Irish Flute Tunes

Here's a nice hornpipe.  A flute player called Alexandre suggested this tune, along with a few other ones.  If anyone requests a particular tune, I'll gladly record it as long as I know it.  My memory isn't what it was so tunes are exiting my head quicker than they are being replaced.

There are lots of versions of this tune.  Hopefully this is fairly close to the commonest one.

Here's a good piping reel.  As is ofter the case with good piping reels, especially ones in G, it's good on the flute too.

Here's a popular piping jig.  Some people called this "The Piper of the Hearth (or embers)".  One Irish translation for a cricket is "Píobare an teallaigh" which = the piper of the hearth.  Who knows?

There were a lot of reels names after this chap.  This one is normally associated with Michael Coleman.

Here's a very popular jig.  It works well on the flute.

Here's a piping reel.  It has a few F naturals in it.  I tend to play the low octaves with a key and use half-fingering for the high octave ones.  I'm a bit rusty with this tune but hopefully it almost makes sense.

Here's a reel with is good for learning and is also a great tune in the standard repertoire of Irish traditional musicians everywhere.

Here's a jig which is good on the flute.  I can't comment on the name.

Here's a nice piping reel which suits the flute very well.

Here's a very common reel.  It's a great standard tune for sessions.

Here's a reel named after the South Sligo fiddle player , Mr. Finn - Peter Horan's friend.

I put these on separately, slowish then quicker, but I thought that as these tunes have been almost conjoined for the last 80 years, it would be inhumane to split them up now. You'd be much better getting a recording of John McKenna playing these but, in case you can't get hold of one just yet, here's a version which is hopefully fairly close to the standard one.

Here's the one after the one before.

This is the first of 2 reels which are usually just known as "McKenna's", after the Leitrim flute maestro John McKenna.

I always think of "The Times There are a Changing" but I think the spelling would need to be a changing too (to two?) Sorry.  This is a popular jig although I haven't heard it played for a while.

Here's a popular piping reel which suits the flute.  It's often associated with Willie Clancy.

Here's a tune from the fife & Lambeg drum tradition.  Some of these have crept into the repertoires of Irish traditional flute players too.  I can't remember a name for this one.

Here are 2 reels which were popularised my Michael Coleman. Here's my iffy effort.

Here's a fifing tune. There are some people in my part of the world who play it on big flutes too.

Here's a reel that's popular on the fiddle too.

Here are two polkas. The first one is called the "Shelf" polka. I never heard a name for the second one. Charlie O'Neill originally came from Mount Charles in Donegal and then moved to "the Moy" in Tyrone.

I posted this tune before but it I had the name totally wrong, or the tune, maybe both.  I think this one really is called "The Reel of Mullinavat".

Here's a jig with a few B flats and F naturals.  Can a flute be a can of worms?  I do the B flats with half-covering.  The F naturals are with a short key.  I was always a bit vague about the exactitude of the accidentals.  Anyway, it'll be one source of the tune for whoever wants it.

Here's a reel from the world of piping.  I'd imagine the flags aren't the sort which flutter unless the weather is really rough.  Did you ever see a paving slab up a pole?