I'd suggest the following: go to the "Members" section, then click the "Tunebook". Browse through the first two or three pages and you'll get a bunch of tunes that you'll hear quite often anywhere, in most popular keys. That will be good for a start.
I find it interesting to compare lists. I just spent way too much time comparing the top 100 from members' tunebooks with the top 100 from recordings at irishtune.info with the top 100 from my own recordings. The tunebook list had only a 20-25% overlap with the two lists of most-recorded tunes. In fact, none of the 7 most popular tunes on this site are in the top 100 on either list compiled from recordings.
I think the thing to remember about the tunebooks here is that a great many people who load tunes down are beginners. (There are a lot of reasons for that, not the least being that experienced players tend to learn their tunes by ear, not from dots.)
The first whole page of tunes on the Most Tunes in Tunebooks are all potboilers, common enough in sessions when there's people involved who don't know each other's tunes. I rarely hear the first four in sessions, and even more rarely hear them in sessions where the inhabitants know each other's tunes. (Which is not to say that they AREN'T played out; they are, usualy when people aren't certain of what tunes each other know and want to find something everyone's certain of knowing.)
And lists of tunes from recordings are going to be different because there's a whole 'nother set of circumstances for those. (Not the least being that often people who record are looking for UNcommon tunes to record as well as common ones.)
When I started out, a wise piper told me to learn the tunes in John Walsh's collection (in pdf here http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/#pdf). I haven't regreted concentrating on those.
Zina - Interesting.. I've been chastising myself recently for learning too many tunes that are hard or not so common... not that I'd know, having attended precious few real sessions. But I'd kinda decided I should focus on the ones I'm most likely to find in common with others when I do find a session I can go to, like the Crown and Cushion (where I should'a been less shy and met more people). So what do you reckon for those of us on the foothills of tune mountain? Learn the potboilers or just grab what appeals to you common or not?
"Why bother putting tunes you already know in your tunebook? "
So you can remember which ones you know, and you can scan down the list and pick out a tune you haven't played in ages and forgot existed, practise it up a bit and then bring it out at the next session.
and that was a great place for me to start. Most of these are played regularly at our session, and the same titles seem to come up often in these lists. Good luck!
A couple of years ago I compared tunes on eight different tune lists that I had found on the Web. From those, I made a list of the 66 most popular tunes. It's not scientific by any means, and I won't defend the results, but for what it's worth, here they are followed by the names of the lists I used. Some of the web sites are now gone and others have moved elsewhere, but there it is.
66 Popular Irish Session Tunes
** On all 8 lists **
Boys of Blue Hill, The -- Hornpipe
Rights of Man, The -- Hornpipe
Connaughtman's Rambles -- Jig
Morrison's Jig -- Jig
Tripping Up the Stairs -- Jig
Cooley's Reel -- Reel
** On 7 lists **
Harvest Home -- Hornpipe
Off to California -- Hornpipe
Drowsy Maggie -- Reel
Maid Behind the Bar, The -- Reel
Merry Blacksmith, The -- Reel
Butterfly, The -- Slip Jig
** On 6 lists **
Blarney Pilgrim, The -- Jig
Cliffs of Moher -- Jig
Kesh Jig -- Jig
Lark in the Morning -- Jig
Tobin's Favorite -- Jig
Cup of Tea, The -- Reel
Earl's Chair -- Reel
Musical Priest -- Reel
Ships Are Sailing -- Reel
Silver Spear -- Reel
Star of Munster -- Reel
Top of Cork Road (Father Kelly's) -- Reel
Wind That Shakes The Barley, The -- Reel
Wise Maid, The -- Reel
Denis Murphy's Slide -- Slide
** On 5 lists **
Banish Misfortune -- Jig
Garret Barry's -- Jig
Road to Lisdoonvarna -- Slide
Saddle the Pony -- Jig
Pigeon on the Gate -- Reel
Sally Gardens, The -- Reel
Sligo Maid, The -- Reel
Kid on the Mountain, The -- Slip Jig
Rocky Road to Dublin -- Slip Jig
** On 4 lists **
Si Bheag, Si Mhor -- Air
Home Rule -- Hornpipe
King of the Faires -- Hornpipe
Donnybrook Fair -- Jig
Haste to the Wedding -- Jig
Monaghan Jig, The -- Jig
Mooncoin, The -- Jig
Mug of Brown Ale (The Claire Jig) -- Jig
My Darling Asleep -- Jig
Ramblin' Pitchfork, The -- Jig
Scatter the Mud -- Jig
Smash the Windows -- Jig
Ballydesmond Polka #1 (Donna Lynch's) -- Polka
Ballydesmond Polka #2 (Maurice Manley's) -- Polka
Ballydesmond Polka #3 (Tom Billy's) -- Polka
Denis Murphy's Polka -- Polka
Banshee, The -- Reel
Chicago Reel, The -- Reel
High Reel -- Reel
Longford Collector, The -- Reel
Morning Dew -- Reel
Mountain Road -- Reel
Rolling in the Ryegrass (Shannon Breeze) -- Reel
Scholar #1, The -- Reel
St. Anne's Reel -- Reel
Temperance Reel, The (teetotalers) -- Reel
Merrily Kiss the Quaker's Wife -- Slide
O'Keefe's Slide -- Slide
Another Jig Will Do -- Slip Jig
Foxhunter's Jig, The -- Slip Jig
=============================================
Slowplayers.org
www.slowplayers.org
Chris Smith's "How to Start and Run an Irish Music Slow Session"
members.home.net/eskin/sessiondynamics.html
121 Favorite Irish Session Tunes
www.homespuntapes.com/prodpg/prodpg.asp?prodID=615
Ryan Thomson's List of Common Irish Session Tunes
www.tiac.net/users/cfiddle/irishsessiontunes.html
John Walsh's Session Tunes
www.ceolas.org/pub/tunes/tunes.pdf/SessionTunes.pdf
House of Ireland
www.uptospeed.net/hoi/
Blarney Stone Pub Session Tunebook
members.cox.net/eskin/tunebook.html
The Ceili House Band
members.aol.com/boynehunt/alpha.html
Here's an updated list for the sources above, if anyone's interested. The Chris Smith piece has no tunes listed in it, so I'm not sure where that list came from.
Neil: well, it NEVER hurts to learn any tune. NEVER. But some tunes will serve you better than others, at first.
For instance, at the Crown and Cushion session, I discovered that Mick Mulvey and Orson Carte could play some of my favorite tunes with me that I hardly ever get to play otherwise at outside sessions -- me, getting to play a tune or two with Mick and Simon and Orson, just us -- how often do you get *that* chance as a visitor to London? (Specially now that the White Horse is gone.) And Conan knows tunes that nobody else I know at ALL knows, including me in some cases. Every player there (including you!) knew tunes I didn't know and tunes I did, and it was great to listen and to play with them. It's so *nurturing* to play with all these players who are so much better than I am; you learn so much more than just sitting at home playing on your own.
Definitely learn the potboilers. You'll need them, if only for when you want to make someone at a session feel like they're welcome and they only know those tunes. Some of them are *wonderful* tunes, like Mountain Road, for all they're the first that teachers often teach students. And besides, when you go out to sessions that are strange to you, you'll find that people will start up those tunes hoping to make *you* feel at home and able to play with them. It would therefore behoove you to know them; Conan ROCKED at The Cushion, stringing together common tunes that he knew everyone would know, so we could all get playing together.
But also keep learning some of the less "common" tunes. When I was visiting Chicago near the beginning of my playing, I was congratulated by a very experienced player for having really good tunes (noticeably, no one complimented me on how well I played them!) in my rep. There were lots of common ones that I played, but also some older ones that weren't so common (and new ones that are quite popular as well): Crib of Perches, Tom Billy's jig, Reel of Rio, Bunker Hill, and such. It felt so nice to be complimented on having good tunes; it was a real boost as a beginner to have something nice said about what I was doing, even when it wasn't about my playing.
At first, I'd say learn the ones that want you to learn them, the ones that you connect to and seem to play themselves in your head. Not only will they be easier to learn, you'll have them out of the way sooner. And there'll be a ton of them in the potboiler lists.
But, as a rule of thumb, make sure you learn, say, 3 potboilers to every 1 "unusual" tune. That way you'll probably spend 3 times more playing than just listening -- although of course listening is good, especially at this stage of the game.
This is assuming that you're at home cramming, of course. Otherwise, I'd say go to your local, chosen sessions, and ask if you can record what they play, and then learn those tunes. If you go often enough, the tunes common to that session will insinuate themselves into your consciousness easily.
There's so many good sessions where you are, Neil! I totally envy you. I know any of the folks who were at The Cushion woud welcome you to any of their regular sessions; all you have to do is be brave enough to ask and then be brave enough to show up. You're a lovely player, hope to have tunes with you again next I'm in London!
As if that wasn't long enough...BTW, Neil, just so's you know, there's NO SUCH THING AS A "BABY TUNE" or a "beginner tune". Not that you've ever said anything like that, but it's a personal, pet crusade of mine. There are tunes that are more repetitive or simpler in structure or whatever that a teacher might start a student out with, but anyone who has listened to a really fine player play something like Rolling in the Ryegrass or Mountain Road knows that they are in no ways "beginner" tunes.
Most often pub tunes?
Most often pub tunes?
Hello!
Can anyone give there an example of tunes which are the most often played on Irish folk pub sessions ?
Which keys are those tunes played in ?
Greg
# Posted on December 30th 2005 by Tubular_bell
Re: Most often pub tunes?
the bunch of keys?
# Posted on December 30th 2005 by ...
Re: Most often pub tunes?
I'd suggest the following: go to the "Members" section, then click the "Tunebook". Browse through the first two or three pages and you'll get a bunch of tunes that you'll hear quite often anywhere, in most popular keys. That will be good for a start.
# Posted on December 30th 2005 by Barfly
Re: Most often pub tunes?
Hey, Barfly, I'd never thought of foinf that either! Great idea.
# Posted on December 30th 2005 by NeilC
Re: Most often pub tunes?
The 100 most-recorded tunes: http://www.irishtune.info/top-tunes.htm
# Posted on December 30th 2005 by slainte
Re: Most often pub tunes?
Not sure what "foinf" is, but you're welcome
# Posted on December 30th 2005 by Barfly
Re: Most often pub tunes?
This new laptop has a totally different keyboard... still getting used to it
(Must read before posting.. must read before posting....)
# Posted on December 30th 2005 by NeilC
Re: Most often pub tunes?
Well, apart from the middle three letters, "foinf" is, in fact, a palindrome.
# Posted on December 30th 2005 by pfft
Re: Most often pub tunes?
Some popular ones are:
1. Maid Behind the Bar
2. Silver Spear
3. Wise Maid
4. Drowsy Maggie
5. Toss the Feathers
6. Bucks of Oranmore
7. Masons Apron
8. Tenpenny Bit
9. Pigeon on the Gate
10. Foxhunters Reel
Sorry for the bias on 4/4 timing!!
# Posted on December 30th 2005 by 52Paddy
The Web Ferret makes an appearance
Yes, and here it is, Will Harmon's famous list of Common Session tunes, Thread #110:
http://www.thesession.org/discussions/display.php/110
# Posted on December 30th 2005 by Zina Lee
Re: Most often pub tunes?
I find it interesting to compare lists. I just spent way too much time comparing the top 100 from members' tunebooks with the top 100 from recordings at irishtune.info with the top 100 from my own recordings. The tunebook list had only a 20-25% overlap with the two lists of most-recorded tunes. In fact, none of the 7 most popular tunes on this site are in the top 100 on either list compiled from recordings.
# Posted on December 30th 2005 by GaryAMartin
Re: Most often pub tunes?
I think the thing to remember about the tunebooks here is that a great many people who load tunes down are beginners. (There are a lot of reasons for that, not the least being that experienced players tend to learn their tunes by ear, not from dots.)
The first whole page of tunes on the Most Tunes in Tunebooks are all potboilers, common enough in sessions when there's people involved who don't know each other's tunes. I rarely hear the first four in sessions, and even more rarely hear them in sessions where the inhabitants know each other's tunes. (Which is not to say that they AREN'T played out; they are, usualy when people aren't certain of what tunes each other know and want to find something everyone's certain of knowing.)
And lists of tunes from recordings are going to be different because there's a whole 'nother set of circumstances for those. (Not the least being that often people who record are looking for UNcommon tunes to record as well as common ones.)
Interesting stuff, if you think about it.
# Posted on December 30th 2005 by Zina Lee
Re: Most often pub tunes?
When I started out, a wise piper told me to learn the tunes in John Walsh's collection (in pdf here http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/#pdf). I haven't regreted concentrating on those.
# Posted on December 30th 2005 by feardearg
Re: Most often pub tunes?
Zina - Interesting.. I've been chastising myself recently for learning too many tunes that are hard or not so common... not that I'd know, having attended precious few real sessions. But I'd kinda decided I should focus on the ones I'm most likely to find in common with others when I do find a session I can go to, like the Crown and Cushion (where I should'a been less shy and met more people). So what do you reckon for those of us on the foothills of tune mountain? Learn the potboilers or just grab what appeals to you common or not?
# Posted on December 31st 2005 by NeilC
Re: Most often pub tunes?
"Why bother putting tunes you already know in your tunebook? "
So you can remember which ones you know, and you can scan down the list and pick out a tune you haven't played in ages and forgot existed, practise it up a bit and then bring it out at the next session.
# Posted on December 31st 2005 by Dr. Dow
Re: Most often pub tunes?
Neil,
When I first got interested in ITM, a friend told me about the Boston Slow Session site
http://www.slowplayers.org/BOSS/BOSS_Playlist.html
and that was a great place for me to start. Most of these are played regularly at our session, and the same titles seem to come up often in these lists. Good luck!
# Posted on December 31st 2005 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: Most often pub tunes?
A couple of years ago I compared tunes on eight different tune lists that I had found on the Web. From those, I made a list of the 66 most popular tunes. It's not scientific by any means, and I won't defend the results, but for what it's worth, here they are followed by the names of the lists I used. Some of the web sites are now gone and others have moved elsewhere, but there it is.
66 Popular Irish Session Tunes
** On all 8 lists **
Boys of Blue Hill, The -- Hornpipe
Rights of Man, The -- Hornpipe
Connaughtman's Rambles -- Jig
Morrison's Jig -- Jig
Tripping Up the Stairs -- Jig
Cooley's Reel -- Reel
** On 7 lists **
Harvest Home -- Hornpipe
Off to California -- Hornpipe
Drowsy Maggie -- Reel
Maid Behind the Bar, The -- Reel
Merry Blacksmith, The -- Reel
Butterfly, The -- Slip Jig
** On 6 lists **
Blarney Pilgrim, The -- Jig
Cliffs of Moher -- Jig
Kesh Jig -- Jig
Lark in the Morning -- Jig
Tobin's Favorite -- Jig
Cup of Tea, The -- Reel
Earl's Chair -- Reel
Musical Priest -- Reel
Ships Are Sailing -- Reel
Silver Spear -- Reel
Star of Munster -- Reel
Top of Cork Road (Father Kelly's) -- Reel
Wind That Shakes The Barley, The -- Reel
Wise Maid, The -- Reel
Denis Murphy's Slide -- Slide
** On 5 lists **
Banish Misfortune -- Jig
Garret Barry's -- Jig
Road to Lisdoonvarna -- Slide
Saddle the Pony -- Jig
Pigeon on the Gate -- Reel
Sally Gardens, The -- Reel
Sligo Maid, The -- Reel
Kid on the Mountain, The -- Slip Jig
Rocky Road to Dublin -- Slip Jig
** On 4 lists **
Si Bheag, Si Mhor -- Air
Home Rule -- Hornpipe
King of the Faires -- Hornpipe
Donnybrook Fair -- Jig
Haste to the Wedding -- Jig
Monaghan Jig, The -- Jig
Mooncoin, The -- Jig
Mug of Brown Ale (The Claire Jig) -- Jig
My Darling Asleep -- Jig
Ramblin' Pitchfork, The -- Jig
Scatter the Mud -- Jig
Smash the Windows -- Jig
Ballydesmond Polka #1 (Donna Lynch's) -- Polka
Ballydesmond Polka #2 (Maurice Manley's) -- Polka
Ballydesmond Polka #3 (Tom Billy's) -- Polka
Denis Murphy's Polka -- Polka
Banshee, The -- Reel
Chicago Reel, The -- Reel
High Reel -- Reel
Longford Collector, The -- Reel
Morning Dew -- Reel
Mountain Road -- Reel
Rolling in the Ryegrass (Shannon Breeze) -- Reel
Scholar #1, The -- Reel
St. Anne's Reel -- Reel
Temperance Reel, The (teetotalers) -- Reel
Merrily Kiss the Quaker's Wife -- Slide
O'Keefe's Slide -- Slide
Another Jig Will Do -- Slip Jig
Foxhunter's Jig, The -- Slip Jig
=============================================
Slowplayers.org
www.slowplayers.org
Chris Smith's "How to Start and Run an Irish Music Slow Session"
members.home.net/eskin/sessiondynamics.html
121 Favorite Irish Session Tunes
www.homespuntapes.com/prodpg/prodpg.asp?prodID=615
Ryan Thomson's List of Common Irish Session Tunes
www.tiac.net/users/cfiddle/irishsessiontunes.html
John Walsh's Session Tunes
www.ceolas.org/pub/tunes/tunes.pdf/SessionTunes.pdf
House of Ireland
www.uptospeed.net/hoi/
Blarney Stone Pub Session Tunebook
members.cox.net/eskin/tunebook.html
The Ceili House Band
members.aol.com/boynehunt/alpha.html
# Posted on December 31st 2005 by Craymcla
Re: Most often pub tunes?
Here's an updated list for the sources above, if anyone's interested. The Chris Smith piece has no tunes listed in it, so I'm not sure where that list came from.
Slowplayers.org
- http://www.slowplayers.org
Chris Smith's "How to Start and Run an Irish Music Slow Session"
- http://members.cox.net/eskin/sessiondynamics.html
121 Favorite Irish Session Tunes
- http://www.homespuntapes.com/prodpg/prodpg.asp?prodID=615&prodType=
Ryan Thomson's List of Common Irish Session Tunes
- http://home.tiac.net/~cfiddle/irishsessiontunes.html
John Walsh's Session Tunes
- http://www.ceolas.org/pub/tunes/tunes.pdf/SessionTunes.pdf
House of Ireland
- http://www.uptospeed.net/hoi/
Blarney Stone Pub Session Tunebook
- http://members.cox.net/eskin/tunebook.html
The Ceili House Band
- http://members.aol.com/boynehunt/alpha.html
# Posted on December 31st 2005 by Craymcla
Re: Most often pub tunes?
Neil: well, it NEVER hurts to learn any tune. NEVER.
But some tunes will serve you better than others, at first.
You're a lovely player, hope to have tunes with you again next I'm in London!
For instance, at the Crown and Cushion session, I discovered that Mick Mulvey and Orson Carte could play some of my favorite tunes with me that I hardly ever get to play otherwise at outside sessions -- me, getting to play a tune or two with Mick and Simon and Orson, just us -- how often do you get *that* chance as a visitor to London? (Specially now that the White Horse is gone.) And Conan knows tunes that nobody else I know at ALL knows, including me in some cases. Every player there (including you!) knew tunes I didn't know and tunes I did, and it was great to listen and to play with them. It's so *nurturing* to play with all these players who are so much better than I am; you learn so much more than just sitting at home playing on your own.
Definitely learn the potboilers. You'll need them, if only for when you want to make someone at a session feel like they're welcome and they only know those tunes. Some of them are *wonderful* tunes, like Mountain Road, for all they're the first that teachers often teach students. And besides, when you go out to sessions that are strange to you, you'll find that people will start up those tunes hoping to make *you* feel at home and able to play with them. It would therefore behoove you to know them; Conan ROCKED at The Cushion, stringing together common tunes that he knew everyone would know, so we could all get playing together.
But also keep learning some of the less "common" tunes. When I was visiting Chicago near the beginning of my playing, I was congratulated by a very experienced player for having really good tunes (noticeably, no one complimented me on how well I played them!) in my rep. There were lots of common ones that I played, but also some older ones that weren't so common (and new ones that are quite popular as well): Crib of Perches, Tom Billy's jig, Reel of Rio, Bunker Hill, and such. It felt so nice to be complimented on having good tunes; it was a real boost as a beginner to have something nice said about what I was doing, even when it wasn't about my playing.
At first, I'd say learn the ones that want you to learn them, the ones that you connect to and seem to play themselves in your head. Not only will they be easier to learn, you'll have them out of the way sooner. And there'll be a ton of them in the potboiler lists.
But, as a rule of thumb, make sure you learn, say, 3 potboilers to every 1 "unusual" tune. That way you'll probably spend 3 times more playing than just listening -- although of course listening is good, especially at this stage of the game.
This is assuming that you're at home cramming, of course. Otherwise, I'd say go to your local, chosen sessions, and ask if you can record what they play, and then learn those tunes. If you go often enough, the tunes common to that session will insinuate themselves into your consciousness easily.
There's so many good sessions where you are, Neil! I totally envy you. I know any of the folks who were at The Cushion woud welcome you to any of their regular sessions; all you have to do is be brave enough to ask and then be brave enough to show up.
# Posted on December 31st 2005 by Zina Lee
P.S.
As if that wasn't long enough...BTW, Neil, just so's you know, there's NO SUCH THING AS A "BABY TUNE" or a "beginner tune". Not that you've ever said anything like that, but it's a personal, pet crusade of mine. There are tunes that are more repetitive or simpler in structure or whatever that a teacher might start a student out with, but anyone who has listened to a really fine player play something like Rolling in the Ryegrass or Mountain Road knows that they are in no ways "beginner" tunes.
# Posted on December 31st 2005 by Zina Lee
Re: Most often pub tunes?
Thanks
What a great answer for a tiny question
Thank you all !
Happy new year
Greg
# Posted on December 31st 2005 by Tubular_bell