110 Irish Concertina Tunes book collected by Aogán Lynch

[JackJ]

Hello,

 

Has any looked at the book "110 Irish Concertina Tunes"?  I can't find a tune list/table of contents for it anywhere, though it appears to widely available, both with and without CDs.  I also don't see it listed in Gary's excellent list of books here on c.net.

 

Some of the reviews mention it covers ornamentation, which I'm really hoping to learn more about, and would love to see applied to specific tunes.  On the other hand, if the content is mostly generic versions of things I can find online or in my umpteen other Irish tune collections, I'll probably pass.

 

Thanks for any insights!

Edited September 16, 2021 by JackJ
Added link

[richard]

I'm not sure but Aogán Lynch might be available for online lessons, which would be a way to gain his insight into ornamentation. 

 

[JackJ]

 

18 minutes ago, richard said:

I'm not sure but Aogán Lynch might be available for online lessons, which would be a way to gain his insight into ornamentation. 

 

 

Thanks Richard!  I have seen mention of Aogán offering online lessons, and may well pursue that. 

 

And in editing my post above to add a link to the book, I found a tune list on the Walton's site.  (It's a popup image that I don't see a way to copy, otherwise I'd paste it here.)  It includes a good number of tunes played at my local sessions that are not yet in my personal repertoire, so I'm going to pick it up, hoping for some concertina-specific insights.  But would still love to hear any impressions from anyone who has used this particular book.

 

Thanks! 

 

[gcoover]

Hi Jack - I have the book but it is just a bunch of tunes with no instruction whatsoever - it could be for any instrument, but at least it does have an accompanying CD of him playing the tunes.

 

Gary

[JackJ]

Following up on my own post for anyone else interested in this book:  It is, as Gary says, just the tunes and nothing else.  The 2 accompanying CDs do cover all the tunes, but just one time through on each.  The dots are not completely accurate transcriptions--they include no double stops/chords, for example, and don't capture every ornament.  But they're pretty close.

 

Still, I'm glad to have this.  The book has a lot of tunes I want to learn, including some I already play, but where it will be helpful to incorporate some of the phrasing/variations presented here.  And unlike learning a tune from a fiddle or flute recording, here I get concertina-specific elements, played in a "pro" manner.  I.e., not just a basic, unadorned version of the tune.

 

Certainly not an essential purchase, and not one that would have done much for me when I was just beginning, but I think it will be helpful in my current intermediate phase.  Once I've spent some time with it, I may want to see if I can pursue some lessons with the author.

[Don Taylor]

Learning ornaments:  You could try using one of the slow downer programs.

 

Isolate the ornament inside a short loop and then slow down the playback to 25%, or less, until you can hear the ornament as a series of distinct notes.  Learn to play those notes by ear at slow speed and then gradually speed up the loop to full speed while playing along.

[JackJ]

15 minutes ago, Don Taylor said:

Learning ornaments:  You could try using one of the slow downer programs.

 

Isolate the ornament inside a short loop and then slow down the playback to 25%, or less, until you can hear the ornament as a series of distinct notes.  Learn to play those notes by ear at slow speed and then gradually speed up the loop to full speed while playing along.

 

This is indeed my intent.  I've been using the Transcribe+ app for a while now to help me learn tunes by ear, and to slow down the parts that fly by too fast--usually the entire tune!.   I do like having the dots to fall back on, but I'll mostly be using the CD's, plus the slow down software, to try to learn these tunes and these specific settings.  The software also allows me to loop a section, or the entire tune, continuously, which is especially helpful when the recording is just one time through.

 

For me, this book without the CD's wouldn't have much value.