Irish Flute Tunes

Hello. This site contains recordings I have made as a source of tunes for people who play the flute, or other instruments for that matter. They are just versions of tunes as I remember them. My memory isn’t the best so some of the versions and the titles might be a bit astray but hopefully they’ll be of some use. I usually play the tunes once through slowly to make them easier to learn, then I have a bit of a run at them to give another view of them. I hope this approach is OK. If anyone has any comments, or tune suggestions, please get in touch (iflute@googlemail.com).

At this stage tune suggestions are particularly welcome as my “isn’t the best” memory has started to resist my attempts to plunder it for any more material. Thanks,

Michael.

(The tunes are split over a number of pages to stop the pages being too slow to load. To go to the next page, please click on Previous Entries at the bottom of the page, otherwise use the index on the left of the screen to navigate to a specific tune).

Here’s a tune which I found lurking amongst the ones which I must have uploaded at some stage.  I don’t know why I never posted this one and I’m too much of a coward to listen back to it to find out.  I’ll leave the mal de mer to others.

There is a lovely tune called “The Rolling Wave”.  I hope this is like it but I’ll not bet on it.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [2:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (41)

Here’s a tune which has the same number of names as it has parts. It may also have other names I don’t know about.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [2:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (44)

There’s a jig called “Kitty’s Rambles” / “The Rambles of Kitty” (depending on which form of the genitive case is to the fore) but this one is nothing like it, apart from having the same time signature, structure and almost the same name.  I’ve never seen this one referred to as “The Rambles of Cat” but I have seen “Whelan’s Old Sow” (but not “The Old Sow of Whelan”) pinned to it.

Neither tunes’ names nor names of tunes ever made much sense to me.  Hopefully this cat’s / Kit’s / whatever you please sir’s, apostrophised journey won’t lead to an ‘astrophe.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [2:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (46)

Here’s a reel composed by Edward V Reavy.  I hope I haven’t decomposed it too much here.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [2:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (64)

Here’s a version of a popular reel from South West Donegal.  There’s at least one other version of this tune and once I’ve got over the trauma of trying to remember this one I’ll try to remember it too.

I’ve put 2 tunes on today as it being the twelfth of July, there are lots of other flute players and their friends clogging the streets of Belfast and causing businesses and places of entertainment to close. This gives me a lot of time to spend in the house this sunny Saturday.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [2:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (68)

I was asked to play this reel and here’s my attempt to oblige. Séamus Ennis’s father wrote the tune and there’s a great rendition of Séamus playing available on a CD. I think youtube even has a video of the same performance.

My attempt at picking through the tune is far from what the real thing is but at least it’s in ‘D’. (I had to find some good point to refer to).

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [3:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (63)

This is a fairly common tune. I’m sorry if it appears hurried in places but I was getting withering looks from a baby while I played it and that put me off a bit.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [1:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (73)

Here’s a very popular jig which I was asked to play.  It’s especially popular among people who are learning to play the flute or the tin whistle.  Stair carpets have a lesser regard for it.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [2:04m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (112)

I’ve been asked to play this one so here it is.  There are lots of versions of it and I’m never sure which one is closest to a standard one.  I’ll not guarantee than this effort will make people any the wiser as to the answer to that question.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [2:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (78)

As with a lot of apparently simple tunes, there are lots of variations of this reel.  This is in danger of not being any of them.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [1:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (153)

Here’s a very common hornpipe. I’m sorry about the sound. I listened back to it (I normally don’t) and it sounds as if I recorded it in a particularly cavernous public lavatory. May it was the same one in which some 1970s record companies used to record their traditional music LPs.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [2:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (136)

I’ve been asked to try this one.  Well, at least I tried.  I sort of learned it once off a Michael Coleman record but I don’t have that record any more so I’m relying on memory; never a wise move in my case.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [2:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (131)

Maybe safer with the twig if time is an issue.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [3:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (196)

Here’s yet another reel. It differs from the others which I’ve posted in that it is called “The Antrim Rose” while they are not. I am currently sitting in said county with a thorny, fragrant flower of the genus rosa within 8 feet of me. I don’t think that has anything to do with this choice of tune though. There are plenty of other things even closer to hand than roses but I’m not about to play “The Dirty Mug”.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [2:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (182)

I’m sorry about the clicky G# key in this one.  I think my fingers may need a drop oil too.

Listen Now:

 Standard Podcasts [2:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download | Embeddable Player | Hits (178)

Here’s a slightly dry-mouthed and dry-fluted go at “The Tempest”.  My mouth is now so dry after playing it that I can’t even type any more nonsense about it.