After counting my monies for the seventh time, I've decided to get a "Merry Sisters of Fate" CD; while searching for it on Lunasa website, I've stumbled upon Lunasa the Music book, they write in the description that it contains chords Donogh Hennessy uses. I'm normally not too easily influenced by ads and buy things only after deep consideration (yeah, I'm stingy, so what), but this shook my "internal fortress of iron will".
Did anyone have any contact with the book? Does it really contain any useful stuff, or only some self-appreciating photos and descriptions like "In his playing Donogh likes to shake his head and smile with the left side of his lips"? I'm really keen on learning the way this guy plays his guitar, but I don't have too much spare money to waste on pretty albums without any real content.
Janek, if you're talking about the Lúnasa book called "The Music 1996-2001" it has all the dots for 39 reels, 17 jigs, and 15 other tunes in L's albums "Lúnasa Live", "Otherworld", and "Merry Sisters of Fate". It gives the chords for the tunes (together with a couple of pages of tablature for guitarists who may not be familiar with some of the chords), and is evidently a close approximation to the performance versions of the tunes.
Each tune has a few lines of useful commentary about its background, and. yes, there are photos of the band - all three pages
Personally I think it's good value for money, and has as much "real content" as you could hope for. Enjoy!
And a Happy Christmas!
Trevor
Janek
I am ordering this book. I saw a friends version and it indeed has all the music and chords. I consider Donogh Hennessy a mentor and find it refreshing and extremely generous that a band of such merit would publish their music, and arrangements - which are their hallmark - including chords. Lets face it, irish music is irish music, and to the untrained ear, may all sound the same, but for creative arrangements of accompaniment - which Donogh and Lunasa have done better than anyone, in my humble opinion.
Thank you for quick answer, which solved my Christmas problem and gave a lighter touch to my wallet *grin*. Seems like this book is everything I expected. Martin, I agree with you about DH; I admire the attitude of the band, too.
Hey! This is a great book. I bought one at the Doolin Music store last summer. I've learned many tunes from it now and can play along with the Lunasa CD's; as mentioned above, the written music matches the CDs pretty closely.
One thing that is curious however is a number of the tunes are transcribed in keys of Bb major (two flats), specifically The Millar of Drohan and Taylor Bar, as they are played on the CD. I'm assuming because Kevin is playing an Eb flute for these. Anyway, Donogh has also included a transcription for these two tunes in the key of G major (one sharp). What I find curious is that I can read the G major transcription while playing my F whistle and be in tune in the key of Bb major while fingering the F whistle as I would a D whistle.
Curious but effective.
Chris
hi, i got this book via internet as soon as it was delivered.
It s really useful in my opinion.
I play most of the times guitar and bouzouki as a backer ; i think Donough's approach to chord scales is very interesting and well explained in the book.
I ve seen him in concert and he plays almost always in D using a capo . So, as the chords are written in the real tuning, you need do transport them in D adding a capo if you want to recreate that tipical Lunasa sound.
In conclusion it s worth buying it
Good music
Marco
I was just thinking that this would be a cool book to buy. Seeing all the good things said about it here, I think I will. Donogh really does have an awesome style, he is definitely my favorite guitarist. Did he write the whole book himself, or was it the work of the whole band?
From what they write in Lunasa webpage about the book, and what our friends have written above, it sums up Lunasa's activity until 2001. The guitar section is just a part of the book, and it by no means focuses only on Donogh Hennessy (in such case it would be called "Donogh Hennessy 1996-2001", wouldn't it).
I have only recently gotten hold of my first Lunasa CD and agree that their arrangements are fantastic. As a guitar backer I particularly enjoy the chords and rhythms Donogh creates. Can someone send me a link to the website? I am very interested in ordering a copy of the book for my continueing edification!
As far as I know it was John McSherry and Mike McGoldrick who did the majority of arrangements for the first CD, and Sean Smyth and the rest of the band thereafter. Can anyone confirm this?
Max, I'm pretty sure mine is the same one, called 'Lunasa' and has mostly live tracks. I believe it's their first album. I bought it for myself as an early Christmas present. I got some money from my elderly father for Christmas and plan to shout myself another one with that. Can't wait. Which one do people think is the best Lunasa album?
Popular opinion seems to go toward "Otherworld." Some freinds of mine have a copy, and I listened to a couple of tracks. It is very good. I have also heard a lot of good things about "Redwood." If you go to their site, you can listen to a couple of tracks from each album. They sure are awesome aren't they? I have never seen them live, but hopefully someday...
BTW -- I ordered that book; can't wait till it comes!
"As far as I know it was John McSherry and Mike McGoldrick who did the majority of arrangements for the first CD, and Sean Smyth and the rest of the band thereafter. Can anyone confirm this?"
Kevin Crawford told me, on the Lunasa discussion board:
"Donogh plays a major part in the arrangement side of things but their is a hell of a lot of hard work and creativity from each of us to get it from Donogh's idea to the finnished piece."
Lunasa book
Lunasa book
After counting my monies for the seventh time, I've decided to get a "Merry Sisters of Fate" CD; while searching for it on Lunasa website, I've stumbled upon Lunasa the Music book, they write in the description that it contains chords Donogh Hennessy uses. I'm normally not too easily influenced by ads and buy things only after deep consideration (yeah, I'm stingy, so what), but this shook my "internal fortress of iron will".
Did anyone have any contact with the book? Does it really contain any useful stuff, or only some self-appreciating photos and descriptions like "In his playing Donogh likes to shake his head and smile with the left side of his lips"? I'm really keen on learning the way this guy plays his guitar, but I don't have too much spare money to waste on pretty albums without any real content.
Thanks for any hint.
# Posted on December 25th 2003 by EastPole
Re: Lunasa book
Janek, if you're talking about the Lúnasa book called "The Music 1996-2001" it has all the dots for 39 reels, 17 jigs, and 15 other tunes in L's albums "Lúnasa Live", "Otherworld", and "Merry Sisters of Fate". It gives the chords for the tunes (together with a couple of pages of tablature for guitarists who may not be familiar with some of the chords), and is evidently a close approximation to the performance versions of the tunes.
Each tune has a few lines of useful commentary about its background, and. yes, there are photos of the band - all three pages
Personally I think it's good value for money, and has as much "real content" as you could hope for. Enjoy!
And a Happy Christmas!
Trevor
# Posted on December 25th 2003 by lazyhound
Re: Lunasa book
Janek
I am ordering this book. I saw a friends version and it indeed has all the music and chords. I consider Donogh Hennessy a mentor and find it refreshing and extremely generous that a band of such merit would publish their music, and arrangements - which are their hallmark - including chords. Lets face it, irish music is irish music, and to the untrained ear, may all sound the same, but for creative arrangements of accompaniment - which Donogh and Lunasa have done better than anyone, in my humble opinion.
Hail to the accompanists! (the good ones)...
Martin
# Posted on December 25th 2003 by newmountain
Re: Lunasa book
Trevor,
Martin,
Thank you for quick answer, which solved my Christmas problem and gave a lighter touch to my wallet *grin*. Seems like this book is everything I expected. Martin, I agree with you about DH; I admire the attitude of the band, too.
Merry Christmas to you both!
Janek
# Posted on December 25th 2003 by EastPole
Re: Lunasa book
Hey! This is a great book. I bought one at the Doolin Music store last summer. I've learned many tunes from it now and can play along with the Lunasa CD's; as mentioned above, the written music matches the CDs pretty closely.
One thing that is curious however is a number of the tunes are transcribed in keys of Bb major (two flats), specifically The Millar of Drohan and Taylor Bar, as they are played on the CD. I'm assuming because Kevin is playing an Eb flute for these. Anyway, Donogh has also included a transcription for these two tunes in the key of G major (one sharp). What I find curious is that I can read the G major transcription while playing my F whistle and be in tune in the key of Bb major while fingering the F whistle as I would a D whistle.
Curious but effective.
Chris
# Posted on December 26th 2003 by unique
Re: Lunasa book
hi, i got this book via internet as soon as it was delivered.
It s really useful in my opinion.
I play most of the times guitar and bouzouki as a backer ; i think Donough's approach to chord scales is very interesting and well explained in the book.
I ve seen him in concert and he plays almost always in D using a capo . So, as the chords are written in the real tuning, you need do transport them in D adding a capo if you want to recreate that tipical Lunasa sound.
In conclusion it s worth buying it
Good music
Marco
# Posted on December 26th 2003 by pizouki
Re: Lunasa book
I was just thinking that this would be a cool book to buy. Seeing all the good things said about it here, I think I will. Donogh really does have an awesome style, he is definitely my favorite guitarist. Did he write the whole book himself, or was it the work of the whole band?
-Max
# Posted on December 27th 2003 by Max Becher
Re: Lunasa book
Max,
From what they write in Lunasa webpage about the book, and what our friends have written above, it sums up Lunasa's activity until 2001. The guitar section is just a part of the book, and it by no means focuses only on Donogh Hennessy (in such case it would be called "Donogh Hennessy 1996-2001", wouldn't it).
Hope we both find it a good read, and play.
Janek
# Posted on December 27th 2003 by EastPole
Re: Lunasa book
Oh, I see. When they said, "Lunasa, The Music 1996 - 2001 is Donogh's long awaited book..." I thought he might have written it. Thanks.
# Posted on December 27th 2003 by Max Becher
Re: Lunasa book
Well, he wrote all the notes and transcribed all his chord charts, insofar as I know. So in a way, yes, he did write it!
# Posted on December 27th 2003 by Zina Lee
Re: Lunasa book
I have only recently gotten hold of my first Lunasa CD and agree that their arrangements are fantastic. As a guitar backer I particularly enjoy the chords and rhythms Donogh creates. Can someone send me a link to the website? I am very interested in ordering a copy of the book for my continueing edification!
Gerry.
# Posted on December 28th 2003 by GerryTh
Re: Lunasa book
It's www.lunasa.ie - (see the links section of this site for more groups' websites, and loads of other urls)
They also have streaming audio on their site, where you can hear more of their music.
# Posted on December 28th 2003 by Q
Re: Lunasa book
And you can also see some videos of them here:
http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/artist_detail.cfm?artist_id=LUNASALUNA
http://www.kerrywhistles.com/dl.php#
And Kevin Crawford here:
http://www.custysmusic.com/mall/CustysTraditionalMusicShop/in_session.htm
And Cillian Vallely Here:
http://www.coolbawnroad.com/CoolbawnVallely.htm
BTW -- Gerry, which CD did you get? I just got my first one too, as a Christmas gift. It was there first album, "Lunasa Live".
-Max
# Posted on December 28th 2003 by Max Becher
Re: Lunasa book
As far as I know it was John McSherry and Mike McGoldrick who did the majority of arrangements for the first CD, and Sean Smyth and the rest of the band thereafter. Can anyone confirm this?
# Posted on December 28th 2003 by Conán McDonnell
Re: Lunasa book
Max, I'm pretty sure mine is the same one, called 'Lunasa' and has mostly live tracks. I believe it's their first album. I bought it for myself as an early Christmas present. I got some money from my elderly father for Christmas and plan to shout myself another one with that. Can't wait. Which one do people think is the best Lunasa album?
Gerry
# Posted on December 29th 2003 by GerryTh
Re: Lunasa book
Yep, that's the same one.
Popular opinion seems to go toward "Otherworld." Some freinds of mine have a copy, and I listened to a couple of tracks. It is very good. I have also heard a lot of good things about "Redwood." If you go to their site, you can listen to a couple of tracks from each album. They sure are awesome aren't they? I have never seen them live, but hopefully someday...
BTW -- I ordered that book; can't wait till it comes!
-Max
# Posted on December 29th 2003 by Max Becher
Re: Lunasa book
"As far as I know it was John McSherry and Mike McGoldrick who did the majority of arrangements for the first CD, and Sean Smyth and the rest of the band thereafter. Can anyone confirm this?"
Kevin Crawford told me, on the Lunasa discussion board:
"Donogh plays a major part in the arrangement side of things but their is a hell of a lot of hard work and creativity from each of us to get it from Donogh's idea to the finnished piece."
-Max
# Posted on January 10th 2004 by Max Becher