PS: does the waltz at 41:15 sound a bit like Vals efter Pelle? I’ve got that on a recording somewhere, but can’t recall who made it. Well said Calum and others. Dow’s knowledge was encyclopaedic and his tune memory astonishing. His list probably was a good snapshot for the places he knew and the time - the Irish music scene in New South Wales 15 years ago, for instance. No doubt at all that you’ll find a handful of those tunes played at almost any Irish-based session. But at the next session it will be a different handful. Although late to the party, I have to say that this is a magnificent recording. Three fine musicians at the top of their game. Highly recommended. P. Tunes to be played at 100% speed, with the deadline for video submission set for Sunday, 17th September 2023. This tune is being played a bit at sessions in Fermanagh ATM. Laurence Nugent, the exceptionally talented flute player, brought it over from Chicago. Local box player Gary Curley has added it to the session repertoire.

So what I did was noting down the tunes that were being played frequently and start practising these at home. So step by step I learned more and more popular Irish session tunes. This is my list with the most popular tunes, including the links to corresponding sheet music. The most popular Irish session tunes Released by an Italian label, Folkest Dischi - the whole album’s on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3aUQQ68WHY&list=OLAK5uy_nLrL31XcCGV_M7U4M2CDG62gGDS2w6QsA&index=1. string: I had one once - basically a mandolin but with an extra octave string alongside each pair - it was a mandriola. I found it really hard to keep in tune and a bit of a handful for melody playing - but guess it would have been good for chords. When you start going to Irish sessions, you might wonder the most popular Irish session tunes are you should know. The amount of jigs, reels and other tunes experienced session players know can be tremendous and you might feel a bit lost when you want to join the mob and you find out you just learned other tunes than the ones being played. This was at least my experience when I started going to Irish sessions with my tin whistle.

50 Irish Session Tunes Challenge Lessons

In my experience, if the instrument is set up well, string breaks will mainly be due to “fatigue” - old, tired strings. Breaks can occur earlier with nut or saddle faults. The idea of 50, 100, 500 essential, approved or standard tunes seems like a great one, but experience shows (see above messages) that it doesn’t really work. It just approaches the problem - and it is a real problem - from the wrong angle. Your taste, your experience, your fellow players (as and when) are what matters, not some imagined canon of tunes you “must” know.

Make sure you’re on our mailing list! Many say the difference between success and failure can be put down to one simple decision, so are you willing to up your game, are you able for the #OAIM50 challenge? transcription based on what I remember of Matt Molloy’s version on his first solo album. I copied the chords from X:16. Thx, Aaron!

For another video of a playlist of songs, but more traditional, I like “Irish and Celtic Music Collection 1” on YouTube. A video of it I used to listen to seems to have been removed, but it’s still found but under a kids’ video. Denis is a fiddler from Quebec ( http://www.denislanctot.com/). This was his third album, released in 1997.