Tune of the Week!

Information

Welcome! Every week we'll have an official Tune of the Week. Members of this group can then post a video or MP3 of their version of the tune. It should be a great way to encourage members, especially learners/improvers, to learn new tunes & tips.

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Latest Activity: Jan 11

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Tune of the Week ~ Read Me 1st!

With the NING changeover I don't have access to that fancy Poll App, so we'll just have to do it the old fashioned way this week!

Choose your favourite tune from this list of FIVE & vote ..... HERE!

1: The Boys of Bluehill
2: The Stack of Barley
3: Haste to the Wedding
4: The Connachtman's Rambles
5: Táim in Arrears
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N.B. Please suggest tunes for future weeks, in our Comments Wall below & I'll add them to our list, at the foot of this page.

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Inspired by the success of the Song of the Week group, over on the Mandolin Cafe, I thought it was about time we had our own version here!

Every week we'll have an official Tune of the Week.

The tune titles for each Tune of the Week will be posted at the foot of this section, as a link, which will take you to the actual discussion thread for that tune, which will contain the ABCs for the tune, a video of a simple version played slowly, plus other useful links.

Members of this group will then be free to post a video or MP3 of their own version of the tune & discuss the tune on that thread.

This will NOT be a competition to see who plays it better than anyone else, but rather an interesting place to observe different styles of playing and most importantly of all, somewhere for learners & improvers, to learn new tunes, pick up tips on technique, variations etc etc & to ask for advice on same.

Suggestions, for future tunes to be considered, can be submitted by any member of the group, at any time & should be posted in the Comments section! I will maintain a list of all suggestions below & will choose the Tune of the Week from your suggestions. However, in order to keep the comments section manageable, once I have made a note of each suggestion, the comment will be deleted.

Please post Comments about each video posted, in the relevant threads on the Discussion Forum here, beside the video itself, not on the Comment Wall .... Ta.

Members can of course at any time, search down the list of tunes already posted, and submit their videos or mp3's for tunes which they may have missed, or simply comment, on any previous tunes posted.

I know how much some folks love to chat, but please try to keep your comments relevant to the tune being discussed on each thread. To save the Discussion Board becoming cluttered with idle chit-chat, no other discussions will be permitted there. This should make it easy for each of us to search through the discussions.

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Table of Contents

Week #1 Tobin's Favourite
9 Videos by: Fergal O'Hanlon, Bill MacAulay, Paddy Dunne, David Deacon, Andy Sugden, TSSN, Gerald Readore, Nigel Baker, Dick Glasgow + 2
Week #2 Master Crowley's
3 Videos by David Deacon, TSSN & Dick Glasgow

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List of possible tunes suggested by members

Hornpipes
The Boys of Blue Hill
Stack of Barley

Jigs
Tongs by the Fire
Top of Cork Road
The Luck Penny
Haste to the Wedding
Connachtman's Rambles
The Kesh

Reels
Master Crowley's
Martin Wynne's #2
WInd that Shakes the Barley
Teetotaler (Temperance)
Pigtown Fling
Sally Gardens

Polkas

Slides

Slip Jigs
Táim in Arrears
Mazurkas

Barndances

Members should post names of tunes they'd like to post videos of themselves playing, as future Tunes of the Week, in the Comment Wall below & I'll add the names to this list.
Or post names of tunes they'd like to learn, which they would like to hear & see videos of other members here, playing them.
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Discussion Forum

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Comment Wall

Comment

You need to be a member of Tune of the Week! to add comments!

Comment by OpenBackGuy on August 19, 2010 at 5:12am: Hello....... Anybody out there.....? The air seems to have gone out of this group like a flat on a lorry..... Maybe it was becoming too much trouble to keep going..? Or what? It was fun while it lasted, anyway.....
RIP?

Comment by Dick Glasgow on July 18, 2010 at 1:35pm: Result of Week #2 Poll:
Master Crowley's: 33%
Martin Wynne's: 24%
Top of Cork Road: 24%
The Luck Penny: 19%
Tong by the Fire: %

Comment by OpenBackGuy on July 16, 2010 at 6:33pm: The comments have been great. I especially liked John McCarthy's observation that 'all tunes are hard when you don't know them...and... rewarding when learned'. And David Deacon's that there are 'no simple tunes-it's what you do with them'. On that count, I was fortunate on July 4th to be able to hear John Carty play live 40 miles from here in Port Townsend, WA, with the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes... One of the tunes in the fantastic, understated set he played was The Kesh jig, a well-known and often-played example... He went through it maybe 4 or 5 rounds, and of course never playing it the same way twice. The imagination and virtuosity of his variations were amazing...plus he uses such a tiny area of his bow! So much music coming out of such a conservation of movement... Anyway, I think it's great to see and hear how a variety of people have handled Tobin's Favorite. Like Dick intended, it's comparable to being at several sessions with a range of accomplished and less experienced players, all of whom we can learn new ideas from. Now if I could just get a recording of my version that I like well enough to post... At least at this point I think I have the technology lined up to do it!

Comment by John McCarthy on July 16, 2010 at 5:02pm: thats kinda annoying, Im only allowed to vote once!! Im looking forwards to this when the tune of the week is such a tune with a million different versions, played in different keys, like the masons apron or pigeon on the gate or something like that.

Comment by Dick Glasgow on July 16, 2010 at 1:58pm: @ Chris
Have you noticed that it is now a 4 horse race with 4 tunes having 25%!

Comment by Dick Glasgow on July 15, 2010 at 5:32pm: @ Chris .. Martin Wynne's is only neck & neck with Top of Cork Road at the moment & anyway, with 24 hours still to go, any of those tunes could still win the race! ;-)

Comment by Farquhar MacGregor on July 15, 2010 at 4:54pm: I accept and appreciate all the comments made and am reassured - I was merley worried that some people's enthusiasm would take over when identifying some tunes. I should have known better!

Comment by Chris Youlden on July 15, 2010 at 4:42pm: OK, I voted for Master Crowley's but Martin Wynne's #2 had the most votes, so here's the ABC from thesession.org. I'll start working on it.

X:1
T: Martin Wynne's
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K:Dmaj
FBAF E2FE|DB,~B,2 DB,A,2|B,E~E2 FEDE|FABc dcBA|
FBAF E2FE|DB,~B,2 DB,A,2|B,E~E2 FEDE|FBBA B2BA:|
|:FBAF A2FA|(3Bcd eg edde|~f2af egfe|dBAF BAFE|
FBAF A2FA|Beeg fdde|~f2af e2ge | dBAF ~B2AB:||

Comment by David Deacon on July 15, 2010 at 3:44pm: I certainly have no problem revisiting what may seem like basic tunes. Really, there is no such thing as a simple tune: what matters is what you do with it. I have some major gaps, tunes I've only accompanied, or just sat back and listened to in sessions--I've never learned Martin Wynne's #2 for some reason. There are some core tunes that I think are useful for everyone to know--they are classics for good reason. Boys of Blue Hill is one.

Along that line maybe:

WInd that Shakes the Barley
Teetotaler (Temperance)
Pigtown Fling (is that the name in Irish circles?)
Sally Gardens

Haste to the Wedding
Connachtman's Rambles
The Kesh

Táim in Arrears (my favorite slip jig at the moment, though not particularly a standard)

Stack of Barley

I'm enjoying Dick's growing list of tunes in the mandolin group--some fine ones there that would be good as tunes of the week sometime.

Comment by John McCarthy on July 15, 2010 at 3:35pm: All tunes seem hard when you don't know them, easy when you do, frustrating during the learning process, rewarding when learnt. if your finding a tune 'difficult', try learning the first part of it in a week, like everything it gets easier with practice and you will won't what you fussed about. This weeks tune is about as easy as they come, i feel, so is 'boys of bluehill'. But tunes that sound difficult can sometimes be just as easy, the learning process is strange and never stops. I feel a good idea is to include tunes commonly heard at sessions, as this will give you a chance to practice with others and give a you a chance to gauge your progress and enjoy your sessions more by playing more tunes per hour!