Irish Flute Tunes

Does it gather any moss? This is a Donegal fiddle tune which I was asked to play. It's also called "The Gravel Walks to Granie", referring to a place in Donegal. It sounds good on 2 fiddles with one of them playing a drone on a low A. I'm sorry I couldn't demonstrate this but between holding the flute and typing, my hands were sort of tied, and very tired.

Here's a very melodic and cheerful hornpipe which was recorded by, among others, Paddy Killoran. It's a great tune to change into from another, slightly less contented, hornpipe.  There are plenty of these about so I'll not suggest any ones in particular.

Here's a very popular reel. It's especially good for learning. I wish I could identify with the subject of the title. Things mightn't seem so LOUD this morning.

Here's a very common reel which is sometimes called "The Poor Scholar". Regarding scholarly matters, I have exams next week and the week after. I'm supposed to be studying for them but have been spending too much time footering with this site. I picked a fine time to find a new hobby. At least if I flunk them (that word seems to look ruder than it sounds) I'll still have a place where I can complain about it ad nauseum. (I've just discovered how to do italics). I'll try to do us all a favour and leave my flunking aside. Enough asides. Good night.

Here's one of those tunes which lots of people say is very common but can't remember the last time they either heard or played it. No I come to think of it, I've never heard anybody say "Hey, isn't The Morning Star a popular reel?". I've spent too much time typing stuff on this site and am starting to come out with solipsistic claptrap. It is popular though, I think. If you find the record "The Star Above The Garter" of Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford, you'll have a good version of this reel close at hand. If you do find the record (either in LP or CD format), it might even be mine. I never had much luck instilling a homing instinct in my copies of that recording.

I think I said I'd record this tune in my note about "The Bank of Ireland".  I'll have to be more careful in future. This tune was composed by an Italian / Scottish violinist called  Parazotti.  I think it was in E flat.  I used to try it on the flute in D.  On this occasion I appear to be all at sea.

Here's a very popular reel. I think someone asked me to record this; sorry it took so long. I'm not sure about naming good things like tunes after banks is totally appropriate. The tired old utterance "at least Dick Turpin wore a mask" comes to mind. There's another tune called "The Bank of Turf" which is I suppose, referring to another Bank of Ireland, i.e. a bank made of Ireland. I'll maybe record it if and when I remember how it goes. There's another one called "The Banks". It's not really a flute tune but I sometimes try to fool it into thinking it is. I'll have a stab at it now.

I learned this tune from the Donegal fiddle player, James Byrne.  I thought long and hard about the name and came up with this one.

Here's a popular hornpipe which deserves to be so. I'm off for a pint.  I don't have to go to California for it which is a relief, although I'm sure the pints are excellent there.

Here's a march popular with flute players where I come from. I'm not sure where it came from originally. I think the "pike" in question is the weapon variety and not the ingredient Olympic divers include to get more points per plunge. Are the extra points as compensation for any potential lacerations they might sustain if the pike bites them? Maybe the chlorine in the pool sedates it and stops this from being a risk anyway. I played it a second time on a piccolo (or pikeolo) but got very self-conscious as people playing little flutes haven't always got on too well with my neighbours. Anyway, I think the tune suits the tiny treatment.

Here's a slightly less common Gordon's reel than the Lordy version. This one has the marked advantage of being much shorter. I'll have to work myself up to recording the longer one in the next while. In the meantime, I'll go for the Gordons that goes in a glass, with a slice of lime.

This is a very popular tune. I hope you like it.

Here's a great tune for learning. I hadn't played it for a while and had forgotten how good it was for relearning as well.

I'm not sure whether the Blackthorn Stick was made from part of this, or whether it was bought from ebay or ebough. (The spellchecker thought it was neither of the above, or the beside). It's a good tune anyway. Oíche mhaith.

Here's a popular reel which should be a safe bet at most sessions. I'm afraid I didn't have much time to record this tune so its regal qualities are a bit left to the imagination here. I'm sure they'll be reinvigorated when someone else plays it.

More humours - / ; / ... ? this time in the form of a hormpipe which is a nice, melodic minor-sounding one. I might have first heard it on Michael Tubridy's "Eagle's Whistle" record where he played it on a concertina. There's some lovely flute playing on that record too (all well as the concertina playing I mean).

I've just realised (the spellchecker wants a "z" in "realised" and "spellchecker" to be 2 words - it can go and ztrangleitzelf for all I care) that I have put hardly any hornpipes on this site. Here's a nice common one called "The Plains of Boyle". I put some more on soon. Cheers, Michael.

Here's a fairly common reel which should sound well on a flute.  I think the prickly nature of its title has had an effect on my playing and there are more than a few holes in it but you should get the jist of what ought to have been going on. (I was wondering whether I should limit the number of tunes I record per day / week so that the tunes don't disappear off the first screen before people have a chance to see them.  On the other hand, the index makes them fairly accessible wherever they end up.  Any thoughts? )

Here's a great jig which I think was made popular by a recording of Michael Coleman. Michael Coleman came from Killavel, Co. Sligo and settled in New York where he worked as a tram conductor (I know that wasn't his primary reason for being there but so be it). He was frequently pestered by executives from the likes of Decca and Columbia records to record tunes for them on the fiddle. Fortunately the allure of tram life wasn't always too powerful to be overshadowed by the record moguls' offers of dollars and other, unstated rewards. I never quite knew what "Tell Her I Am" meant. In an attempt to make some sense of it, I put it into an anagram machine. I was repayed with "A Hell Remit". There you go.

Here's a piping reel (Willie Clancy again) which is possibly a version of "Colonel Frazer".  There's another tune called "The Braes of Busby" which sounds like a version of it too. I'll record the other 2 tunes with reasonably long intervals between them so you don't hear them all together and find out that they really are just the same tune with different names and that I'm running out of things to play.  If that happens I'll have to start singing but I only know one song - a Patsy Clyne number as it happens but copyright restrictions might have me scuppered.

Here's a good reel, or at least it was until I blew it down a hole in a piece of blackwood. It used to get a dryer journey courtesy of Wille Clancy and prior to that, Garrett Barry who was a piper from the generation before Willie Clancy's. I've been raiding the track listings of a few Willie Clancy records lately.  Stealing tunes from piping records is usually a good way of getting flute tunes owning to pipers' reluctance to pick tunes in funny keys.  They've enough to be getting on with keeping all their plumbing in some sort of order.

Here's a great reel which I'd probably associate most with Willie Clancy. It's on one of the "Pipering of Willie Clancy" records which Claddagh Records published some years ago. Between picking cockles, welcoming Charlie, tying bonnets, Danging weavers, getting clinkings coming home from the races and all the other activities she's recorded in tune names as having been involved in, its a wonder she had time to blink (I don't remember there being a tune called "Jenny's Blink", so maybe she hadn't). Anyway, I hope this tune is of use to someone who is a tad less busy and without a Jenny-esque social calendar.

Here's a piping jig which is good on the flute. It's an especially good one for learning. I have a Seán McGuire LP somewhere with this tune on it. He called it "2 1/2 New Pence". References to the monetary system in Belfast in about 1972 mightn't have stood the test or time, or be too portable, but I'm just passing on what tiny bits of information I might have about the tunes. I'll maybe be a bit more taciturn as regards the late phenomenon who was Seán McGuire.

Here's a march from John Doherty's playing. I thinks it's originally Scottish, like lots of Donegal tunes. I think its name alone is a reason to play it. It suits the flute well too.

Here's a very popular jig.  I'm sorry if you can hear my washing machine in the background.

Here's my valedictory effort for the evening.  This is a barndance which the Sligo fiddle player, James Morrison, made popular through a great recording he made of it years ago. It's a nice melodic creation and it suits flute players' sensibilities as well.

I'm starting to run out of names.  I don't know how the tunes will hold out but I'll maybe give up at Ríl Gan Ainm (202). In the meantime, here's a good reel which is really a fiddle tune.  Bits of the second part would normally be an octave lower but hopefully this setting works OK on the flute.   If anyone knows a name for this tune, I'd be interested to hear it.

Here's a very popular slip jig.  I think it was composed by the Dublin flddle player, Tommy Potts.  It's been decomposed and recomposed a few times since over the years. It's a good tune for the flute and hopefully shouldn't cause people too many difficulties in playing.

This is another popular tune - named after the great Co. Galway box player.

Here's a good standard reel which is very popular in sessions.

This is an entirely rhetorical question at this stage. Willie Clancy probably would have known more about it. It's a good tune in any case, I hope.

Here's a barndance. I haven't been in a barn for a long time but I hear that the dancing is great in them. (I think this tune may be called "Connolly's Barndance".  Here it is in a different key: http://irishflute.podbean.com/2008/08/08/connollys-barndance/ ).

Here's a nice march from the fiddle playing of John Doherty.

Here's a highland from JD. It's a bit on the tricky side in places. It puts the "High" back into "Highland".

This is a reel from James Byrne's playing.  That's all I can tell you.

I learned this from James Byrne who is a great fiddle player from Meenacross, near Glencolmbkille in Donegal.  I'm not sure whether it has another name.  It sounds a bit like a slide to me.  There are quite a few of these tunes which have ended up in Donegal.  They must have taken a wrong turn in Killarney one day.

Here's a reel I used to hear a lot.  It's also called "The Farting Badger".  It deserves to be played occasionally just for that reason.

Here's a highland.  I've no name for it, only a few notes.

I can't even remember who I learned this from, let alone its name.  I've called it "Masúrca Gan Ainm" as it looks a bit more exotic then "Untitled Mazurca".  It was nice of the committee in Dublin to take the trouble to make up an Irish word for "Mazurka".

Here's a mazurka I learned from the playing of John Doherty.  I couldn't think of anything better to call it.

Here's "The Skylark's" friend.

A good old sort of a tune.

A great reel.  I don't know it's usually played single or double.  I remembering it being on an LP of Noel Hill and Tony McMahon with a bit of galloping  in the background.

Another drink related tune.  I've something on my mind.

This is a popular reel that could go with a Humours of Whiskey chaser.

Today seems to be slip jig day.  This is a very popular one.  It has four parts (I hope there weren't supposed to be more????) and I hope I remembered them OK here. It's good to have a tune which so popular without being as Capri-corny as this comment.

Here's another slip jig.

Here's another traditional slip jig.

This is a nice slip jig.  There seem to be a lot of whiskey related humours cited in the nomenclature of traditional tunes.  I'm more a gin / Guinness / red wine / beer / poitín / vodka / white rum / brandy / white wine / sherry / green chatreuse type of person but each one to their own poison. Sláinte.

Here's a piping jig which should be OK on the flute. All the best, Michael.

I can't tell you much about this tune apart from that I like it.  I hope you do.

Here's a cheerful sort of reel.  I don't know a huge amount about it but being cheerful is a good start.

Here's a great standard reel.  It's worth digging out a recording of Séamus Ennis playing this on the pipes to get an idea of how this tune can sound.

Here's a good jig.  It's often played as part of "The Fox Chase" but I've given up fox hunting as the animals used to wreak havoc in my house.

This must be a flute tune as it's named after a flute player - a great one at that.

This reels is a bit lonely without its friend "Roaring Mary". I'll add its companion as soon as I can.

Here's a jig which should find noises of recognition at any session.

Here's a well known slip jig.  (I had it attached to the post for "Sweeney's Dream" earlier - I hadn't been asking for the right sort of drink).

Here's the way I remember this tune. I'm not sure how standard it is. (Sorry - I had the wrong tune on this.  I've fixed it now.)

Here's a good reel.  I don't think it has as severe effects on flute players as it does on lucht na bpíbí.

This is often in G minor but the flute gets a bit displeased by this tune in that key. The A minor version has the added advantage of being annoying to people who do like the G minor version. (Not sure about the grammar in the title. I suppose it reflects the heartbroken person's view of the being what caused him such anguish.)

A very popular tune - you can probably blame the Bothy Band for that. As with most popular tunes, it has a good melody and rhythm.  That's probably why it's popular.  If that's a load of rubbish then it must just be popular courtesy of the Bothy Band.  I don't know whether any of them liked it or were just asked to play it. I think it's quite nice.

Here's a piping reel which is good on the flute. It sounds a bit like some other reels, sure all reels sound like all other reels. This Irish music all sounds the same to me. I just learned one tune and a few dozen names. That's the reason why I've being recording tunes one at a time. It's like the two people who you've never actually seen in the same room at the one time. Maybe there's only really one person in the world. I fairly sure it's not me so it must be you.

Here's a nice, melodic jig which I was asked to record here.  It suits any instrument (anthough the C  naturals can be challenging on a triangle if it isn't isosceles).

This tune's a great stalwart.  Stalwart is a great word.  Syllogisms can be musical.

I was asked for this tune and recorded the hornpipe.  I never knew it was also a jig but here's the jig.  Lovely Leitrim's full of fancies.

Here's a reel which works very well on the flute. Someone once described to me how to play reels in 'G' in the flute; you hold down the top 3 fingers, blow into the hole provided for blowing into, and slap the other 3 fingers down on their allotted holes in time to the tune. That's what I've done here.

Is this the tune Mary? I had to do a search for this name. The version I found on the internet isn't quite the same as this but here's how I learned it. I never knew it came from a leporid. Between being coursed, accused of insanity and having their feet cut off to make tunes, they get a fairly raw deal.

Hopefully its a friendly "friendly visit" and not a "friendly" "friendly visit". It think it's really just a hornpipe. I've taken to recording tunes in bulk and then putting them on a few at a time. There's a danger that this might lead to tunes going on more than once as my tracking system doesn't exist yet. There could even be ones that don't get on at all (they must be the good ones). Hope this one isn't a twin in any case. Safe enough about the "good one" thing.

I don't know much about this tune apart from the fact that it isn't too hard to play and it can sound OK (this instance not withstanding).  That's probably all I really need to know.

This reel is often known as "Paddy Carty's Reel". I think he called it "The Day I Met Tom Moylan" but I may well be wrong. I thing the mice must have eaten most of my record collection and I haven't been able to find my Paddy Carty record to check. I'm not sure how close this version is.

Here's a jig I was asked to play.  I seem to remember there being a nice version of it on a Josie McDermott record.

A piping reel which suite the flute.

Here's a jig I was asked to record here. It's a great tune for learning. I hadn't played it for a long time and am glad to have been reminded of it.

A good reel which deserves to be played more often than it is.

Here's a good reel.  I'm not sure how standard my version is as I haven't played or heard it for a long time.  I hope it's OK.

A very popular piping jig which suits the flute too.

Here's a very popular jig - another suggestion from a flute player in internet land.

Here's a nice hornpipe.  A flute player called Alexandre suggested this tune, along with a few other ones.  If anyone requests a particular tune, I'll gladly record it as long as I know it.  My memory isn't what it was so tunes are exiting my head quicker than they are being replaced.

There are lots of versions of this tune.  Hopefully this is fairly close to the commonest one.

Here's a good piping reel.  As is ofter the case with good piping reels, especially ones in G, it's good on the flute too.

Here's a popular piping jig.  Some people called this "The Piper of the Hearth (or embers)".  One Irish translation for a cricket is "Píobare an teallaigh" which = the piper of the hearth.  Who knows?

There were a lot of reels names after this chap.  This one is normally associated with Michael Coleman.

Here's a very popular jig.  It works well on the flute.

Here's a piping reel.  It has a few F naturals in it.  I tend to play the low octaves with a key and use half-fingering for the high octave ones.  I'm a bit rusty with this tune but hopefully it almost makes sense.

Here's a reel with is good for learning and is also a great tune in the standard repertoire of Irish traditional musicians everywhere.

Here's a jig which is good on the flute.  I can't comment on the name.

Here's a nice piping reel which suits the flute very well.

Here's a very common reel.  It's a great standard tune for sessions.

Here's a reel named after the South Sligo fiddle player , Mr. Finn - Peter Horan's friend.

I put these on separately, slowish then quicker, but I thought that as these tunes have been almost conjoined for the last 80 years, it would be inhumane to split them up now. You'd be much better getting a recording of John McKenna playing these but, in case you can't get hold of one just yet, here's a version which is hopefully fairly close to the standard one.

Here's the one after the one before.

This is the first of 2 reels which are usually just known as "McKenna's", after the Leitrim flute maestro John McKenna.

I always think of "The Times There are a Changing" but I think the spelling would need to be a changing too (to two?) Sorry.  This is a popular jig although I haven't heard it played for a while.

Here's a popular piping reel which suits the flute.  It's often associated with Willie Clancy.

Here's a tune from the fife & Lambeg drum tradition.  Some of these have crept into the repertoires of Irish traditional flute players too.  I can't remember a name for this one.

Here are 2 reels which were popularised my Michael Coleman. Here's my iffy effort.

Here's a fifing tune. There are some people in my part of the world who play it on big flutes too.

Here's a reel that's popular on the fiddle too.

Here are two polkas. The first one is called the "Shelf" polka. I never heard a name for the second one. Charlie O'Neill originally came from Mount Charles in Donegal and then moved to "the Moy" in Tyrone.