Music Resources

Greg's page of tunes and information about Irish traditional music.

Traditional Irish Fiddle Music Tutorial CD by John Dahms

About abc notation
Listen to music on-line
Recordings
Local sessions
Events
About modes
Styles in traditional music

About abc notation

ABC is a format designed to notate music using plain text. Everything you need to know about abc notation

Programs for abc files. You have to download them and install them on your computer.

• Elizabeth Scarlett's abcEditor takes abc files and allows you to print them out as musical notation. You will also need Ghostscript and Ghostview and an abc to postscript conversion program such as abc2ps, abcm2ps or jaabc2ps.
• 5 Line Skink, an abc editor and player that runs on Macs, PCs and Linux from Wil Macaulay in Toronto
• abcMIDI creates MIDI files from abc files so you can hear the tunes. MIDI files can be played on any computer with a sound card.

You can find more abc tunes at:

• theSession.org
• Alf Warnock's abc page
• O'Neill's Music of Ireland
• The Complete Works of Turlough O'Carolan

Listen to music on-line

Free audio or videos of Irish music:

• Irish Traditional Music Awards 2005, streaming video for Real Audio or Windows Media Player
• BBC virtual session has recordings of tunes and the music to print out.
• Kennedy Center Millenium Stage - Real Audio streaming videos of full length performances by musicians such as Lunasa, Dervish, Bohola, and Kevin Burke. Try searching for "Music", "Europe, Ireland".
• Celtic radio stations on the internet from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and The Isle of Man
• Céilí House and The Late Session, radio programs about Irish traditional music from RTE radio
• Green Linnet
• Cranford Publications - fiddle music from Ireland, Scotland and Cape Breton
• Amazon.com
• Tara music
• The Virtual Gramophone: Canadian Historical Sound Recordings

Recordings

• Patrick Ourceau and Friends: Live at Mona's - recorded at Mona's, an Irish pub in New York City
• bohola - bohola (3) - Jimmy Keane (piano accordion), Sean Cleland (fiddle), Pat Broaders (dordan and vocals)
• Traditional Irish Music - James Kelly (fiddle), Paddy O'Brien (accordion), Daithi Sproule (guitar)
• The Lonesome Touch - Martin Hayes (fiddle), Dennis Cahill (guitar)
• Along Blackwater's Banks - Sliabh Notes - Matt Cranitch (fiddle), Donal Murphy (accordion), and Tommy O'Sullivan (guitar, vocals)
• Kitty Lie Over - Mick O'Brien and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh - uilleann pipes, fiddle and whistles
• Casey in the Cowhouse - Bobby Casey
• Topic Records - Interesting old recordings of Irish music

Local sessions

• Rasputin's Folk Café - Monday night Celtic sessions. Greg leads the slow session held on the second Monday of the month starting at 6:30 pm.
• Irish session at Daniel O'Connell's
• Irish Session at The Carleton Heritage Inn, 7 Bridge St., Carleton Place, Ontario, 7:30 pm. Every other Wednesday. Contact Victor Maltby for more information.
• Ottawa Celtic Slow Jam
• Carp Celtic Jam
• Sessions in Toronto and eastern Ontario
• Find a session anywhere in the world - from theSession.org

Events

• 16th Annual Chris Langan Weekend, May 18, 19, 20, 2007, Toronto, Ontario
• Catskills Irish Arts Week July 15 - 21, 2007, East Durham, NY
• Almonte Celtfest July 2007, Almonte, Ontario
• Celtic College and Celtic Roots Festival, August 2007, Goderich, Ontario

About modes (dorian, mixolydian etc.)

• A good web page with audio files that explains the different modes
• History of modes

Styles in traditional music

• Regional Styles in Irish Fiddle Playing by Caoimhín Mac Aoidh
• An interview with Martin Hayes about the Clare style
• Kevin Crehan writes about Bobby Casey and the West Clare Style
• Listen to a Real Audio file where Kevin Burke describes regional fiddle styles
• Fiddling in Lanark County - an article from the Canadian Journal for Traditional Music

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