Irish Traditional Guitar Accompaniment
Book & Cd
96 pages - By Gavin
Ralston
This book uses standard sheet music (and some tablature) to teach Guitar accompaniment for Traditional Irish music. It assumes that you have at least some knowledge of guitar, and that you wish to expand that knowledge. Most of the tunes use strumming (with a pick), a few use finger picking.
This book uses "Drop D Tuning".
This means
that the guitar is tuned to the standard "EADGBE", then the lowest string is
tuned down one full step to D.
A capo is required for many of the tunes in this book.
The CD includes tuning notes, examples of various rhythm patterns, and all the tunes from the book.
A unique feature of the CD is that the Guitar (accompaniment) comes out on the right channel of your stereo (or computer), the Fiddle (melody) comes out on the left channel. This allows you to tune out one or the other using the speaker balance, so you can either listen closely to the guitar, or practice your own Guitar accompaniment with just the Fiddle.
In addition to general rhythm patterns for Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, etc., the following tunes are included in both the Book and on the CD:
- The Bothy Band Jig
- The Mountain Road
- The Eavesdropper
- Gallagher's Frolics
- Apples in Winter
- Martin Wynne's No. 2
- The Musical Priest
- The Boys of Ballisodare
- The Rights of Man
- The Rambling Pitchfork
- The Humours of Ballyconnell
- Johnny Will you Marry Me
- Danny Boy*
- The Boys of Mallow
- Cooley's Reel
- Eibhlín Ní Riordan's
- Jenny's Chickens
- Keane's Favourite
- The Rambling Maid
- The Dublin Reel
- The Nightingale*
- The Maids of Castlebar
- The Magic Slipper
- The Trip to Durrow
- The Water is Wide*
- Capo Slide Reel - Hewlett's Reel
- Capo Slide Reel - The Bird in the Bush
* Denotes a "Song" instead of a "Tune" (in Traditional Irish music, a "Song" is sung, a "Tune" is an instrumental piece). The songs on this CD have a vocal instead of a fiddle for the melody.
