Irish Flute Tunes

I'm not sure what the name of this hornpipe refers to.  I far too young to remember ha'pennies. The "Poll" sometimes manifests itself as a "Paul".  That makes things even less clear to me.

Brendán Breathnach got this jig from James Byrne's father John and included it in Ceol Rince na hÉireann vol. 2.  That was very considerate of him.

I know the title doesn't narrow down this tune's identity particularly well.  Mind you, neither does "Gan Ainm" which is the other label I have for it.  You can hear it played properly on a record that Tommy Peoples and Matt Molloy made some time ago.

Here's a popular reel.  Mr. O'Connell's had his followers too, in places.

This is probably more messy than mossy the way I play it but it's a good tune despite that.

Here's a very popular jig.  Thanks Mary for reminding me of it.  I seem to be struggling a bit with it in places.  I think this might just be my blackwood flute getting jealous of its new sibling.

This is really a fiddle tune but apart from the differences with strings, shape, holes, method of playing, sound and a few other things, a flute is just like a fiddle.  I'm not sure whether this is really like a tune but it'll pass a couple of minutes finding out.

Here's a very common tune.  Don't try singing Yeats to this version.

I think I'm getting used to this new flute now.  I'm not quite so sure about being used to the recording levels to stop the Ps escaping from the MP3 files of it.

Andy McGann called this as above.  John Doherty called it "The Fantastic Reel".  I think I should call it a day. I'll try again tomorrow.  I'll call that Friday.

Here's a slip jig.  There are a few with this name, maybe not one for every hill in lovely Leitrim but at least two or three.  I'll try to remember them. In the meantime I'd better go off and feed my hungry new flute with almond oil.

Here's a nice jig from a fiddle player I met the only time I was ever in America. I'm playing it on a brand new flute here and I have also been eating chicken too recently.  I'm not sure that that is a perfect set of circumstances for flute playing but I hope the tune is decipherable amidst the lathe whirring and the distressed clucking.

This tune has probably stayed too many whiles in its limbo place prior to my posting it now.   As a result I can't remember how badly I played bits of it so I'll just apologise  for it all.

Here are some humours.  I hope you like them.  Bye bye for now.

It was such a good night that it required two reels to do it justice.

Here's a popular reel commemorating  a recent evening's  enjoyment.

Here's a flute-friendly tune.  I'm sure Mrs. C was very genial too.

This is called "Mick Hand's Reel" on a Mary Bergin record.  That's tantamount to a hand mount.  Whatever all this amounts to it is a nice reel.

This one has just raised its head inside my head for some reason so here it is before I forget it again.

Here's a fairly inoffensive sort of tune.  That in itself might be reason enough for playing it.

I still haven't got round to playing the new ones.  They appear to be in the process of falling off at the moment so I'm maybe best leaving them to it.

Here's Mama's other pet.  It think it is currently my pet Mama's Pet.

Here's one of Mama's pets.  I know of at least one other so Mama must never have been lonely.

This is also known as the Sweep's hornpipe. Poor old Béal Feirste could do with a good brushing. Now that the whole town is a smokeless zone there are probably plenty of spare bristled implements with which to effect that very same cleanup.

For such a simple reel there seem to be a lot of ways of playing the second part.  I've had a go at a few of them here. It's a great tune for the flute.