Advice Would Be Helpful

[mike_s]

I played Anglo about two and a half years, then took 2 years off due to some hand issues.  the issues have mostly resolved themselves and I've been back to playing about 5 months now.  I've attended Noel Hill's "school" 3 times and all is good in that regard.  Our local "slow session" which I used to attend is fine, but most of the tunes I am not familiar with and at 77 years old my learning would not be characterized as fast, ha ha.  Anyway in an effort to be able to participate in the session, I need to learn some more tunes.   I'm thinking of signing up for Caitlin M's on line lessons.  I've done the free ones and they seem fine.  The tune list includes a few I already know and some that are done at our session.  I welcome opinions as to her program.  Personal experience with it would be very helpful for me to figure out if it would be beneficial .

 

Thanks!

[Michael Eskin]

I have heard nothing but positive reviews of her online course.

[Mic]

I found Caitlin’s course very useful for technique. Most of the tunes are great, but I would estimate that only about 20% are tunes you would hear regularly in sessions that I’ve attended. The course might still be useful for building your repertoire because it includes some direction on working out fingering & learning by ear. As you may know, there are some other options, such as Online Academy of Irish Music (which I also found useful), & Jack Talty’s course which is marketed by McNeela Music (& about which I know nothing).

[Michael Eskin]

6 hours ago, Mic said:

I found Caitlin’s course very useful for technique. Most of the tunes are great, but I would estimate that only about 20% are tunes you would hear regularly in sessions that I’ve attended. The course might still be useful for building your repertoire because it includes some direction on working out fingering & learning by ear. As you may know, there are some other options, such as Online Academy of Irish Music (which I also found useful), & Jack Talty’s course which is marketed by McNeela Music (& about which I know nothing).

Do have a list of the tunes she teaches?  I'm curious if we play them at our local session..

[Mic]

There are 3 levels. The following are tunes at starter level.

Connaughtman’s rambles

Creig’s pipes

Din Tarrant’s no. 1

Din Tarrant’s no. 2

Donegal mazurka no. 1

Donegal mazurka no. 2

Raglan Rd

A fig for a kiss

Fisherman’s slide

Gypsy princess

Humours of Tulla

Ward’s

Joe Bann’s barndance 

Kilfenora jig

Keel row

Little bag of spuds

Lucy Farr’s barndance

McHugh’s

Na ceannabhain Bhana

Britches full of stitches

Oro se do Bheatha bhaile

Primrose lass

Rattling bog 

Rolling wave

Swaggering jig

Ta an coilleach ag fogairt an lae

Up Leitrim

 

[Michael Eskin]

Thanks! I'd say we'd play about a third of those in our session. 

Do you have a tune list at the higher levels?

[mike_s]

Michael,

 

They are all listed on her web site

[Michael Eskin]

Cool, thanks, I'll go check it out!

 

[Caroline]

Here,s the tune list for Caitlin’s “Improver” course, which I am currently working on.  I took the list from her course album which she offers for additional purchase.  On the album she plays the tunes she teaches in the course, at speed, in sets, and with accompaniment.  I find the albums a great for getting the tunes in your head before you start learning them.

 

Kitty Gone a Milkin’, Music in the Glen (Reels) 

The Morning Lark, The Bohola (Jigs) 

The Rookery, Joe Cooley’s Morning Dew, New Mown Meadow (Reels) 

An Ciúnas (Slow March)

 

An Gliomach, An tSeanbhean Bhocht, Paddy Finley's Fancy (Reels)


Dances at Kinvara, Aughton House (Barndances)



Silver Spear, The Floggin' (Reels) 



Mrs. Galvin’s, Coleman’s Cross, Baitheadh Bhruclais (Jigs)



Sunday’s Well (Waltz)



Murty McMahons, Lucky in Love (Reels)



Spotted Dog, The Nightingale, The Cow that Ate the Blanket (Jigs)



The Lacaroe, The Green Gowned Lass, Green Fields of America (Reels) 



Farewell to Whiskey, Dark Girl Dressed in Blue (Polkas)



Within a mile of Dublin, I have no Money (Reels)



The Linnet’s Chorus, The Beautiful Goldfinch (Waltzes)
 

 

[chris rowe]

I thoroughly recommend Caitlin's course, it's very well structured increasing complexity a small amount every lesson. In my opinion it is a little money well spent  !

[mike_s]

Thanks for all the info.  I did the two free lessons and found them well thought out and presented.  I’m currently working on shifting from a modification of ABC to standard notation and then I’ll give her course a go…..

[Notemaker]

Interesting that nobody mentioned Gary Coover's Irish tune book/s.

 

My lifelong experience growing up in an Irish immigrant community , and from childhood learning that music on a couple of things, is that mostly we learn by ear, with little or no instruction. In those days, long long ago, if you had a problem with a tune, then you could get it written out in 'do reh me' format. After getting a tune off you could embellish it if you needed to, but that was not necessary to 'get the tune'.

 

Due to the popularity of this music today, many performers rely on 'fancy' versions of tunes, indeed many of their selection bared down to no fiddley bits turn out to be not such great material for the ear learner, eg Caitleen's 'The Rookery' V the eminently easily learned old favorite 'The Banshee'. I would imagine on any instrument this holds up, to wit, the more decorations necessary, the less interesting the tune.

 

Because Caitleen falls into that category of artists, I passed on her, IOW she is no Joe Cooley, or Michael Coleman. Yes she does put the music under the feet of the dancer, but that's about all. Cooley, OTOH, so well ploughs the seed of a tune into our brains that we can barely get it out of our system. And so, as musicians, we end up playing them. 'The Wise Maid', 'Up Stairs In A Tent', 'The Blackthorn' etc. The same applies to Michael Coleman's recordings.

 

I would far rather be a Cooley type free reed player than a Caitleen one.

Instead of the on-line, and to me, expensive path, I chose the ABC and TAB book path, by getting the Kindle version of Gary Coover's book, and using ABC tune sites.  I paid less than the price of a hamburger meal for the Kindle version of this book. In it I found several great settings of tunes, which later, I can if I choose, embellish in any way I like. And I can take forever to read it all, as opposed to those on-line deals that limit the time you can access them, IOW con you into paying by the month.  

 

In short learning tunes with embellishments is a waste of my time! as it is the basic tunes I want to get.

 

PS my instrument biography includes Violin, Irish Uilleann Pipes, Tin Whistle, Melodian, Banjoes both kind, Greek Bouzouki, Harmonica both kinds, and the Irish Flute. I mess with trying to play other things as well. Not going to get into Morris music which I am also interested in.

So my 10 cents is, get a book and spend the money you save from those monthly renta a lesson deals, on a nice classic Anglo Concertina.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2023 by Notemaker
Oopz

[Jillser Nic Amhlaoibh]

@mike_s, you may already be aware of it but Caitlín has two websites for lessons, her original Irish Concertina Lessons one, and also her more recent one that focuses on teaching session tunes, with the ability to slow sections down, loop parts etc.:

 

https://learnirishtunes.com/

 

@Notemaker, surely it wouldn't be too difficult for you to have the courtesy to spell Caitlín's name correctly?

[Peter Laban]

18 hours ago, Jillser Nic Amhlaoibh said:

surely it wouldn't be too difficult for you to have the courtesy to spell Caitlín's name correctly?

 

I am sure there's a joke in there somewhere  around learning by ear or from reading.  But never mind.

 

 

Bringing up Coleman's music when making a case for non 'fancy' , relatively unadorned playing strikes me as a fool's errand but what do I know.

Edited November 16, 2023 by Peter Laban

[Breve]

@Notemaker

 

I can see where you're coming from - the simplicity of learning the basic tune, then leaving it up to you to embellish, as opposed to being "locked into" a particular teacher's style.

However, here are a couple of thoughts worth considering.

You mentioned you grew up in an immigrant Irish community and heard/ learned the music as a child. This immediately puts you at an advantage above the typical adult beginner who is picking up the instrument late in life.

The typical late learner may not even have had a wide exposure to the genre to even get a feel for what embellishments are common and how they're used - certainly not to the same extent as a child absorbing the music in his/her environment.  So, extra guidance is welcomed on how to do ornamentation, how much, and where to insert it. What seems obvious to you isn't obvious to another.  So yes, learning 1 tune in the teacher's style is likely to lock the player into doing it in the same way - but - the overall goal is to train the player in how to do the embellishment so for other tunes learned independently, the player can embellish in any way that pleases him or her.

 

 

[Can the Man]

I think what’s been missed here is that Caitlín always encourages you to get the basic notes first and foremost. She only introduces embellishments in the improver course by which stage you should have a good grip on the basics and even added a few of your own tunes to your repertoire of other tunes you have picked up by ear or from YouTube or watching others play.