Irish Flute Tunes

Here's a very common reel which is sometimes called "The Poor Scholar". Regarding scholarly matters, I have exams next week and the week after. I'm supposed to be studying for them but have been spending too much time footering with this site. I picked a fine time to find a new hobby. At least if I flunk them (that word seems to look ruder than it sounds) I'll still have a place where I can compla...

Here's one of those tunes which lots of people say is very common but can't remember the last time they either heard or played it. No I come to think of it, I've never heard anybody say "Hey, isn't The Morning Star a popular reel?". I've spent too much time typing stuff on this site and am starting to come out with solipsistic claptrap. It is popular though, I think. If you find the record "The St...

I think I said I'd record this tune in my note about "The Bank of Ireland".  I'll have to be more careful in future. This tune was composed by an Italian / Scottish violinist called  Parazotti.  I think it was in E flat.  I used to try it on the flute in D.  On this occasion I appear to be all at sea.

Here's a very popular reel. I think someone asked me to record this; sorry it took so long. I'm not sure about naming good things like tunes after banks is totally appropriate. The tired old utterance "at least Dick Turpin wore a mask" comes to mind. There's another tune called "The Bank of Turf" which is I suppose, referring to another Bank of Ireland, i.e. a bank made of Ireland. I'll maybe reco...

I learned this tune from the Donegal fiddle player, James Byrne.  I thought long and hard about the name and came up with this one.

Here's a popular hornpipe which deserves to be so. I'm off for a pint.  I don't have to go to California for it which is a relief, although I'm sure the pints are excellent there.

Here's a march popular with flute players where I come from. I'm not sure where it came from originally. I think the "pike" in question is the weapon variety and not the ingredient Olympic divers include to get more points per plunge. Are the extra points as compensation for any potential lacerations they might sustain if the pike bites them? Maybe the chlorine in the pool sedates it and stops thi...

Here's a slightly less common Gordon's reel than the Lordy version. This one has the marked advantage of being much shorter. I'll have to work myself up to recording the longer one in the next while. In the meantime, I'll go for the Gordons that goes in a glass, with a slice of lime.

This is a very popular tune. I hope you like it.

Here's a great tune for learning. I hadn't played it for a while and had forgotten how good it was for relearning as well.

I'm not sure whether the Blackthorn Stick was made from part of this, or whether it was bought from ebay or ebough. (The spellchecker thought it was neither of the above, or the beside). It's a good tune anyway. Oíche mhaith.

Here's a popular reel which should be a safe bet at most sessions. I'm afraid I didn't have much time to record this tune so its regal qualities are a bit left to the imagination here. I'm sure they'll be reinvigorated when someone else plays it.

More humours - / ; / ... ? this time in the form of a hormpipe which is a nice, melodic minor-sounding one. I might have first heard it on Michael Tubridy's "Eagle's Whistle" record where he played it on a concertina. There's some lovely flute playing on that record too (all well as the concertina playing I mean).

I've just realised (the spellchecker wants a "z" in "realised" and "spellchecker" to be 2 words - it can go and ztrangleitzelf for all I care) that I have put hardly any hornpipes on this site. Here's a nice common one called "The Plains of Boyle". I put some more on soon. Cheers, Michael.

Here's a fairly common reel which should sound well on a flute.  I think the prickly nature of its title has had an effect on my playing and there are more than a few holes in it but you should get the jist of what ought to have been going on. (I was wondering whether I should limit the number of tunes I record per day / week so that the tunes don't disappear off the first screen before people hav...

Here's a great jig which I think was made popular by a recording of Michael Coleman. Michael Coleman came from Killavel, Co. Sligo and settled in New York where he worked as a tram conductor (I know that wasn't his primary reason for being there but so be it). He was frequently pestered by executives from the likes of Decca and Columbia records to record tunes for them on the fiddle. Fortunately t...

Here's a piping reel (Willie Clancy again) which is possibly a version of "Colonel Frazer".  There's another tune called "The Braes of Busby" which sounds like a version of it too. I'll record the other 2 tunes with reasonably long intervals between them so you don't hear them all together and find out that they really are just the same tune with different names and that I'm running out of things...

Here's a good reel, or at least it was until I blew it down a hole in a piece of blackwood. It used to get a dryer journey courtesy of Wille Clancy and prior to that, Garrett Barry who was a piper from the generation before Willie Clancy's. I've been raiding the track listings of a few Willie Clancy records lately.  Stealing tunes from piping records is usually a good way of getting flute tunes ow...

Here's a great reel which I'd probably associate most with Willie Clancy. It's on one of the "Pipering of Willie Clancy" records which Claddagh Records published some years ago. Between picking cockles, welcoming Charlie, tying bonnets, Danging weavers, getting clinkings coming home from the races and all the other activities she's recorded in tune names as having been involved in, its a wonder sh...

Here's a piping jig which is good on the flute. It's an especially good one for learning. I have a Seán McGuire LP somewhere with this tune on it. He called it "2 1/2 New Pence". References to the monetary system in Belfast in about 1972 mightn't have stood the test or time, or be too portable, but I'm just passing on what tiny bits of information I might have about the tunes. I'll maybe be a bit...

Here's a march from John Doherty's playing. I thinks it's originally Scottish, like lots of Donegal tunes. I think its name alone is a reason to play it. It suits the flute well too.

Here's a very popular jig.  I'm sorry if you can hear my washing machine in the background.

Here's my valedictory effort for the evening.  This is a barndance which the Sligo fiddle player, James Morrison, made popular through a great recording he made of it years ago. It's a nice melodic creation and it suits flute players' sensibilities as well.

I'm starting to run out of names.  I don't know how the tunes will hold out but I'll maybe give up at Ríl Gan Ainm (202). In the meantime, here's a good reel which is really a fiddle tune.  Bits of the second part would normally be an octave lower but hopefully this setting works OK on the flute.   If anyone knows a name for this tune, I'd be interested to hear it.

Here's a very popular slip jig.  I think it was composed by the Dublin flddle player, Tommy Potts.  It's been decomposed and recomposed a few times since over the years. It's a good tune for the flute and hopefully shouldn't cause people too many difficulties in playing.