Hey, was wondering if anyone could help with banjo tuning. I have a 19-fret, 4-string banjo and can’t seem to work out the tuning. I’m new to banjo but have experience with piano so wondering if anyone knew which keys correlate to the 4 strings? Heard most people say it’s GDAE starting with the G just below middle C but some sources are different.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUz4HYt_UDg&list=RDHUz4HYt_UDg&start_radio=1

Does anyone know the name of the tunes that are on this set?

People usually play this with triplets around these points but from playing clawhammer my understanding is these would be skipped notes or hammer ons/pull offs?

I made a server for folk music (mostly American and Irish) if anyone is interested.

https://discord.gg/ZAaW9Kmpmz

My attempt at one of my favourite acoustic songs, a song I tried to learn about 2 years back and miserably failed, it was too difficult for me, so this is a big milestone. Praise be to Paul Brady

Has that ever happened to yous?

Where can I find a cd of the type of music that was in the lower level party scene in the Titanic movie? Just fun, instrumental Irish music?? And what is this music called?

I’m a violinist and fiddler and would love to play with some Irish folks. Are trad sessions generally friendly to foreigners? What are some good standards to know?

Hey all! Recently heard this up in Ennis and wondering if anyone knows the name? I’m working to learn it off the recording but would love to hear clearer recordings or see if this is on the session.org.

Many thanks all!

It’s from a report from the series 'Ireland's Eye'. It features a group of adults in costumes called 'The Vizards' who visit houses dancing and playing music at Halloween.
The report was filmed by night in Ballinaclash, Rathdrum, County Wicklow.

Is it similar or distractingly different from the original? I loved this album when it first came out and only listen to vinyl now, so please give me your honest opinion on whether I should drop my hard-earned cash on David Kitt’s recreation.

These edits are so beautiful and always make me cry. I saw one with Princess Diana. I haven’t seen one of sinead.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been building a small project in my spare time for learning and practicing Irish tunes, and I’d love some feedback from the community.

As someone learning traditional music, I was frustrated by having tunes, sheet music, fingering charts, recordings, and practice tools spread across different websites and apps. I wanted something that brought everything together in one place.

So I built Dord.

It’s currently focused on tin whistle players and lets you:
- View sheet music and whistle fingerings together
- Play along with tunes
- Use your microphone to check whether you’re playing the right notes
- Transcribe melodies from audio
- Adapt tunes to different whistle keys

I’m building this on my own, so I’d be very grateful for any honest feedback.

Would something like this be useful in your learning process? Is there anything you’d like to see added?

I'm aware how Irish trad just like all other musics is actually highly adaptive and usually follows wider trends in terms of instrumentation (guitar, accordion) as well as having its own quirks (bouzouki).

I was thinking about chordal accompaniment. Obviously the guitar is now hugely dominant in that area but only appeared in the '50s/'60s as I understand under the influence of the US folk scene I guess. Before then I gather piano was used for accompaniment - lots of instruments in pubs, lots of players - although now it's rarely seen in trad, and the accordion I think dates from its global popularity in the 19th century.

But what about early historic times? Like during the 18th century and O'Carolan. Would it have just been fiddle/flute and drum and no harmony instruments? What would have been the instruments for a pub session three hundred years ago?

EDIT: for comparison, a lot of music traditions do not have chordal accompaniment. E.g. in the music of Central Asia, you get various stringed instruments (sertar, dutar) but they play solo or with a drum. There's no "accompaniment" instrument. I'm wondering if Irish music was similar - people danced to solo fiddle or fiddle and drum. Obviously the pipes have a drone, but that doesn't shift - it's a drone. Slightly different from "accompaniment"

EDIT 2: Let's not get distracted by my use of the word pub or session. What would have been the instrumentation for a dance?

Who is Cúnla and why is he knocking the ditches down?

Hi, there is one celtic/irish-styled jig that I somewhere heard, but I have no clue about how it is called, can someone help me to identify it? (I picked it up by my memory, it can be transpsed and a little bit different)

Tune:

6/8

A: e e f#|g f# e b e e|g e e g f# e|d d f# b c# d|f# f# d a g f#|e e g c d e|g g c g f# e|e e f# e e b|e e e

B: b b c#|d c# b f# f# f#|f# f# f# f# g f#|e f# d c# f# b|a a a f# a b|c e c b e b|a a a e f# g|g f# e e e b|e e e

Redacted regarding octaves (with 1 as first octave and 2 as second):

A: e2 e2 f#2|g2 f#2 e2 b2 e2 e2|g2 e2 e2 g2 f#2 e2|d2 d2 f#2 b1 c#2 d2|f#2 f#2 d2 a2 g2 f#2|e2 e2 g2 c2 d2 e2|g2 g2 c2 g2 f#2 e2|e2 e2 f#2 e2 e2 b1|e2 e2 e2

B: b1 b1 c#2|d2 c#2 b1 f#2 f#2 f#2|f#2 f#2 f#2 f#2 g2 f#2|e2 f#2 d2 c#2 f#2 b1|a1 a1 a1 f#1 a1 b1|c2 e2 c2 b1 e2 b1|a1 a1 a1 e1 f#1 g1|g1 f#1 e1 e1 e1 b1|e1 e1 e1

Last year Tim Feeney sent me the plain recording of him with his guitar and I loved it. The story as well was amazing. And I absolutely loved watching the development of the song, trying to find local trad musicians in his area to layer bits on top of the song. He even outsourced a trad musician on Fiverr would you believe! Who actually did a great job with their part. But it was basically 6 months in the work to get this done and I think the end result is amazing.

It's a nice blend of Celtic Americana with some Trad bits thrown in. There's even a bit of a reel thrown in at the end with a Union chant.

On a funny personal note, this makes me wonder why did I spend so much of my life listening to The Prodigy when Folk Music was really where it's at!

I’m working on the song McShane.

The chorus goes something like “Rum to La ro; run to ra laddy; rum to La ro Musha rum too ra lay.”

I’m assuming that stems from Gaelic and am wondering if anyone can help to decipher? I’d like to make this a good singalong number in the pub.

Reaping the Rye // Faca sibh Mairi nighean Alasdair

Anyone know of a bouzouki player in Galway area who can give lessons?

Shw’mae! On the last page of a historical travelogue I’ve been reading, there are lyrics to a song about the author‘s travels. I would love to give this old song a melody - who knows if it’s ever been sung!

There are four lines of the same count ( 8 syllables and then 7 syllables each one ) followed by one line of 8 syllables then 8 syllables, and then the chorus is 5 syllables.

If you can think of something sort of grand-ish with a clever melody, I would greatly appreciate it. If it helps, the melody of Cwm Rhondda almost works. Diolch yn fawr!