Irish Flute Tunes

Here's a great reel for the flute.  I'm sure I stole it from somewhere but the scene of that particular theft is now out of reach of my memory.

I've been at around 3 sessions in as many months and this tune was played at 2 of them (albeit by the same person).  According to my statistical analysis this tune is therefore played at 66.66666% of all sessions. I'm afraid that the flute here sounds a bit like it has a cravat stuck up it somewhere; possibly with a maritime person attached.

Sorry for the lack of tunes in the last while.  I gave up playing for a while - as I sometimes do - and have only played the flute 4 times this year. The perenthesised '2' in the title here doesn't doesn't refer to the modesty of Jenny's shellflsh harvest target but just to the fact that there's already another tune with this name on the site.

Here's a new post after a very long gap.  I couldn't remember where I left the internet.  I was sent an mp3 file of someone playing this tune far better that it is played here.  I know that Séan Keane recorded it at some stage and hear it from time to time in sessions but I can't remember exactly how it goes.  I found a transcription in the bit of the internet referred to below.  I'm afraid I've l...

Here's a slip jig which is really the tune of a song.  I think I have a CD somewhere including a recording of Séamus Ennis singing the song but it has been hidden somewhere more obscure than the side of the sofa by a young child. I've had to rely on memory therefore for the way the tune goes. The title means something like "The fair haired Canavans".

I'm not sure I've ever seen a turnpike gate so I'm not sure what qualities one might have to get a reel named after it. Anyway, here's a tune called after such a gate.

Here's another request from long ago.  I don't think the tune's title refers to a domestic measuring tool.

I was asked back in August to play this tune.  I've at least managed it before October ended.  The flute hasn't forgiven me for spending a lot of the last hour playing a miniature version of itself (I think baby flutes have a special name but I'm always getting the 'cc's and 'll's confused in the spelling) and blowing into a big flute has proved difficcullt - (it's happenned again only worse). Any...

I was asked to record this tune so here it is, only a few days late.  I've always just known this tune from afar so if it sounds like I'm a bit unfamiliar with its finer points (like the notes and stuff like that) then that's probably just because I am. Like most of CL's tunes, it's a fine piece of music and might be strong enough to emerge intact from my mangling.

Here's a popular reel - so popular that it has taken me 3 years to think of it.

I've been laptopless for a while so have hadn't been able to post any tunes.   I now have a new laptop and it and an old flute have combined to record this not so new jig.  I'm not used to the recording level on the new computer so this post may only be audible to canine creatures.   Maybe they can be persuaded to bark a louder version out if necessary.

Here's a nice jig.  I can't type any more as I can hear a baby stirrng; a baby who cares little about this site and the words and notes thereon.

I've finally got around to looking at a couple of requests to record tunes.  This is the only one I've got around to playing though.  It's also the only torn jacket I've given any attention to although I seem to have several, the holes in which heavily outnumber the arms I can find to put through them.

Here's a tune I was asked to play.  It is named after the great Sligo fiddle player whose name escapes me just now.

This isn't really a flute tune.  It comes from the fiddle playing of Francie Byrne from Kilcar, Co. Donegal.

All I know about this tune is what I read about it in Ceol Rince na hÉireann vol 5.  It says there that the fiddler James McEnery composed it.  I hope I'm not decomposing it too much here.

The title of this tune (and song of the same name) translates as "The Seaweed of the Yellow Cliff". - a tune caught between a wrack and a hard place perhaps. There are a few versions of this tune but I could only think of this one just now.  I still have to think of the other tunes which are on my list to play here but my thought processes are running very slow these days.

Here's a tune I stole from a recording of Con Cassidy. I don't know much about it, except for what the notes are.  I suppose that's a start.

Here's a jig I heard on a recording of Michael Gorman.  It's called Guiry's favourite in O'Neill's. I was a bit distracted by an infant with a new set of noisy birthday presents but hopefully the tune recovers sufficiently frequently to make it possible to pick up.

I'm a bit behind on recording tunes at the moment.  I'm even behind with being behind with things.  I think that's what's behind the delays. Anyway.  I was asked for "The Lads of Laois", so here it is / they are, unleashed.  I think I was asked for a nice version.  I never really had a nice version so I had to record a nasty one. I listened back to the start of this recording through my computer's...

I've just been asked to play this tune so here it is.  I'm not too sure how reliable this version is but it is maybe a bit closer to the version common in Ireland than the version on another website near you.  I think it mightn't originally be an Irish tune so maybe the funny version is the normal version where the funny version comes from and the normal version is maybe ... etc. This is also know...

I was asked a while ago to play this.  I think I've already played it under a different name but I'm happy enough to post it with this name and look like I know more tunes than I really do.  I can't remember what the other name I called it was so this is probably the one I'll use in future.

Here's one I wasn't asked to play.  I wasn't asked not to play it either so as it doesn't seem to be here already I thought I'd give it a go.  I think I was half the age I am now when I last played this tune and if I live to be twice the age I am now I'll either have too few teeth or too much sense to play it again. There's a touch of a farting in the bath sound about it.  Maybe it's more of a win...

Here a very long hornpipe which I've been asked to play.  I maybe played it a bit too fast the second time around but as it has so many parts I had to rush to finish it before the shops shut. (This version is vaguely like the one in Ceol Rince na hÉireann Vol. 3 - No. 208)

I had to look this one up in "The Book" when asked tp post it.  I found it in O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland, 1001 Gems (No. 469).  I had just previously found "The Book" on the sideboard by the door into the kitchen.  There is some audible dissent in the background but O'Neill was from Bantry so I'd trust this version OK despite the critical opinion which is to the fore in parts of this recordi...