Here's an old jig played on an old flute.

This poor flute is falling apart, maybe due to modern nasties like central heating which weren't about when it was young.  It seems not to like being 'My Warmer Fife'.

Here's a tune I've played for years.  I never knew a name for it so I played it into the magic tunepal.org machine and that is where this title came out of.  My first part for the tune is a bit different from the versions on the computer but I suppose there's no harm in that.  It's worth taking note of the advice on the photo even if the tune is of no interest.

This also goes under the name of 'Lavan's Favorite' in 'Ryan's Mammoth Collection'.   I've tried to play it fairly close to the dotty version here: http://www.oldmusicproject.com/AA3Sheet/1201-1800/Sheet-1501-1600/1551-LarryChoice.gif (Larry Lavin's Choice).

A combination of warm weather and a bit of recent, regular playing has allowed me to get through this tune on my boxwood flute without it falling apart (that's the flute I'm talking about - not so sure about poor Larry's reel).

Here's a fairly straightforward version of a popular reel in A.  I avoided any G sharps in the slow version lest I may sustain a cut finger.  There may be one or two (sharps and / or damaged digits) lurking around the quicker version.

Here's an approximation of O'Neill's version of a popular jig.  The dots can be found at: http://www.oldmusicproject.com/AA3Sheet/0701-1200/Sheet-0801-0900/0812-GirlsBanbridge.gif

If you want to hear it played properly you could do worse than click on this link: http://archive.org/details/MichaelColemanGirlsofBainbridgeCherishtheLadies .

The name  in Coleman's version is 'Bainbridge' - maybe a reference to characters in Beryl's very early work  (she'd have been 8 at the time).

Here's a different sort of tune by way of a change.  I've just played each part singly the first time round.  If I appear to be rushing a bit during the quicker version that's probably because I was being distracted by the smell of the 'Young's Chip Shop Fish Fillet in Crisp Bubbly Batter' which is in the process of being turned into my dinner in my oven.  I bet Carolan never had that problem.  If he did occasionally salivate over the notion of some 17th / 18th century convenience food it was probably not too much of an encumbrance on his harp playing anyway.

I hope the title of this reel refers to matters ornithological and meteorological and not medical.

I was reminded of this tune today when I heard a recording of Sheila O'Dowd playing it (http://www.colemanirishmusic.com/shop/product.php?id=13 track 16).  It is in Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hÉireann vol. 1  and someone has kindly made the notes available at http://tunepal.org/tunepal/showdots.php?id=11667.  That's about all I have to say on the matter just now.

I've been trying to learn to play a C#D accordion and was reminded of this tune while playing through a few books as a way of telling my fingers that there's more than one melody in the world.  The box playing may be a sort of insurance against tooth loss which would make the flute sound a bit gummy; cleaning and flossing might be an easier approach.

This tune is in the book 'Trip to Sligo' under the title 'Come up in the room I want you'.  I played it (on the flute) into the tunepal.org machine and was given the title I've used here.  The person in the 'up in the room' name may even have been addressing the Ballina Lasses at the time of utterance.  I don't know what Tunepal will think it's called if I try playing it on the squeezebox.

Here's a tune with a funny name.  I learned it from a flute player with a less peculiar appellation, i.e. Harry Bradley.

I recorded this on a mobile phone mp3 recording app (and a flute) and the end result seems to include some 78rpm type crackles.  That may have been an option which I inadvertantly chose on the recording device.

Here's a tune called Peter Wyper's hornpipe.  It is named after one of the Brothers Wyper who is pictured above.   I had intended posting a smaller brace of Wypers but couldn't find the shrink button to resize the photo.  You could look at the photo on a smartphone screen to make it small but I think the text would go all exiguous at the same time.

Here's a tune which as was correctly pointed out to me, I had forgotten to post up to now. I've played it on a poor, old and sick Rudall flute. I had even taken a picture of the flute but it's been so long since I've posted a tune here that I've forgotten how to include a photo (or else this site has forgotten how to have photos posted on it). The flute can't remember how to play bottom Ds yet. I'll be leaving it into a flute hospital in Galway shortly - maybe a bit of hypnosis from beyond the Pale will remind it of this particular alphabetic bark.

Here's a tune I was asked a while ago to play. I've always been a bit allergic to this tune - I'm not sure why - I think something bad like the house falling down happened the last time I played it and that left a bit of an impression which didn't please me too much. It's a good tune all the same. I think it's really 2 jigs joined together. I'm away to stand outside for a while in case this house isn't up to the Knocknagow test.

I think this is also called The Collier's Jig.  There's a collier's reel too which has the same general selection if notes in it.  I'll post it on the site if it's not already here.

I've been reminded a couple of times lately that some people are finding some use for some of the tunes on this site so I thought I'd try to add one or two more.  It remains to be seen whether they'll fall into the useful category or otherwise.  I have a couple of requested tunes still to post as well.  I'm just being delayed by not knowing them and almost never having a flute closer that about 20 feet away.  If I attended to the latter matter then my chance of sorting the former should increase accordingly.

Here's the one that goes with the other two (Paddy O'Brien tunes I posted a while ago).  I've just been reminded that I missed this one.  I hope late is better than never.

Here's a reel I've just been asked to play.  It was composed by Sean Ryan.  I found a couple of written versions on the web and this effort is sort of a cross between both and neither of them.  Sorry if some (or most) of the notes are a bit on the fuzzy side.  I found some ready salted crisps just before I found the notes for the tune.

I think there's also a jig with this name - or is that 'the milker that masticated the mattress' ?

Here's a tune I never knew the name of until the arrival of the magic tune finding machine http://tunepal.org/tunepal/index.php.

I see that people now even have telephones with this facility on them.  If someone sneezes at a session these days there's likely to be an iphonophile who will be try to identify the sneeze as some polka or other.  Any extraneous noises in this recording have passed without being interpreted as anything other than normal noise - any other noises are supposed to be the tune.

Here's a tune I think I learned from a recording of Jackie Daly.  It is also in Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hÉireann (vol 2) where the version is the same but for one note in the second part (answsers on a postcard to ...)

Here's another Paddy O'Brien reel which goes with the previous one though usually before it and another one rather than after it and before another one which isn't the same 'another one' I referred to on another part of this sentence just before now - I hope that all makes sense.

All these tunes and information about them and Paddy O'Brien are to be found in an excellent compilation which is available from this site:  http://www.paddyobrienbook.com/

Here's a reel composed by Paddy O'Brien.  It is often played after two others in a set.  I don't know the other ones either.

Here's a great reel for the flute.  I'm sure I stole it from somewhere but the scene of that particular theft is now out of reach of my memory.

I've been at around 3 sessions in as many months and this tune was played at 2 of them (albeit by the same person).  According to my statistical analysis this tune is therefore played at 66.66666% of all sessions.

I'm afraid that the flute here sounds a bit like it has a cravat stuck up it somewhere; possibly with a maritime person attached.

Sorry for the lack of tunes in the last while.  I gave up playing for a while - as I sometimes do - and have only played the flute 4 times this year.

The perenthesised '2' in the title here doesn't doesn't refer to the modesty of Jenny's shellflsh harvest target but just to the fact that there's already another tune with this name on the site.

Here's a new post after a very long gap.  I couldn't remember where I left the internet.  I was sent an mp3 file of someone playing this tune far better that it is played here.  I know that Séan Keane recorded it at some stage and hear it from time to time in sessions but I can't remember exactly how it goes.  I found a transcription in the bit of the internet referred to below.  I'm afraid I've lost / mis-ordered a few notes during the eye to mouth process but here's an approximation - hopefully enough to get a more accurate and diciplined person started learning the tune.

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/2748

Here's a slip jig which is really the tune of a song.  I think I have a CD somewhere including a recording of Séamus Ennis singing the song but it has been hidden somewhere more obscure than the side of the sofa by a young child.

I've had to rely on memory therefore for the way the tune goes.

The title means something like "The fair haired Canavans".

I'm not sure I've ever seen a turnpike gate so I'm not sure what qualities one might have to get a reel named after it.

Anyway, here's a tune called after such a gate.

Here's another request from long ago.  I don't think the tune's title refers to a domestic measuring tool.

I was asked back in August to play this tune.  I've at least managed it before October ended.  The flute hasn't forgiven me for spending a lot of the last hour playing a miniature version of itself (I think baby flutes have a special name but I'm always getting the 'cc's and 'll's confused in the spelling) and blowing into a big flute has proved difficcullt - (it's happenned again only worse).

Anyway, thanks Mary for telling me about this tune on 2nd August, and I hope it sounds OK.

I was asked to record this tune so here it is, only a few days late.  I've always just known this tune from afar so if it sounds like I'm a bit unfamiliar with its finer points (like the notes and stuff like that) then that's probably just because I am.

Like most of CL's tunes, it's a fine piece of music and might be strong enough to emerge intact from my mangling.

Here's a popular reel - so popular that it has taken me 3 years to think of it.