Hey All,
Do any of you have good (possibly great) tune set lists? I.e. sets of great reels(jigs,hornpipes,etc) that sound great together? Looking at recordings is often good but time intensive so it occured to me that you all might have lots of sets all ready to go!
ps one of my favorite reel sets is Humours of Castlefinn followed by Glen of Aherlow, but it is a bit short...what tune would you put after it (or before?)?
also the cherish the ladies 'irish women musicians in america' cd has a great one. track #8: The Galtee Rangers into Gan Ainm (reels) , and
track #2: The Tempest into Smash The Windows into Lad o'Beirne's
This one has done the rounds, but one I never get tired of answering. It's often on my mind what tune might follow what tune, but there ye go. And a well-matched set can make or break the delivery of the constituent tunes (IMHO).
FWIW, here are some of my faves (again!):
The Tulla CB with just PJoe and the box player did a lovely rendition of Tatter Jack's and the Cook in the Kitchen (jigs).
The John Bow set as it's eponymously known round here after its inventor the legendary box player, has (reels) The Blackberry Blossom, Dick Gossip's and The Castle.
Then you might also try The Dublin Reel, The Monaghan Twig and The Convenience Reel.
Here are the sets I use, when it's my turn to call a tune at my session (of course, it's the slow "beginner's" session);
Jigs- Banish Misfortune/Blackthorn Stick
Geese In The Bog/Lark In The Morning/Haste To The Wedding
Reels-Miss McLeod/St Anne's Reel
Cup of Tea/Cooley's Reel
We always play "The Maid Medley" (Maid Behind The Bar/Wise Maid/Sligo Maid) every week, without fail, and we end each session with Bucks of Oranmore. Those predictable tunes help us beginners.
Granted this has been discussed before, but as this is a fluid matter there is no reason for someone not to bring it up again as often as they want. They will always get the same sort of answers; eg that you make up your own sets and that you do or don't have to have all reels/jigs whatever.
Thing is if you don't have some favourites that you found worked well for you or that you like hearing then why not just stay out of the thread. It is one of the areas that beginners always come up against sooner or later and need to look at as many examples as possible to learn what works and what doesn't. Even though that is a bit of a matter of opinion.
Right - I feel better having got that off my chest.
A nice little medley we do is stitchin up the britches, mixed with Buddy Holly's Peggy Sue. Another is trippin up the stairs into a slide i heard from rig the jig's album stormy brew (it's the first of the slide set and might be that one, dennis murphy's but im not sure).
What really catches the audiences attention is a tune-pair where something "happens" and catches their attention.
e.g. Banish Misfortune followed by Gillans Apples (with a very emphasised and staccato first note and following rest).
Minor to Major with a bang (a bit of a Haydn-esque "Surprise").
1) Learn what tunes are played as standard sets at your local session.
2) Learn what tunes are played in classic sets so that you have an international "lingua franca" for sessions further afield.
3) Learn how to put together sets of your own that sound good.
4) Learn how to make up sets on the fly by thinking of a tune as you're playing another one.
5) Don't get hung up on what tunes other people tell you sound good together. A lot of the time they'll sound sh*t. Just do your own thing.
1) Things I've put together
Cooley's/Father Kelly's (reels)
Humours of Ennistymon/Cliffs of Moher (jigs)
Haunted House/An Luiathraidan (Junior Crehan's) (jigs) (I do the second one in G, not D)
Collier's/Last Night's Fun (reels)
Farewell to Milltown/Eileen Curran/Jack's (reels)
(G Dor/G Dor/F Maj) (Jack's is an unrecorded Josephine Marsh tune)
Rakes of Kildare/Thank God We're Surrounded by Water (jigs) (same tune in A Dor & G Maj)
2) Favorite sets from other sources
Willie Coleman's/Mug of Brown Ale/My Darling Asleep (jigs) (Jerry Holland in a concert at my house)
Rolling In The Barrel/In the Tap Room/Earl's Chair (reels)
(PJ Hayes/Paddy Canny/Peadar O'Loughlin, Mary MacNamara, Kevin Burke/Martin Hayes)
O'Connell's Trip to Parliament/Torn Jacket (reels) (Mike & Mary Rafferty)
Tripping Up The Stairs/Trip to Athlone (jigs) (Jackie Daly)
Clare Polkas (Bill O'Malley's in A Dor & G Maj) (Jackie Daly, Andrew MacNamara, Chulrua in concert at my house)
And, almost as good as Gan Ainm/Gan Ainm/Gan Ainm is Paddy Fahey's/Paddy Fahey's/Paddy Fahey's
I'm glad this thread has been posted because I was just about to start one on sets. I've always been a bit undecided in the argument on random tune selections at sessions (the excitement factor) versus agreed selections such as the Tarbolton set. After a weekend of sesions (the Tionól Leo Rowsome in monkstown) I'm now firmly in favour of agreed sets. So many times someone would start out with a great tune only to be followed with one that many musicians didn't know or alternatively two or three musicians might try and follow with a different tune altogether. Whichever situation, the outcome was that the dynamic was totally lost. Many of you may disagree but my own feeling is that a good set of tunes will always be a minimum of three. OK I may be biased but the selections in the Foinn Seisiún Books 1 & 2 are very useful for anyone wanting to put some session sets together.
I apologize if I sounded grouchy, didn't mean to. Just trying to get people to be a bit less predictable.
I came across two tunes the other day that went terrifically together and I was greatly surprised by it. The Concert reel and Craig's Pipes. Why? They're both in G, they scan in a remarkably similar way and even follow very similar chords, yet to play them together enhances the differences rather than reinforces the similarities. Two absolutely cracking tunes. This is the kind of thing you should be looking for when pairing tunes. Not big dramatic changes that make punters whoop.
One the things I can't abide when people put sets together is when they have a tune, and then they go something like, "yeah, one in Amin would follow that nicely." And they then look for a tune in Amin,
I haven't even read the above as am completely balloxed at the mo but - the Maple Leaf and the Man of Arran, (Em then Bm Dmaj) Julia Delaney (Dm), Lizarrol's (Amaj), Charlie Lennon's (Bm) mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm and then The musical Priest and Pachelbel's Frolicks meenummeenummeeenumb
One of the joys of this music for me is finding tunes that go together nicely. I don't always stick with the same medleys, but some seem impossible to improve on. I look for rhymes and consider momentum when exploring the possibilities, but there can be more than one tune that works for similar reasons. For example, the tune Molloy's Favourite can follow either the Copper Plate in Ador, or Richard Dwyer's Ador very well. They both end with a phrase that rhymes with the first phrase of Molloy's Favourite. Also, the momentum from Ador to Dmaj is nice.
Some times I'll consider the momentum of a tonal shift with a contrasting tune in the new key; especially if the A tune ends on the four instead of the one. For example, O’Rourke’s (Wild Irishman) into Austin Tierney’s. You can do a break on the last A and jump down to dig your heels into a big D note. It's most effective if the first note in the following tune is a quarter note or larger. If the tune is too notey it will lose its impact.
These are just two examples; there are many other formulas that work nice as well. Sometimes a change is nice for no particular reason too. It's fun experimenting around with tune combinations. But having said that, there are far more tune changes that lack anything remarkable or appealing. You can't just slap tunes together randomly unless the idea of 'hit & miss' sounds like fun to you.
"they scan in a remarkably similar way and even follow very similar chords, yet to play them together enhances the differences rather than reinforces the similarities."
as MG said. That can work quite well. I like Far From Home and Always Welcome in that way - they sound almost like variations on one another if you play them together.
But it's a bit boring always knowing what's coming next, no matter how appropriate.
There is room in the world for both sets where all is in the same key, and sets that mix things up. Sometimes, though, when we pair two tunes that are TOO similar, we end up having one tune morph into another, and get ourselves mixed up!
My wife's favorite set is Farewell to Connaught (Dmodal), Toss the Feathers (Em) and Toss the Feathers (Dmodal). The Em in the middle breaks things apart, and the two Dmodal tunes are similar, yet different in nature.
I myself have been liking going from Banish Misfortune into Garrett Barry's jig lately, staying in the D modal realm but with different tunes.
I've a set (fairly common tunes) that are all set in E minor and it goes from a reel, to a slip jig, to a regular jig:
Drowsy Maggy, The Butterfly, Morrison's
Great Tune Sets
Great Tune Sets
Hey All,
Do any of you have good (possibly great) tune set lists? I.e. sets of great reels(jigs,hornpipes,etc) that sound great together? Looking at recordings is often good but time intensive so it occured to me that you all might have lots of sets all ready to go!
ps one of my favorite reel sets is Humours of Castlefinn followed by Glen of Aherlow, but it is a bit short...what tune would you put after it (or before?)?
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by gr_geek
Re: Great Tune Sets
This topic is discussed about 3 or 4 times a year. You could find out what you're looking for with a simple search of "tune sets" on the home page.
I did one for you: http://www.thesession.org/index.php/search?q=%22tune+sets%22&start=0&scope=The+Session
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by Phantom Button
Re: Great Tune Sets
Kilarney Boys of Pleasure goes well after those two gr_geek it's a set put together by the late P. Joe Hayes still played a lot round these parts.
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by Bernie
Re: Great Tune Sets
Isn't half of the fun to come up with your own sets?
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by heike
Re: Great Tune Sets
dennis murphy's slide into connaughtmans rambles is great!
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by CELTICCHEF83
Re: Great Tune Sets
also the cherish the ladies 'irish women musicians in america' cd has a great one. track #8: The Galtee Rangers into Gan Ainm (reels) , and
track #2: The Tempest into Smash The Windows into Lad o'Beirne's
# Posted on September 11th 2005 by CELTICCHEF83
Re: Great Tune Sets
This one has done the rounds, but one I never get tired of answering. It's often on my mind what tune might follow what tune, but there ye go. And a well-matched set can make or break the delivery of the constituent tunes (IMHO).
FWIW, here are some of my faves (again!):
The Tulla CB with just PJoe and the box player did a lovely rendition of Tatter Jack's and the Cook in the Kitchen (jigs).
The John Bow set as it's eponymously known round here after its inventor the legendary box player, has (reels) The Blackberry Blossom, Dick Gossip's and The Castle.
Then you might also try The Dublin Reel, The Monaghan Twig and The Convenience Reel.
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by Rudall the time
Re: Great Tune Sets
One of my all-time favorite sets is: Gan Ainm/Gan Ainm/Gan Ainm
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by Phantom Button
Re: Great Tune Sets
Sorry Button but I'm afraid I always mess up the key changes going from tune to tune on that set. Tricky, but I suppose I just need to work on them?
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Great Tune Sets
True, but it's a versatile set anyway, you must agree.
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by Phantom Button
Re: Great Tune Sets
I LOVE coming up with set lists. Granted, I'm new to ITM, so I stick to a short repertory list...
http://www.slowplayers.org/BOSS/BOSS_Playlist.html
Here are the sets I use, when it's my turn to call a tune at my session (of course, it's the slow "beginner's" session);
Jigs- Banish Misfortune/Blackthorn Stick
Geese In The Bog/Lark In The Morning/Haste To The Wedding
Reels-Miss McLeod/St Anne's Reel
Cup of Tea/Cooley's Reel
We always play "The Maid Medley" (Maid Behind The Bar/Wise Maid/Sligo Maid) every week, without fail, and we end each session with Bucks of Oranmore. Those predictable tunes help us beginners.
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: Great Tune Sets
Jimmy Ward's goes well after absolutely any other 6/8 jig.
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by wormdiet
Re: Great Tune Sets
Granted this has been discussed before, but as this is a fluid matter there is no reason for someone not to bring it up again as often as they want. They will always get the same sort of answers; eg that you make up your own sets and that you do or don't have to have all reels/jigs whatever.
Thing is if you don't have some favourites that you found worked well for you or that you like hearing then why not just stay out of the thread. It is one of the areas that beginners always come up against sooner or later and need to look at as many examples as possible to learn what works and what doesn't. Even though that is a bit of a matter of opinion.
Right - I feel better having got that off my chest.
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by Donough
Re: Great Tune Sets
I should add that at least this time a few people have contributed some interesting ideas, but I was too busy ranting - sorry.
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by Donough
Re: Great Tune Sets
'Worm', I wonder, was that the Jimmy Ward who used to live on the main street in Miltown?
If so, I heard a great session in his front room with Mick O'Connor & some lethal young musicians around the end of the 70s.
Ooops, sorry for interupting Donough!
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by Ptarmigan
Re: Great Tune Sets
A nice little medley we do is stitchin up the britches, mixed with Buddy Holly's Peggy Sue. Another is trippin up the stairs into a slide i heard from rig the jig's album stormy brew (it's the first of the slide set and might be that one, dennis murphy's but im not sure).
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by copo24
Re: Great Tune Sets
As a member of TheSession and player of ITM for less time than most, I am always happy to see suggestions for sets - I find them useful.
What I see less of is :
1. what sequences of rhythms are the 'norm' or work best? It seems to me that
a) sets of the same eg set of jigs or set of reels
b) jig into reel
c) strathspey into reel
d) air into jig or reel
are the most common. Any comments?
2. what sequences of keys work best? Again, I see common patterns are
a) same key eg set of jigs in Dmaj
b) D then G
Comments on that one?
Thanks
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by domnull
Re: Great Tune Sets
try the following to go from jigs to a reel:
portarlington - maid in the meadow - green fields of america
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by Yohan
Re: Great Tune Sets
What really catches the audiences attention is a tune-pair where something "happens" and catches their attention.
e.g. Banish Misfortune followed by Gillans Apples (with a very emphasised and staccato first note and following rest).
Minor to Major with a bang (a bit of a Haydn-esque "Surprise").
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by geoffwright
Re: Great Tune Sets
Jigs to reels? minor to major? even D to G? These are all really done to death. You must learn to be more inventive.
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by llig leahcim
Re: Great Tune Sets
What you should do is:
1) Learn what tunes are played as standard sets at your local session.
2) Learn what tunes are played in classic sets so that you have an international "lingua franca" for sessions further afield.
3) Learn how to put together sets of your own that sound good.
4) Learn how to make up sets on the fly by thinking of a tune as you're playing another one.
5) Don't get hung up on what tunes other people tell you sound good together. A lot of the time they'll sound sh*t. Just do your own thing.
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by Dr. Dow
Re: Great Tune Sets
Some sets I like:
1) Things I've put together
Cooley's/Father Kelly's (reels)
Humours of Ennistymon/Cliffs of Moher (jigs)
Haunted House/An Luiathraidan (Junior Crehan's) (jigs) (I do the second one in G, not D)
Collier's/Last Night's Fun (reels)
Farewell to Milltown/Eileen Curran/Jack's (reels)
(G Dor/G Dor/F Maj) (Jack's is an unrecorded Josephine Marsh tune)
Rakes of Kildare/Thank God We're Surrounded by Water (jigs) (same tune in A Dor & G Maj)
2) Favorite sets from other sources
Willie Coleman's/Mug of Brown Ale/My Darling Asleep (jigs) (Jerry Holland in a concert at my house)
Rolling In The Barrel/In the Tap Room/Earl's Chair (reels)
(PJ Hayes/Paddy Canny/Peadar O'Loughlin, Mary MacNamara, Kevin Burke/Martin Hayes)
O'Connell's Trip to Parliament/Torn Jacket (reels) (Mike & Mary Rafferty)
Tripping Up The Stairs/Trip to Athlone (jigs) (Jackie Daly)
Clare Polkas (Bill O'Malley's in A Dor & G Maj) (Jackie Daly, Andrew MacNamara, Chulrua in concert at my house)
And, almost as good as Gan Ainm/Gan Ainm/Gan Ainm is Paddy Fahey's/Paddy Fahey's/Paddy Fahey's
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by GaryAMartin
Re: Great Tune Sets
But michael gill, please don't be grouchy--at least we are talking about tunes instead of accompaniment!!!
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by AlBrown
Re: Great Tune Sets
I'm glad this thread has been posted because I was just about to start one on sets. I've always been a bit undecided in the argument on random tune selections at sessions (the excitement factor) versus agreed selections such as the Tarbolton set. After a weekend of sesions (the Tionól Leo Rowsome in monkstown) I'm now firmly in favour of agreed sets. So many times someone would start out with a great tune only to be followed with one that many musicians didn't know or alternatively two or three musicians might try and follow with a different tune altogether. Whichever situation, the outcome was that the dynamic was totally lost. Many of you may disagree but my own feeling is that a good set of tunes will always be a minimum of three. OK I may be biased but the selections in the Foinn Seisiún Books 1 & 2 are very useful for anyone wanting to put some session sets together.
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by Bannerman
Re: Great Tune Sets
I apologize if I sounded grouchy, didn't mean to. Just trying to get people to be a bit less predictable.
I came across two tunes the other day that went terrifically together and I was greatly surprised by it. The Concert reel and Craig's Pipes. Why? They're both in G, they scan in a remarkably similar way and even follow very similar chords, yet to play them together enhances the differences rather than reinforces the similarities. Two absolutely cracking tunes. This is the kind of thing you should be looking for when pairing tunes. Not big dramatic changes that make punters whoop.
One the things I can't abide when people put sets together is when they have a tune, and then they go something like, "yeah, one in Amin would follow that nicely." And they then look for a tune in Amin,
# Posted on September 12th 2005 by llig leahcim
Re: Great Tune Sets
I haven't even read the above as am completely balloxed at the mo but - the Maple Leaf and the Man of Arran, (Em then Bm Dmaj) Julia Delaney (Dm), Lizarrol's (Amaj), Charlie Lennon's (Bm) mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm and then The musical Priest and Pachelbel's Frolicks meenummeenummeeenumb
# Posted on September 13th 2005 by breandan
Re: Great Tune Sets
Must learn to be more inventive?
Foxhunters - Foxhunters in Daichovo rythym (2-2-2-3) - Foxhunters (slip jig again)
Ardeleana Scurta (Rumanian) -Old Joe Clark - Mason's Apron
Mexican Hat Dance - Hava Nagila (for busking at latino-jewish markets)
(They do work btw)
# Posted on September 13th 2005 by NeilBarr
Re: Great Tune Sets
One of the joys of this music for me is finding tunes that go together nicely. I don't always stick with the same medleys, but some seem impossible to improve on. I look for rhymes and consider momentum when exploring the possibilities, but there can be more than one tune that works for similar reasons. For example, the tune Molloy's Favourite can follow either the Copper Plate in Ador, or Richard Dwyer's Ador very well. They both end with a phrase that rhymes with the first phrase of Molloy's Favourite. Also, the momentum from Ador to Dmaj is nice.
Some times I'll consider the momentum of a tonal shift with a contrasting tune in the new key; especially if the A tune ends on the four instead of the one. For example, O’Rourke’s (Wild Irishman) into Austin Tierney’s. You can do a break on the last A and jump down to dig your heels into a big D note. It's most effective if the first note in the following tune is a quarter note or larger. If the tune is too notey it will lose its impact.
These are just two examples; there are many other formulas that work nice as well. Sometimes a change is nice for no particular reason too. It's fun experimenting around with tune combinations. But having said that, there are far more tune changes that lack anything remarkable or appealing. You can't just slap tunes together randomly unless the idea of 'hit & miss' sounds like fun to you.
# Posted on September 13th 2005 by Phantom Button
Re: Great Tune Sets
Phantom B, Dow and others - thanks - these are the kind of constructive comments we're after.
Queries made sincerely may not always be very "inventive", but the comments made in reponse can certainly be so.
# Posted on September 13th 2005 by domnull
Re: Great Tune Sets
"they scan in a remarkably similar way and even follow very similar chords, yet to play them together enhances the differences rather than reinforces the similarities."
as MG said. That can work quite well. I like Far From Home and Always Welcome in that way - they sound almost like variations on one another if you play them together.
But it's a bit boring always knowing what's coming next, no matter how appropriate.
# Posted on September 13th 2005 by Bren
Re: Great Tune Sets
There is room in the world for both sets where all is in the same key, and sets that mix things up. Sometimes, though, when we pair two tunes that are TOO similar, we end up having one tune morph into another, and get ourselves mixed up!
My wife's favorite set is Farewell to Connaught (Dmodal), Toss the Feathers (Em) and Toss the Feathers (Dmodal). The Em in the middle breaks things apart, and the two Dmodal tunes are similar, yet different in nature.
I myself have been liking going from Banish Misfortune into Garrett Barry's jig lately, staying in the D modal realm but with different tunes.
# Posted on September 13th 2005 by AlBrown
Re: Great Tune Sets
The two I mentioned are in G and then A by the way, but still sound similar.
# Posted on September 13th 2005 by Bren
Re: Great Tune Sets
I've a set (fairly common tunes) that are all set in E minor and it goes from a reel, to a slip jig, to a regular jig:
Drowsy Maggy, The Butterfly, Morrison's
Nice change up for each.
# Posted on September 15th 2005 by michael_coleman