Online Guitar Lessons with Jim Murray

Learn Irish guitar accompaniment with Jim Murray. These guitar tutorials will guide you using step by step instructions on how to become a competent and confident accompanist of traditional Irish music.

Jim has broken down his technique into easy to see and easy to understand lessons. Each of these lessons have supporting audio and visual clips which can be played over and over to aid learning.
More information & subscriptions here:
Learn Irish Guitar

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Munnely, De Jongh & Masure - Folk in 't Stad

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"Bound for Botany Bay", John Doyle

"Bound for Botany Bay", performed by John Doyle (www.johndoylemusic.com) in concert at the Institute of Musical Traditions (www.imtfolk.org), Takoma Park, Maryland, USA on November 16, 2011.

John Doyle is renowned as one of the most talented guitarists performing in either the Irish or Appalachian traditions. As an accompanist, he adapts to and compliments the style of those he plays with, but his rhythmic and melodic contributions do much more than simply provide a background, creating complex, fascinating layers within the tunes without ever overshadowing the principal performer. Fans who have seen John Doyle perform as a band member or accompanist have also been treated to his solo guitar work, his wonderful, lyrical singing and, more recently, his dynamic fiddling.

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CelticFest Vancouver 2012 celebrates Celtic culture in Vancouver

It’s just been announced that CelticFest Vancouver 2012, the eighth annual celebration of all things Celtic, will be coming to Vancouver March 10-18 with a mix of music, dance, and family-friendly entertainment.

New this year is the Celts on the Creek sneak-peek event (March 10, the Village on False Creek), where you can get a glimpse of the programming in store. Activities include roving costumed characters and music from Seattle folk group the Gothard Sisters, local alt-folk group Good for Grapes, local Celtic-folk band the Jocelyn Pettit Band, and Canadian acoustic-Celtic ensemble the Streels.

The From Texas to Tipperary concert (March 15, Edgewater Casino) celebrates the roots of Americana-Celtic music with performances from local folk singer-songwriter Jim Byrnes, Canadian blues-folk artist Roy Forbes, Vancouver acoustic-indie guitarist Steve Dawson, Canadian roots-rock singer-songwriter Babe Gurr, Vancouver country-rock artist Cameron Latimer, Vancouver folk multi-instrumentalist T. Nile, local acoustic-roots group Fish & Bird, Vancouver folk-rock band the Matinée, and Vancouver roots singer-songwriter Farrell Spence, all backed by the CelticFest House Band.

On March 15 and 16, you can take in some free lunchtime concerts at the Pacific Centre Mall’s plaza.

The San Patricios Concert: From Galway to Guadalajara hits the Edgewater Casino on March 16, and explores the musical connections between Ireland and Mexico with music from Vancouver mariachi group Mariachi Los Dorados, local Latin band Locarno, Vancouver folk-world ensemble the Paperboys, and the CelticFest House Band.

BIG St. Pat’s Night Out! (March 17, the Vogue Theatre) features performances from local world-fusion group Delhi 2 Dublin and Luxembourg group Dream Catcher.

On March 17 and 18, the Celtic Village and Street Market fills Granville Street (between Georgia and Smithe) with free music and entertainment, and a selection of Celtic treasures, food, products, artisans, stories, and all-ages interactive activities. Coast Mental Health volunteers will be on the scene collecting donations to support its work in providing high-quality services and housing for people with mental illness.

Celtic Fest Vancouver 2012 concludes with the eighth annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade (March 18, downtown Vancouver), presented by Pacific Centre. The parade starts at 11 am at Drake and Howe and continues north along Howe, the same route as used in 2011. Expect to see over 2,000 participants including pipe and drum bands, a marching colour guard, Celtic musicians, the VPD motorcycle-drill team, fire brigades, acrobats, vintage cars, Irish and Scottish youth dance and music groups, and multicultural organizations.

Also on the event list for this year is the Whisky Kiss Scotch Tasting, a traditional Irish music session, and a youth variety show.

Tickets and further info can be found on the CelticFest website.

CelticFest Vancouver 2012 celebrates Celtic culture in Vancouver | Vancouver, Canada | Straight.com

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Hits and misses at the Chamber Orchestra

Cover of Philadelphia Orchestra

On Sunday, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra presented its second concert of the season led by Mischa Santora in the Mayerson Theater at the School for Creative and Performing Arts, Over-the-Rhine. The highlight was a world premiere flute concerto, performed by the principal flutist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Jeffrey Khaner. Lowlights included a ragged performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 — and too much talking between movements.

It’s amazing that they were able to field an orchestra that day. Because, simultaneously, within about a few blocks in each direction, there were performances by the Cincinnati Pops in Music Hall, and by the CCM Philharmonia and choruses at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral, Downtown.

The orchestra commissioned the Flute Concerto by Eric Sessler of Philadelphia. Two of the movements are named for the alternate guitar tunings that inspired his music: DADGAD/Poetic and Orkney. But aside from that — which was not obvious to those of us who don’t play guitar — the work was immediately appealing. It had a distinctly mid-century American feel, in the vein of Aaron Copland and Roy Harris, with a few moments minimalism. It seems destined to find a home among the established repertoire for the flute.

Hits and misses at the Chamber Orchestra | Arts in Focus

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Declan Sinnott, from the moving heart of Irish music

By Kevin Mcguire

RENOWNED GUITARIST, music arranger, and producer Declan Sinnott brings his Small Town Talk to the big city next week.

Wexford-native Declan Sinnott began his music career in 1970 at the tender age of 19 when he formed the innovative Irish group Horslips with drummer Eamon Carr. Disillusioned with the direction the band was going he left after only two years and started the band Southpaw with Cork songwriter Jimmy McCarthy. Among their many fans were rising traditional talents such as Donal Lunny, Christy Moore, and Andy Irvine. In February 1981 Sinnott joined Lunny and Moore in folk rock band Moving Hearts and together they played many prestigious international gigs including the Montreux Jazz Festival. It was while working with Moving Hearts that Sinnott first became interested in music arrangement and in the late 1980s he became a noted producer with acts such as Mary Black, Christy Moore, Frances Black, and Sinead Lohan.

Declan Sinnott is also a gifted songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist and he brings his new band Small Town Talk to The Crane Bar, Sea Road, on Wednesday.

Growing up in the seaside town of Wexford – where his family ran a record shop – in the 1960s it was to the sounds of Liverpool and the Merseybeat that Sinnott was first drawn. “I had relatives who played music but I never really heard them playing music,” he says. “Basically I was listening to the radio in the early ‘60s and when The Beatles arrived on the scene that was it for me. I wasn’t really watching or listening to Irish music because it seemed to be in the opposite direction of where I was going. I was more interested in American music and British music at the very beginning. My relationship with Irish music over the years has been through default really. I’m certainly not a traditional Irish musician by any means”.

Through sheer force of will the young music enthusiast taught himself to play guitar and read sheet music. In order to be closer to music and musicians Sinnott moved to Dublin and while there met fellow blow-in Eamon Carr. The duo formed a group called Tara Telephone and over time the band eventually became known as Horslips. Through their fusion of traditional Irish music with rock music they quickly became one of the leading groups of the era. “When we started the band we were just a straight forward rock ‘n’ roll band and we had no ideas of playing Irish music” recalls Sinnott “We were offered a spot on a six-week Irish language show on RTE and so we ended up playing Irish tunes to fill in the set. Prior to that bands like Fairport Convention and East of Eden were combining traditional music with rock music so we certainly didn’t start what became known as ‘Celtic rock’ or ‘Electric folk’. I only stayed with Horslips for about a year and a half and then I left in disgust because I didn’t like the way it was going. There was so much emphasis on success and the glamour of the whole thing. I just wanted to play better music and to have a broader spectrum of music.”

After Sinnott’s departure from Horslips in 1972 the role of guitarist was eventually filled by Limerick man Johnny Fean. It was while working and playing in London that Declan first came into contact with Christy Moore and over the course of the next 30 years they would gig and record together at regular intervals “The first real contact we had was when I was with Jimmy McCarthy in Southpaw and Christy used to come to the gigs,” says Sinnott. “He was a fan of the band and he had booked us to play a couple of shows he was organizing. I had seen him play some of his own shows in the early 1970s, when I was with Horslips, and I thought he was great.”

By the time the 1980s rolled around Declan Sinnott was ready for a new challenge and it was then he was asked to join Moore and Donal Lunny in a new band called Moving Hearts. Their biggest hit was to be a song about the Cold War entitled ‘Hiroshima Nagasaki Russian Roulette’ and they became very vocal opponents of Thatcherism. “Partly I joined Moving Hearts because I wanted to be in a band with Christy Moore in it,” says Declan. “I get asked to do things and I get involved because I think it’s a good idea or it seems like it’ll be great fun. It was a very exciting time to be in a band both musically and politically. I myself wasn’t all that political but I agreed with what we said as a band and the stand that we took.”

In many ways Moving Hearts were a ground-breaking band and were a huge influence on groups as diverse as The Pogues and Riverdance, but after only three years together they disbanded. The mid-1980s saw Sinnott working with former De Dannan vocalist Mary Black as arranger and producer. Over the following decade they were to enjoy huge Irish and international chart success with songs such as ‘No Frontiers’, ‘Past The Point Of Rescue’, ‘Only A Woman’s Heart’, ‘As I Leave Behind Neidin’, and ‘I Misunderstood’. “The first time I became serious about producing was when I was working with Mary Black,” says Sinnott. “Before that I was interested in all the things that led me to being a producer, such as arrangement and in-sound. I was fascinated by the work that went in beforehand and once I’d done the production work once or twice I had the confidence and interest to continue on with it.”

These days Sinnott is working closely with his old friend Christy Moore again and was producer on his new album Listen earlier this year. Out of the recording sessions with Moore have come the band Small Town Talk and a new chapter in Sinnott’s touring life. “Our bass player Eleanor Healy and drummer Martin Leahy featured on Christy’s album ‘Listen’ and the other singer in the band Hank Wedell wrote the title track,” he says. “The stuff that I do with Small Town Talk and the stuff I do with Christy Moore runs side by side. I just love playing in front of people.”

For more information and tickets contact The Crane on 091 - 587419 or go to www.thecranebar.com

http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/15912

Traditional Irish music on pipa & guitar by Liu Fang and Michael O'Toole

This is the additional piece (encore) of the "Duo pipa and guitar" concert on September 27, 2008, 8pm, at the Bray Mermaid Arts Centre, Ireland

This concert unites the internationally-acclaimed Chinese pipa virtuoso Liu Fang and the renowned Irish classical guitarist Michael O'Toole in a duo of pipa and guitar bringing together fantastic repertoire from classical and traditional music to contemporary works.

Introduction to Celtic Guitar

It may seem very strange nowadays, but in Ireland the guitar is not considered a traditional musical instrument, and even if many guitar players play Celtic music, this music has not been completely absorbed in the world of the six strings (1).

The guitar is an instrument older than the instruments typical of the Celtic tradition, such as the uilleann pipes, the Celtic harp, the whistle and the fiddle: it's instead the most important instrument of Spanish traditional music, and its ancestor, called the "oud" (in Arabic language "al'ud", and from there the word "lute") is widely played in classic and traditional music of Middle East (2).

Until a few decades ago, the guitar was an unusual instrument in Celtic music, and this probably more for social and historical rather than musical reasons. In the years since guitar appeared in the Irish musical scene, Irish music (which had absorbed the accordion and thus evolved in its musical style) wasn't in good health. A culture in decay tends to become more conservative, and the guitar, too often connected to the rock'n'roll culture, had a strong smell of revolutionary modernism. In spite of the growing popularity of the guitar in the sixties and seventies (or maybe because of it...) the gap between guitar and Irish traditional music stood still (3).

The first use of a guitar in Irish music dates to the 1930s, when some Irish musicians in the USA began recording their music with a rhythm guitar backup which, however, didn't add much to the music. Probably the most important guitar player of those years was Martin Christi whose "jazz-oriented" style can be heard on fiddler James Morison's recordings(4).

Some years later, an interesting accompaniment style was developed by the guitarist Willie Johnson in the Shetland Isles. He, too, was influenced by the 78 recordings of the great American jazz guitarists Eddie Lang, Eddie Durham and Lonnie Johnson. Willie Johnson adapted their swing style to the accompaniment of the traditional fiddle music of the Shetland Isles: the resulting "Shetland swing" remains an important part of the musical tradition of these islands, and is rich in the typical elements of jazz music, i.e., syncopated rhythm and passing chords, and often rich of harmonic embellishments (5).


***


The sound of Celtic music depends very much on the acoustic and stylistic features of its instruments; so the first (and one of the main) difficulties for the guitarist who wishes to play Celtic music is to try to maintain these musical colors and flavors. The main musicians who succeeded in maintaining these features in their approach to the guitar are Dave Graham, John Renbourn, Martin Carthy, Dave Evans, Pierre Bensusan and Duck Baker. Stefan Grossman has also played an important role, especially in the diffusion of Celtic music for guitar. His recordings, his tablature books and his videotape lessons are precious tools for every guitar player who wants become a "Celtic guitarist".


***


Transferring Celtic music to the guitar implies several problems. The first one is that the guitarist is trying to play the parts of more than just one instrument: in other words he/she must play a melody line, a bass part and a rhythm part. In the case of some slow airs you have also to play some counterpoint, to keep their original flavor.

Another particular difficulty is that the "Celtic guitar player" is trying to imitate with his/her instrument the playing techniques typical of other instruments; for this reason, the first thing to do is to listen carefully to the sound of these instruments in their own context. After all, much of what we hear today comes, more or less directly, from direct listening! So, after many and many hours of careful listening to groups like Chieftains, De Dannan, Bothy Band and so on, probably the guitar player will succeed in developing a playing technique that will respect the musical styles of Celtic music. For the same reason it's very important for "live" listening, to catch the "drive" of this particular form of music and to transfer it in his/her own playing technique.



The Technique

If we listen carefully to this music, we'll notice quickly that the main keys are D and G: this is why instruments like the tin whistle, the Celtic harp and the uilleann pipes are "modal" instruments, and their playing key is somehow fixed: you can play only in few keys, and it's almost impossible to play in other keys.
The main strategy for the Celtic guitarist is to make the guitar a modal instrument. The famous DADGAD tuning is used by many Celtic-oriented guitarists and supports the keys of D, G and A. This tuning dates to the Sixties, and one of the first to use it was Dave Graham. A variation of this tuning is obtained lowering the fifth and sixth string one more tone: it's the so called "low-C tuning": CGDGAD, often used by Dave Evans and El McMeen. Another possibility is to lower the sixth string to D ("dropped D tuning"): this solution allows a richer sound in the key of D. Standard tuning (EADGBE) is possible, but makes life more difficult (...musically speaking...) to Celtic-oriented guitarists: for this reason most of them use alternate tunings, and anyway most of Celtic music for guitar today is not played in standard tuning. Obviously there are many other possibilities: personally I prefer EADEAE (I learned it from the wonderful album "The Complete Guitarist" by Dave Graham...) and DGDGBE (often used by the great John Renbourn): both of them are particularly useful to render the drone typical of the pipes, by just picking the "open" low strings.

The open tunings: DGDGBD; CGCGCE and DADF#AD have been often used with great results; sometimes, the "minor" tunings are used (for example, in G: DGDGBbD). Martin Carthy often used the DADEAE, that allows playing in D major and D minor, A major and minor, E minor and G major. Martin Carthy himself has then modified this tuning in DADEAB and CGCDGA, but only in few tunes.

The use of alternate tunings obviously is not mandatory in Celtic fingerstyle guitar: the great Duck Baker has always been reluctant in leaving the standard tuning, and nevertheless he gave us some of the most beautiful arrangements for Celtic guitar. Finally, the adoption of all these alternate tunings can be helpful, but requires an open mind, since the guitarist has to learn new positions and the fretboard becomes unfamiliar. The use of a particular tuning depends a lot on the personal taste and sensibility of each guitarist.



Turlough O'Carolan

The harpist and composer Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738) lived in a particularly difficult period of the history of Ireland: in the years of his life the old Gaelic world suffered the invasion by the new Anglo-Irish culture, a consequence of the Cromwell wars. The harp style of Carolan, a mix of ancient tradition, old songs and popular dances with the influences of the Italian Barocco (Corelli, Geminiani were popular at that time in high classes in Ireland), was too eclectic and modern for the harpists of that age. More, he wasn't very good as harpist, since he learned this instrument not very early, after he had lost his sight. Also, he wasn't very good at writing the poetical texts that accompanied his compositions. There was something instead that made him very popular: his great disposition for melodic invention: he composed real gems that gave him an everlasting immortality.

Most of his compositions were dedicated to his friends or "patrons": so for example, "Doctor John Stafford" is about a receipt by my colleague Dr. Stafford who, after visiting O'Carolan, allowed him to drink again his beloved whiskey, against the opinion of another doctor (...mmmm, in my profession I've already heard something like that...and anyway this confirms my long time opinion: Medicine is not an exact science...; but maybe it's better if we return to Mr. O'Carolan...).
Among the most famous compositions, "Sheebeg & Sheemore" (one of the first ones by O'Carolan) talks about a legendary battle between the inhabitants of two fairy hills, and "Farewell to Music", composed few days before his death at the Castle of Mrs. McDermott Roe.

The music of O'Carolan survived in the centuries just thanks to a direct transmission from musician to musician, and only the melody lines were transmitted: we don't know anything about bass parts, harmonizations and/or embellishments. Probably the simplest arrangements are the most "authentic".

The reason why I'm talking about Turlough O'Carolan in this page, devoted to the Celtic fingerstyle guitar is because there isn't a Celtic guitarist who hasn't played some of the wonderful compositions of the blind harper: many of his tunes have been re-arranged in several guitar versions, and many tablatures exist; often these arrangements are not very difficult to play but the quality of the music makes them very impressive to the audience.


Dr. Alfredo de Pietra is a medical practitioner in Palermo, Italy and also contributes monthly articles on Celtic guitarists to the Italian newsstand publication "Keltika".

For more information on artists, CD's, available tablature and reviews, visit his web site at: http://space.virgilio.it/aldepi1@tin.it/keltika.htm

Celtic Tunes on Guitar

Learning the Guitar

Some books for learning the guitar in Irish music

Duck Baker, Celtic Airs, Jigs, Reels and Hornpipes, Stephan Grossman's Guitar Workshop, New Jersey, 1992 (video)

Paul de Grae, Traditional Irish Guitar, Ossian, Cork, 1996, 2nd ed. (book with audio cassette)

Stefan Grossman, Celtic Airs, Hornpipes & Reels Arranged for Fingerstyle Guitar, Mel Bay Missouri, 1990 (book)

Frank Kilkelly, Accompanying Irish Music on Guitar, Mallinson, West Yorkshire 2000 (book)

El McMeen, Irish Guitar Encores, Stephan Grossman's Guitar Workshop, New Jersey, 1993 (video)

Sarah McQuaid, The Irish DADGAD Guitar Book, Ossian, Cork, 1995 (book with audio cassette)

Gavin Ralston, Irish Traditional Guitar Accompaniment, Waltons, Dublin 1998 (book with audio cassette)

John Reid, Traditional Irish Fiddle Tunes for the Fingerpicking Guitarist, Texas Music & Video, Texas, n.d. (video)

"Chord Scales" and accompanying Irish dance music.

by Han Speek © 1996

I - Which Scales Are Relevant ?

[You 'd better believe this. To prove it, one would have to collect numerous Irish trad. dance tunes and classify them according to the scales they use. This is a huge task. Breandan Breathnach is one who performed such a task, resulting in his 3-part tune collection "Ceol Rince na hEirann". He also published an analysis of Irish trad. music, in which he presents this classification of the scales used. I have used his work as one of my starting points.]
According to Breandan Breathnach in his "Folk Music & Dances of Ireland" there are only two major scales relevant to Irish folk music: the Dmajor scale and the Gmajor scale. Both of these scales fit naturally on the whistle/flute/pipes in D. [Note: Most Irish musicians who play an instrument in a different key than D still tend to think about it (and talk about it) as if it were in D. But the accompanists will have to transpose in such a case. Guitar/bouzouki players will usually resort to using a capo.]

I II III IV V VI VII I
Dmajor: D E F# G A B C# d

Gmajor: G A B C D E F# g
By repeatedly applying a process that Breathnach calls "inversion", which simply means detaching the first note from the scale, and appending it (actually, it's octave higher equivalent) to the end of the scale, 7 alternate scales can be derived from this major scale: the "modal" or church music scales. Of these "modal" scales (again according to Breathnach) only 3 are relevant for Irish folk music: the ones based on the 2nd, 5th and 6th note of the major (or Ionian, as it is called in church music) scale, resulting respectively in Dorian, Mixolydian and Aeolian scales.

Scales based on Dmajor:
-----------------------
D major/D Ionian: D E F# G A B C# d
E Dorian: E F# G A B C# d e
A Mixolydian: A B C# d e f# g a
B Natural minor/Aeolian: B C# d e f# g a b

Scales based on Gmajor:
-----------------------
G major/G Ionian: G A B C D E F# g
A Dorian: A B C D E F# g a
D Mixolydian: D E F# g a b c d
E Natural minor/Aeolian: E F# g a b c d e
These 8 scales are the basis for Irish folk/dance music, and will lead us to deriving the appropriate chords for providing backup for this type of music. [Note: occasionally you will come across a tune in Amajor, a key which is not listed here. I've heard a theory (I think it was Arty McGlynn who told me this) that these tunes are not originally Irish, but imported from Scotland. The ideas presented here do not apply to such tunes - these can be dealt with using ordinary "Western art music" chord theory.]

II - From Scales To Chords.

Generally speaking, a chord is formed for any note in a scale by stacking 2 3rd intervals on top of it:

pick a note (any note) in the scale (call it the "root").
skip the next note in the scale
use the next note (call it 3rd)
skip another
use the next (3rd of the "3rd", but 5th of our "root")
(If you run into the end of the scale, then treat it like the snake that bit it's own tail - continue counting at the start of the scale. Mind the octave note; it should be discarded in this case.) This way you can derive the basic triad for each chord.
For the Dmajor scale it would result in:

root: D E F# G A B C#
3rd : F# G A B C# D E
5th : A B C# D E F# G
(The same method can be applied to the other 7 scales. The results of that will be presented later. For now, we will continue the discussion, looking only at the Dmajor scale, since this is probably the most familiar to everyone.)

So far, making the step from scale to the elementary triads doesn't differ from what the chord theory for "Western art music" also teaches us.

The next step would be to analyze, and name, the chords we have found. We used 3rd intervals to build these triads, and there are 2 kinds of 3rd intervals: major 3rd (skip 3 positions on guitar/bouzouki fretboard: D - F#) and minor 3rd (skip 2 positions on fretboard: E - G). A chord with a minor 3rd between root and 3rd is called a "minor" chord.

chord on D : D major 3rd F# minor 3rd A : Dmajor
chord on E : E minor 3rd G major 3rd B : Eminor
chord on F#: F# minor 3rd A major 3rd C# : F#minor
chord on G : G major 3rd B minor 3rd D : Gmajor
chord on A : A major 3rd C# minor 3rd E : Amajor
chord on B : B minor 3rd D major 3rd F# : Bminor
chord on C#: C# minor 3rd E minor 3rd G : Edim (2 minor 3rds stacked
is called a "diminished" chord in Western art music)
Here we encounter our first difference between "Western art music" theory, and what applies to Irish dance music accompaniment: "diminished" chords are _NOT_ used. So instead of the G in the chord on C#, we use the next note in the scale: A, which is 2 _major_ 3rd's away from C#. This results in:

chord on C#: C# minor 3rd E
|
----- our new note ----- A : A/C#, 1st inversion of Amajor
[Note: An inversion of a chord can be obtained by applying the same circular shift as we used to get the derived scales from the major scale to the 3 notes that form the basic triad of a chord. The first shift results in a chord with the same 3 notes, but the 3rd as the root note - "1st inversion"; the second shift gives us the 5th as the root note - "2nd inversion".]

III - Extending on the basic triads.

Since on both guitar and bouzouki (piano is a different case altogether) it is possible to play more than 3 notes simultaneously, our next step could be to see which notes might be added to the basic triads we have just derived.

Note doubling.

The simplest way to extend on the basic triad is note doubling: adding a note already present in the chord, either in the same octave or in a higher/lower octave than what we already have. Example: the D chord can be played as D - F# -A - D, or D - F# - A - F#, or even D - F# - A - F# - D (if you can find a fingering for this). This doubling of notes doesn't change the name of the chord, since we still only use notes of the basic triad.

The 7th note.

Another likely note to add to a chord is the 7th step of the scale. Since we found our triads by stacking 3rd intervals, you might be tempted to find out what happens if you stack another 3rd. If you do so, you will have added a 7th - and it works. But the resulting chord's use in Irish trad. music is not so frequent as it is in classical, pop, or for instance American folk music. In fact, there are only 2 chords in the chord scale where this 7th note isn't obtrusive: the II and the V position of the chord scale. In all other positions of the scale it tends to stand out - it adds a jazzy flavour to the chord that often violates the character of the music.<.br> Applied to the II chord in the scale this adds to the chord the note which is the root note of the scale. This is something that works out quite pleasing for the other chords in our chord scale as well, and brings us close to a concept that is native to Irish music: droning, i.e. having one tone (usually the root) continuously present behind the actual tune. This is quite common practice in accompanying Irish music, no matter on what instrument, and is one of the reasons why open guitar tunings are so popular for backing up this type of music - the open strings are usually tuned to convenient drone notes.

IV - "Will-do" Chords

Up to now we 've gone strictly "by the book", so to speak. Everything I said up to now is thoroughly documented in literature. Now we've come to the point where we will leave this path, and introduce a concept that make life a lot easier. One thing you will probably have noticed about Irish dance music is that it's usually played rather fast. And reading the above you will have thought: I won't have time to change chords so often and so fast. Not to worry - most musicians, even the pro's, don't. Often they will substitute the theoretically correct chord with something that's easier to change to, or even the chord they were already holding down, with a suitable bass note to create the impression that they were using the proper chord progression. These chords I have, just for ease of discussion, named "will-do" chords, because they "will do" the job of an other chord with a lot less work. One very frequently used example of this would be the 1st inversion of D, the D/F#, which is almost always used in the place of an F#m in the D scale. Similarly, the G/B can be used instead of the Bm. Some people, including Arty McGlynn, will often even use a D chord with an E bass instead of an Em, something that wouldn't make sense normally (how's that for a chord - D, E and F# together in one chord. Try naming this one :-)), but in places where you're just "passing thru'" the Em chord in a chord progression, it works. And it's a lot easier (especially if you're using DADGAD) than trying to quickly change from fingering a D chord to an Em.

V - The Most Useful Chord Scales.

[Note: the indicated 7ths (between brackets) are optional]

Dmajor chord scale:
root: D E F# G A B C#
3rd : F# G A B C# D E
5th : A B C# D E F# A
7th : (D) (G)

Name: D Em F#m G A Bm A/C#
(7) (7)


E Dorian chord scale:
root: E F# G A B C# D
3rd : G A B C# D E F#
5th : B C# D E F# A A
7th : (E) (A)

Name: Em F#m G A Bm A/C# D
(7) (7)


A Mixolydian chord scale:
root: A B C# D E F# G
3rd : C# D E F# G A B
5th : E F# A A B C# D
7th : (A) (D)

Name: A Bm A/C# D Em F#m G
(7) (7)


B Natural minor/Aeolian chord scale:
root: B C# D E F# G A
3rd : D E F# G A B C#
5th : F# A A B C# D E
7th : (B) (E)

Name: Bm A/C# D Em F#m G A
(+B) (7)


G major/G Ionian chord scale:
root: G A B C D E F#
3rd : B C D E F# G A
5th : D E F# G A B D
7th : (G) (C)

Name: G Am Bm C D Em D/F#
(7) (7)


A Dorian chord scale:
root: A B C D E F# G
3rd : C D E F# G A B
5th : E F# G A B D D
7th : (A) (D)

Name: Am Bm C D Em D/F# G
(7) (7)


D Mixolydian chord scale:
root: D E F# G A B C
3rd : F# G A B C D E
5th : A B D D E F# G
7th : (D) (G)

Name: D Em D/F# G Am Bm C
(7) (7)


E Natural minor/Aeolian chord scale:
root: E F# G A B C D
3rd : G A B C D E F#
5th : B D D E F# G A
7th : (E) (A)

Name: Em D/F# G Am Bm C D
(+E) (7)


[Since many players I've met find Em hard to deal with in DADGAD, an option
would be to capo at 2nd fret, and play Dm. But then you would need a scale for
Dm. Here it is.]
D Natural minor/Aeolian chord scale:
root: D E F G A Bb C
3rd : F G A Bb C D E
5th : A C C D E F G
7th : (D) (G)

Name: Dm C/E F Gm Am Bb C
(+D) (7)


[This one shouldn't be here, really, since it's derived from the scale of C.
But I've come across it a couple of times, mostly for Irish tunes that were
arranged by American musicians. So it may be handy to have available.]
D Dorian chord scale:
root: D E F G A B C
3rd : F G A B C D E
5th : A B C D E G G
7th : (D) (G)

Name: Dm Em F G Am G/B C
(7) (7)

Highland Bagpipe Music for Fingerstyle Guitar

I think of Celtic music as having four main branches: the dance tunes played on the fiddle, whistle, accordion, and other melody instruments, the harping tradition, songs, and the music of the Highland pipes. Although fingerstyle guitarists have drawn extensively from these first three categories in creating arrangements, the ancient and powerful bagpipes have been largely overlooked as a source for fresh music. In the course of adapting over 250 Celtic tunes for solo guitar, I’ve come across a way to make the six-string actually sound like a set of pipes. So for this issue’s solo, I’d like to offer you a bagpipe arrangement, tell you how I worked it out, and briefly describe the Highland pipe tradition itself.
The Celts swept westward out of Central Asia to the fringes of Europe around 500 BC. Their migration was noted by Greek historians, who wrote of their plaid clothing and "braying horns." These may well have been bagpipes, which in one form or another were played by all early peoples west of the Urals, and through Hittite stone carvings can be traced back as far as 1000 BC. Another possibility is that the Romans brought them to Britain, but either way, the Highland pipes were in use in Scotland by at least the fourteenth century.

At first the pipes were military accouterments and were used to terrify the enemy (similarly, one time an Irish army scared off its foe by building a giant harp, leaving it on a hill at night near the enemy camp, and finding them gone the next day-the sound of the wind whistling through the strings had put them to flight). I remember hearing Robin Williamson tell of being detained while going through customs in Scotland for having a set of pipes- "articles of war," as the agents put it.

Originally consisting of a reedpipe called a chanter attached to a leather windbag and a single sets of drones, the Highland pipes had a second drone added around 1500 and a third, larger one added around 1700. They are so loud that they are almost always played outdoors.

After the Jacobite uprising was put down at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, playing the Highland pipes was forbidden. It was then carried on in secret and at the risk of the necks of those who did so. The ban was lifted in 1782, and soon piping became more popular than ever in Scotland, with Highland societies forming and the pipes being readopted by Scottish regiments.

Bagpipe music is diatonic and mostly modal. The chanter, which must be played with a steady breath pressure to stay in tune, has a nine - note range. This consists of a Mixolydian mode in A with a G below it, although the intervals of the scale on the chanter are not the same as the European tempered scale. Even though contemporary pipes are actually pitched at Bb, the music is still written in A. The tunes are also heavily ornamented by grace notes, which occur singly or in groups. Bagpipes are fiendishly hard to play, and many teachers will not even accept adult students.

Pipe tunes range in tempo from the air to the slow march, retreat, march, quickstep, strathspey, reel, hornpipe, and jig. There are also three main categories of tunes: Ceol Mor (great music), Ceol Meadhonach (middle music), and Ceol Beag (little music). The great music, which is also known as pibroch, consists of laments, salutes, and gatherings. This is regarded as the classical music of the pipes. Highland folk songs, lullabies, croons, and slow marches make up the middle music, and marches, strathspeys, reels and jigs are the little music. If you’re looking for printed sources for pipe tunes, two good collections are The Gordon Highlanders and The Scots Guards (both published by Halstan and Co., England).

My first attempt to arrange a pipe tune was in the early ‘seventies, when I arranged a medley beginning with "Campbell’s Farewell to Redgap" with an alternating thumb bass line. It was pretty enough as a guitar piece, but it didn’t sound much like the pipes. Harp pieces and fiddle tunes proved more inviting, so it wasn’t until about a decade later that I tried again.

I was noodling with "Garryowen" (also known as "The Campbell’s Are Coming"), when I hit upon the idea of pinching an octave A on the fifth and third strings with my right thumb and index finger to create the effect of the drones. Staying in standard tuning allowed the bass strings to remain at full tension, which maximized their volume. When the harmony moved to the D chord, I pinched the open D and third string A. Because an octave was not really feasible as a bass for the D chord (the bass and the treble parts would have overlapped), a fifth had to do. For the E chord I used an octave E on the sixth and fourth strings. I noticed that the octaves or fifths in the bass seemed to increase the sympathetic response of all the strings (this is also cited as a reason for using DADGAD tuning to back up Celtic music).

I now had the index finger of each hand tied up in producing the bass line-the right index was pinching with the thumb, and the left index was held down on the second fret of either the fourth or third string. The trick was then to play an ornamented melody with the remaining fingers.

Even with a left hand finger allocated to the bass, it was still possible to play the bagpipe scale entirely in second position. In A Mixolydian, this begins on the third string open (the flatted seventh) and goes up to the octave on the first string, fifth fret. In cases where the harmony was on A and the melody was on the third string, a fifth in the bass had to be substituted for the octave. Using this scale, and alternating the right middle and ring fingers, the tune turned out to be playable with the basses.

For ornamentation I used simple cuts, or single grace notes, played on the guitar as quick hammers or pulls. Anything more complex than this, I thought, would probably turn the improbable into the impossible. Soon I had Garryowen worked out, and it eventually wound up in my book Folk Song for Solo Guitar. Two other pipe tunes, The Atholl Highlanders and The Battle of Waterloo, are included in my Celtic Encyclopedia - Fingerstyle Guitar Edition, published by Mel Bay.

Bonnie Dundee is one of the most famous 6/8 pipe marches. It’s lyrics are a lusty call to battle under the generalship of James Claverhouse, from whose nickname the title comes. Claverhouse fell at the Battle of Killiecrankie, which took place on July 27th, 1689, and was the first battle of the Jacobite wars.

Audiences always seem amazed when they hear a bagpipe arrangement for the first time. But it’s really more than just a novelty-when you play a tune like this you’ve touched upon long and proud tradition. And although the guitar’s sound is dwarfed by the pipes, something of their grandeur still comes through the strings.

"Bonnie Dundee", arranged by Glenn Weiser
Carolan for Guitar