy Killoran, Dennis Murphy, Paddy Canny and others.
In each of these books you’ll find:
- 150 jigs, reels, hornpipes, slip jigs, polkas, slides and other types of Irish tunes
- Irish session favorites
- Lesser-known tunes to broaden your repertoire
- An innovative approach to using a variety of whistles and flutes in keys other than D in Irish sessions
- Three chapters to guide you through ornamentation, breathing and phrasing, modes and notation
- Audio files of all 150 tunes, played by the author, plus musical examples from each of the chapters
