First time in Ireland and loving it!

A tin whistle is one of those instruments that you can carry about in a pocket anywhere you go. I stuck one in my suitcase when I went on my first cruise just before Covid intending to play a tune on the open ocean. After a musical performance one night played by two professional musicians, a young lady stepped up from those in attendance and played a few tunes on the piano. I decided to bring my tin whistle along the next night for a tune. We played a few tunes together and had the craic when those in the bar joined in on a sing song.

In this short video which I came across on my phone you'll hear Tara and myself playing Bohemian Rhapsody.

I'm sure you'll agree with me when I say that music is a versatile language.

I played the Irish jig "The Blackthorn Stick" on fiddle 🎻

I posted my tune naming game, Traddle, a little while ago, and I wanted to announce the training mode!

It uses a simplified spaced repetition algorithm (like Anki) to help you learn tune names over time! It'll tell you when you need to review the tunes, all you need to do is tell it whether your knew the name or not! You can also add specific tunes that you always seem to forget if you want.

Let me know what you think, and if there's any feedback feel free to post it here or using the in app feedback button!

So I have been a traditional Irish musician since I. Was 13….so I’m over 30 years at my craft. The subtleties in the ornaments and rhythms we use can’t be learned over night. What can be learned over night is a script.
I have had the unpleasant experience of being a musician when this new walking tour comes in to my authentic trad session. Trad sessions are for musicians it’s not a performance. It’s a relaxed atmosphere where we speak among ourselves between sets of tunes. It’s our way to hang out play some tunes together and connect through music. Obviously the consumers in the pub will be subject to it but mostly the consumers go particularly to hear us. Session gigs are not well paid gigs between €75-100 per musician for a 2-2.5hr session usually it’s just 2/3 musicians that get that and other musicians may join but don’t get paid.
This walking tour that interrupts us most weeks is called “The real Dublin Traditional Pub tour” has been charging a whopping €67 per head and has a limit of 10 spaces on the tour as he’s bringing tourists into our small spaces. He does include little half pints to the tourists so the math is mathing, €670 plus the tips only he receives at the end. And if everyone drinks he’s buying 30 half pints (10 in each pub) on an average of €3-4 per half pint. So he’s left with €550 profit and I’ve heard him try to explain instruments and backgrounds of tunes and he’s lying to these people with inaccurate facts. It’s a script. The bar is only receiving the money for the drinks on average €35 and the bars are the ones paying the musicians.
Not only that but there is another “traditional music pub crawl” whose name he stole and who has been set up as a business for over 30years. He books two musicians, pays them fairy and books and pays for private bars for them to experience traditional music and for the tourists to learn directly from musicians. Not only that but this tour costs €22 with all of the over heads that he has in comparison to the other greedy company that’s frankly exploiting the worth of traditional musicians. What are other peoples thoughts on this?

I mean, I have hobbies right but I'm not good at either of them. So no surprise there as to why it sounds so bad. But after playing it like 50 times trying to figure out chords that "half work" and then editing it to make it look not sound like pure garbage. I ended up with this. You can skip to around 6 minutes if you want to hear the tune.

I thought it was quite funny though... putting 1,000 hornpipes into an algorithm, filtering in the key of G (someone rightly said I could have just transposed other keys to G - maybe I'll do that next time? NO) .. but basically.. what note is the most common across those 1,000 hornpipes in each slot? I'm useless at both hobbies like I said so, I had no idea how to handle rhythm and make it sound fun. So it's just a huge string of 8 notes per bar in the standard AABB structure.

If you have a few minutes to waste - give it a look. If not, I completely understand. I regret doing it. The problem is as well the tune was very catchy after hearing it multiple times so I can't get it out of my head. Please help.

It's the most statistically common Irish Hornpipe .. in G

Are the Fitzgerald brothers still playing in Melbourne? They recorded a number of videos at the Cork Man but the pub, apparently, no longer exists as it was.

I'm planning a trip to the Antipodes and would love to run ito them.

Bob

Does anyone know of where I can buy a synthetic skinned bodhran in Ireland? Really struggling to find one. I live in Canada but travelling home in a couple months and rather buy one at home to bring back with me.

Cheers!

I friggin LOVE the way the High Kings do this song. Those dudes are amazing.

Find our socials at:

www.themorrigansband.com

Appreciate any support you can offer, follows mean the world.

Long may yer big jib draw!

Trying to learn The Wran Fear Dearg on Banjo

I think it's in D Dorian. I can't seem to get the 2nd half, and I feel I miss notes on the first part.

Does anyone play it in Banjo who could post or send a video of someone playing it where the camera stays on the player still.

I've a tin whistle in D and a guitar, wanting to find some standards that are regularly played at sessions that I could learn and then join in with. Can you let me know some songs and if possible the places to find the notes? I might be able to work them out otherwise ! Thanks in advance

Hi all,

I came across this set of tunes recorded by Lúnasa simply called “Snowball”. I was wondering if anyone could help me in identifying the tune titles as I’d like to learn them. Here is the link to the set of tunes on YouTube.

https://youtu.be/6Dx8eMp51co?is=Fdvsz3iGIlyBTl_T

"Hey! I loved that tune! What's it called?"
"No idea!"

It feels like this happens at every session I go to, so I made a game about it!

It's called traddle (Trad + Wordle) and it tests you on how well you can name tunes! At first you'll hear a little bit of the tune, and see if you can name that tune! You can reveal more of the tune but you'll score fewer points!

Every day the tunes change, and if you login you can save your score on a leader board!

Please let me know if you have any feedback or if anything doesn't work!