# Music by Genre > Celtic, U.K., Nordic, Quebecois, European Folk >  Celtic - what should I listen to?

## Astabeth

Okay, I got my first (I know how it works!) mandolin yesterday.  I have been looking around for things to try to play.  I play a little guitar, so I can already do a few chords, but I am looking for melodies.  It seems like a good way to start is to choose a genre and work from there.  I love Celtic music, but I don't know the names of any of the songs.  When I look at Celtic music sites, I am overwhelmed with titles I don't recognize.

Is there a website / youtube playlist / cd I can get with lots of standards that I can listen to so I can learn some of the melodies and learn the titles?  I would prefer something I can play in the car, while walking, etc. so I can listen to them while doing other things.  I am mainly trying to figure out what would be the most commonly played / popular tunes so I can then get online to find the music so I can learn to play them.

The music doesn't have to be mandolin music, but it would be nice if it were.

Thank you so much!

----------

jdtw

----------


## Dagger Gordon

There was a classic Irish band called The Bothy Band in the seventies.

Start by listening to them. One of the best and most influential bands ever. Essential listening.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bothy_Band

----------

Astabeth, 

jdtw

----------


## Mike Anderson

I'll add De Danann, especially the first few albums. They changed the spelling of their name on later albums, so pardon any confusion caused by the Wikipedia spelling. Mick Moloney and Seamus Egan have some good mandolin work on their many albums, and you really should check out Planxty with Andy Irvine and sometimes Johnny Moynihan on mandolin.

----------

Astabeth, 

bootsy, 

jdtw

----------


## montana

Mick Moloney's 'Strings Attached' album will make you want to quit, so maybe you should hold off on that one!

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Astabeth

Okay, I have bought some of The Bothy Band's albums.  I am having trouble finding De Dannan's first few, but they are on YouTube.  Which Planxty album is best?  The first one - Planxty?  I also bought The Green Fields of America - there was one I recognize on that one.  Most of the songs I know are ones that have been done by the Pogues.

----------


## Mandohammer

For huge mandolin content, I recommend *The Green Mandolin* by David Surrette.  Tablature for most of the tunes is easily available online, and as a bluegrasser for the most part, this recording has been serving as my intro to Celtic material as well as a very listenable package.  Enjoy!

----------

Astabeth, 

Brandon Sumner, 

CaseyMullen

----------


## Mike Anderson

You sure can't go wrong with the first Planxty album, but there's also a hits compilation called "The Planxty Collection" which includes a song that isn't on any of the other albums.

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Marty Jacobson

Some of these are more 60's folk than true traditional Celtic, but all good, I think:
Tannahill Weavers
Andy Irvine and Paul Brady (also Planxty and Patrick Street, other projects in which Andy was involved) 
The McCalmans
The Corries
Wolfe Tones
Arthur & Finbar Furey
Eric Bogle
Silly Wizard
June Tabor
Sinead O'Connor
Talitha Mackenzie
Boys of the Lough

..among others... I know these are not all standards, but should get you inspired, I'd think.

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Roland Sturm

It depends a bit on your goal, are you looking
a) for a set of standard tunes that most session players would know? 
b) Well known songs? 
c) Or just an introduction to more successful/influential bands? 

Seems like the suggestions fall largely into the 3rd category. Most recordings will have a few well-known standards mixed with more obscure things. Usually people's first recordings tend to be heavier on standards rather than later. My suggestion for c) would be  Altan, I would rank them as incredibly influential. Start with their more traditional CDs on Green Linnet: Red Crow, Horse with a Heart, 

If you look for recordings that would be great to listen to, but more for a)  (i.e. instrumental tunes rather than songs), I'd go a different route. Here would be a list of fiddle-centric recordings:
- The first two Kevin Burke (Sweeney's Dream, If the cap fits).  Burke was the fiddler in the Bothy band (which was a good start).  
- Tommy Peoples: Iron Man and Waiting for a Call (even though that is his latest one). 
- While I love Martin Hayes, he often moves tunes into different keys or changes the arrangement to make them sound unique, but  sufficiently idiosyncratic to not work in sessions. Under the Moon or Martin Hayes are my favorites. 
- rather than a DeDannan CD, I would look for Frankie Gavin and Alec Finn's Masters of Irish Music CD (the two were the only two constant members of De Dannan). Mostly standards and easy to find.    

Another approach, definitely meant more for educational purposes than as a listening/artistic experience would be those compilation of session tunes:
http://www.amazon.com/Foinn-Seisi%C3...t_mus_dp_dpt_1
It gives you a good idea of how standards will sound in pub sessions, so possibly the best way to achieve your learning goal. 

Yet a third take would be starting historically, although maybe not something to touch until you have a few dozen other recordings. Scratchy and raw, so less accessible for listening than more modern recordings, but also not as good for learning. Michael Coleman would be the start because of the historically pivotal role of the early recordings. Others of that era might be James Morrison, or Paddy Killoran, Michael Gorman.

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Mike Anderson

I have all three Foinn Seisiun albums now (got the digital downloads from CDbaby) and they are a fantastic resource for learning the standard trad tunes!

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Paul Brett

Learn abc, IMHO there's no quicker way to learn tunes. Then go to thesession.org and look at the top downloaded tunes, look for audio on youtube or buy tracks online, then download the abc from thesession.org.

I played in "The Largest Ceili Band in the World" record attempt last October in Cork and when I got the list of tunes, about 6 weeks before the event, I didn't know 75% of the tunes. With thesession.org I was able to learn all but 2 or 3 tunes which were a bit to fast for my ability. 

The only other thing I'd say is almost each and every musician you will meet at a trad session will overwhelm you with helpful information listen carefully to each and every bit of it. I couldn't explain how much I've learned from talking to other musicians in an informal setting. 

Listen to as much as you can and enjoy. There's no greater gift.

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Roland Sturm

Thesession.org is very helpful to identify the most popular tunes (see how many people put them into their tunebooks), sources of recordings, and occasionally even alternative ABCs. However, it is not a good source for notation because the ABC notation for many tunes is very problematic, even for some of the most standard tunes. Careless and sloppy notation, many errors, and - in cases where it is more carefully done - sometimes idiosyncratic settings. 

I've led intermediate sessions for the California Traditional Music Society for a number of years and you could tell if people learned using ABCs from thesession. I steered them away from it. It's fine if you have enough experience that you can can tell mistakes from alternative settings and from more standard settings, but not for beginners.

There are better alternatives for notation. The best free fake book collection for celtic sessions is Mike Long's King Street Session book, link in a recent column I did on fake books 
http://folkworks.org/columns/jigs-an...ne-collections.

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Bertram Henze

One hint, since you obviously get rained with good directions already: don't try to do it all at once. Instead, pick one simple tune you like, learn to play it slowly but steadily (your first and best playing partner should be a metronome), and when you got it down you'll find that speed will increase by itself and that the tune will start to resemble what you heard on the recording. Then (and only then) pick a second tune and so on.

There are lots of Irish & Scottish tunes among those played on the Song-a-Week social group here on the Cafe; the many versions there can give you an idea what is possible on mandolin family instruments.

----------

Astabeth, 

Paul Brett, 

Peter Kurtze

----------


## Mike Anderson

> - rather than a DeDannan CD, I would look for Frankie Gavin and Alec Finn's Masters of Irish Music CD (the two were the only two constant members of De Dannan). Mostly standards and easy to find.


I absolutely agree with Roland here, but had no idea it was easy to find.  :Smile:

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Roland Sturm

> I absolutely agree with Roland here, but had no idea it was easy to find.


Yes, the world has changed, Amazon prime now delivers in 2 days, or immediate download. 10 years ago, this would have been a long hunt to find it. Very mesmerizing how the two played together, the only other duo like that would be Martin Hayes/Dennis Cahill. 

Only downside of the Masters of Irish Music CD is its short duration. But great to listen to and a good ratio of very common session tunes. 

Probably more related to other posts around here, but there are two other interesting points here:
1) it's ok to just play one tune. Masters of Irish Music or Hayes/Cahill's Welcome here again CD do that. A lot of people think they have to have a set with multiple tunes before they can go to a session.
2) don't need 5--course citterns or a masterful right hand. Check out Finn's bouzouki (I presume D-A-D) and he does almost nothing (just like Cahill often plays very sparsely), yet it is just brilliant. Don't need to many chords either (although then practice your smooth capo changes, around 1:42). Kind of goofy look to this TV clip, but this shows Gavin/Finn really well (and then you know if you want to buy something from those guys or their group).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wmyM9g3RIM

----------

Astabeth, 

Marty Jacobson

----------


## Astabeth

Mandohammer, I can't find the David Surrette.  Mike & Marty, I will pick one of the Planxty albums to check out.  If you were only buying one, would you get Planxty or the Planxty Collection?  Roland - mostly b, because I doubt I'll get the chance to play with anyone, and thanks for the link - 116 songs for $6.99!  The King Street Sessions book looks helpful, and I recognize some of the titles just from the music I've looked at today.  Bertram, I will definitely check out the song a week group.

That bouzouki is beautiful.  I don't believe I've ever heard of one!

Thank you all for the help.

----------


## citeog

The BBC Radio "Virtual Session" is another great resource. You can play along with the recorded tune and read the "dots" at the same time.

Paul

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Roland Sturm

> The music doesn't have to be mandolin music, but it would be nice if it were.


Andy Irvine played mandolin in Planxty, although probably more often bouzouki or octave mandolin, so you'll hear a bit. 

The suggestions so far seems influential recordings and/or compilation of commonly played tunes. I don't think there are any recordings with mandolin as the lead instrument that would fall into that area, but there certainly are many beautiful mandolin recordings. 

One of the prettiest is Simon Mayor's New Celtic Mandolin. That really is a fantastic CD, among my favorite CDs, all genres. But few standard session tunes and among those that are he may change the key (e.g. the butterfly). But if you want a celtic mandolin CD for the listening experience, that's where I would start. 

Other celtic mandolin CD's I like where mandolin is the lead instrument: 
-Marla Fibish and Jimmy Crowley, Morning Star
- Kevin MacLeod, Springwell and Dorney Rock (some standard tunes, but Scottish standards). I've posted a sheet music for one of tune from Dorney Rock in another thread. In fact, that is an interesting thread on issues of how to adapt such tunes for mandolin because somebody tried to work from bagpipe notes. http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...gadier+general
- Joseph Sobel, Citternalia (well, sort of mandolin)
- David Surrette, Green mandolin as mentioned before

----------

Astabeth, 

tangleweeds

----------


## Dave Hanson

Early Dubliners, superb fiddle, tenor banjo and mandolin. These lads were doing it years before the above mentioned groups.


Dave H

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Roland Sturm

No doubt, early Dubliners were an innovative and hugely popular group in the 60s, together with the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makeham. Dubliners may have been the group that established the Irish tenor banjo tuning as a common standard. The Dubliners were among the first Irish bands I listened to. I'd group them as 60s folk style, mainly songs. As a US analogue, probably more along the lines of Pete Seeger and the Weavers, Kingston Trio, rather than , say, Tommy Jarrell (traditional old-time dance tunes) as a US analogue. Dubliners were particularly heavy on drinking songs, just some sprinkling of political songs. 

So this goes back to what Astabeth wants to get out of it, so tell us:   



> It depends a bit on your goal, are you looking
> a) for a set of standard tunes that most ITM session players would know? 
> b) Well known songs? 
> c) Or just an introduction to more successful/influential bands?


Dubliners would cover b) and c). But not a), what usually is labeled as Irish Traditional Music and abbreviated as ITM, which was my take on this thread. You can buy the first four Dubliner recordings from the 60s and there may be less than a handful of standard session tunes across them. Just like listening to Joan Baez and Pete Seeger won't get you ready for the type of music that is played at old-time (or bluegrass) jams.

----------

Astabeth

----------


## catmandu2

> Okay, I got my first (I know how it works!) mandolin yesterday.  I have been looking around for things to try to play.  I play a little guitar, so I can already do a few chords, but I am looking for melodies.  It seems like a good way to start is to choose a genre and work from there.  I love Celtic music, but I don't know the names of any of the songs.  When I look at Celtic music sites, I am overwhelmed with titles I don't recognize.
> 
> Is there a website / youtube playlist / cd I can get with lots of standards that I can listen to so I can learn some of the melodies and learn the titles?  I would prefer something I can play in the car, while walking, etc. so I can listen to them while doing other things.  I am mainly trying to figure out what would be the most commonly played / popular tunes so I can then get online to find the music so I can learn to play them.
> 
> The music doesn't have to be mandolin music, but it would be nice if it were.
> 
> Thank you so much!


Do you learn tunes by ear?  I'm biased, but I think this would be most fruitful

When I was getting into ITM I purchased several tune books (for fiddle, concertina and accordion)--mainly to get the accompanying CD, from which I learn the tunes.  These are helpful in that--the tunes are kept short and clearly played without much embellishment, so we get the essence of the tune, quickly.  These are very handy for learning tunes "on the fly"--in the car, etc, and acquiring lots of tunes..

----------


## Cheryl Watson

I second Mandohammer's recommendation for David Surrette's "Green Mandolin", and I want to add Dan Beimborn's "Shatter the Calm" and "Torch and Wire."




> For huge mandolin content, I recommend *The Green Mandolin* by David Surrette.  Tablature for most of the tunes is easily available online, and as a bluegrasser for the most part, this recording has been serving as my intro to Celtic material as well as a very listenable package.  Enjoy!

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Sid Simpson

If you are looking for instructional materials, you couldn't do much better than Marla Fibish. http://www.marlafibish.com/ . She has an instructional DVD which covers the basics and teaches a few tunes.  It never hurts to get started with some good habits and direction from an expert.  Plus, she's a really great person who teaches at camps and symposia all over the country, so you might be fortunate enough to get some in person instruction.

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Ethan Setiawan

The current Irish mando player is Marla Fibish. She really gets the Irish sound out of a mandolin and is worth listening to just for phrasing and fingering options. She has several CDs.

I think Surette is spelled with just one r.

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Mike Anderson

> The current Irish mando player is Marla Fibish.


The current Irish mando player - you mean there's only one? That'll come as a surprise to Joe, the mandolin player in the session I attend. Especially since he's actually from Ireland.  :Wink:

----------


## ptritz

For some excellent ITM on the mandolin, you might take a look at Jill McCauley's youtube channel, http://www.youtube.com/user/bikemutt  .  The tunes she's recorded there aren't necessarily all in the "everybody who plays ITM knows these" category, but they're all tunes you might well hear played in a session.  Listening to and watching Jill's playing will also give you a good sense of how to tackle ITM on the mandolin.

----------

Astabeth

----------


## gortnamona

i would also consider joining the tune a week club here in the cafe

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Eddie Sheehy

> The current Irish mando player - you mean there's only one? That'll come as a surprise to Joe, the mandolin player in the session I attend. Especially since he's actually from Ireland.


Marla isn't Irish, but she is a superb artiste of the mandolin in ITM.  She has a wonderful album with Jimmy Crowley - The Morning Star.  Marla is the featured Irish Mandolin Teacher in a lot of the North American festivals...

----------


## Mike Anderson

> Marla isn't Irish, but she is a superb artiste of the mandolin in ITM.  She has a wonderful album with Jimmy Crowley - The Morning Star.  Marla is the featured Irish Mandolin Teacher in a lot of the North American festivals...


Ah, I was just teasing...I know what was meant is more along the lines of "when it comes to known mandolinists currently playing Irish traditional music in the United States, Marla Fibish is the one to look to for inspiration." Something like that.  :Smile:  The DVD looks deadly, might have to grab that myself.

----------


## TheBlindBard

Lots of great advice here. I'll second the advice to get that DVD. She offers lots of good advice on how to play and get a good sound out of the instrument. She also plays through a few tunes and offers very nice advice on phrasing and getting it to sound good. As far as albums to get, look for some chieftains albums, there is alot of good material on their first few albums. (I recently learned comb your hair and curl it after listening to their first album and loving the tune). The Morning Star album by Marla Fibish is also a very great resource, both as a listening experience and as an idea of what the mandolin can really do. I would also recommend getting a hold of a media player that can slow down music to a good listening speed so you can start listening to the tunes and getting them in your head. You can use notation to find the notes and then use the recording to get the feeling right  :Smile:  Have fun with it, music is supposed to be fun. Lots of trad irish music is dance music, it's supposed to be happy and fun, don't take yourself too seriously  :Smile:  enjoy the journey. If you'd like, I can give you a skype lesson or two and try to teach you a few tunes if you'd want. just message me.

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Astabeth

Thank you all so much!  I have bought a little bit, and have to save up some spending money to buy the rest.  I have picked out a few songs to begin with - I worked on The Butterfly today.  I have also printed out versions of The Kesh Jig, Drowsy Maggie, and Amazing Grace to start learning.  I am very slow so far - I can't even really use a metronome yet, but soon I'll have them down enough to start getting the timing better.  I don't know if I'd have the nerve to try a Skype lesson, but thank you for the offer!  I love this place!

----------


## TheBlindBard

The offer stands if you ever want to take me up on it in the future  :Smile:  I don't know any of those tunes that you mentioned, but am going to learn them some day  :Smile:  Happy playing.

----------


## ollaimh

Ossian is a Scottish band that has some great mandolin work. especially "st Kilda's wedding".

planxty's two albums I like best ate "the woman he loved so well". and "the well below the valley"

there are a lot of great tablature tunes right here on mandolincafe. start with the straight forward jigs.  thee notes, then three notes. three notes then three notes. there are a lot. you won't need to know them.(if there is a two note group, just double one note),  this is the easy way to start. it will help to go to a local sessuin and see what they play, most common tunes are here on mandocafe  lots of  jigs are easy and sound fabulous.

----------

Astabeth

----------


## BBarton

David Surette's CDs can be found on CD Baby. Also, in addition to Kevin Macleod's Springwell and Dorney Rock CDs, there is also his Polbain to Oranmore CD with Alec Finn, if you're looking for mostly mandolin (and related mando instruments) content. If you're looking for instructional materials, check out:
110 Irish Mandolin Tunes, Vol. 1 by Paul Kelly (Waltons Publication)
The Scottish Mandolin Tutor by David (Dagger) Gordon (Taigh na Teud Music Publication)
Irish Mandolin (Mel Bay's School of Mandolin series) by Joe Carr and Michael gregory (Mel Bay Publication) - this book also had online lessons; no longer done but past ones are archived and still available (I think).
'Lots of great Irish band CDs out there by newer "supergroups" - e.g., Altan, Dervish, Danu, many more, as well as many specialty CDs on fiddle or tenor banjo - with Irish trad tunes that are very adaptable to mandolin. Go for it!

----------

Astabeth, 

kmmando

----------


## BBarton

PS -- The books mentioned come with CDs!

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Scott Tichenor

There's an MP3 section of this site with a Celtic subsection with many of the people already recommended. Includes the following musicians and many more:

David Surrette
Dan Beimborn
John McGann
Robin Bullock
Simon Mayor
Dagger Gordon
Kevin Macleod

----------

Astabeth, 

kmmando

----------


## stinkytofu

I strongly recommend Michael Kerry's mandolin album "The Rocky Road".  Seems to have been lost for a long time but is now available on iTunes.  Michael gets a great round mellow tone and really captures the lift and drive of the best Irish fiddle music.  One weird thing about this album is the track titles:  for some reason, a set of trad tunes will be collected under a single, non-trad name.  For example, a two-tune set set made up of "Bunch of Green Rushes" and "Mrs. Delaneys" will just be called "Serendipity".  If you are looking for the names of the actual tunes (so you can listen to other renditions), there is a breakdown on thesession:

http://thesession.org/recordings/659

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Astabeth

Thank you all so much - I have lots to listen to.  Really, the only one of all of these people that I knew of besides the Chieftans & the Dubliners was Kevin MacLeod - we use his royalty-free music files in the animation class I teach - all of my students list him in the credits of their shorts!

----------

kmmando

----------


## kmmando

Actually, that's a different Kevin Macleod from me - I think he's a Canadian composer of that sort of music.

This is me, https://www.facebook.com/kevinhjmacleod

I'm working on a new cd right now, as it happens, hopefully out later this year, accompanied by Luke Plumb, Alec Finn. Matheu Watson and fiddler John Martin. Lots of mandolin. And bouzoukis.

----------

Astabeth

----------


## BBarton

Kevin -- 'will be looking forward to that one!!

----------

kmmando

----------


## David Surette

I heartily second all the endorsements of Marla Fibish's playing, and I am grateful to be included in such stellar company. She is one of the featured guests at our March Mandolin Festival in Concord NH this year, along with Joe Walsh, Eric McDonald and myself. I am sure we will do an Irish mandolin duet as part of my concert set; the only questions is jigs or reels? Hope to see some of you there!

http://www.ccmusicschool.org/index.p...dolin-festival

----------

Astabeth

----------


## Richard Eskite

I have been listening to the podcast "Kitchen Party Ceilidh" the last couple of days.  I'd gotten behind and just listened to one after another, yesterday.  Really a great effort!  Here's a link to the thread announcing the show. 

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...=kitchen+party

It's out of Indianapolis, so there's a bit of local interest, but Dave has really great taste and dishes up some very listenable tunes!

Now, it isn't strictly mandolin, although there is occasional mando content.  Since the mandolin is one of the newer instruments in the IT genre, there is a lot of room for adaptation and innovation.

----------

Astabeth

----------


## kmmando

I love this! Thanks Owen!

----------


## Bertram Henze

Now there's a fiddle with a nice projection - didn't know there were so modern-looking Strohs. And the informal gaslight multitrack recording technique is priceless...

----------

John Kelly, 

kmmando

----------


## Dagger Gordon

> I love this! Thanks Owen!


Goodness! Extraordinary. I didn't expect that.

Who is that fellow?

----------


## kmmando

A recent facebook friend! Great fun eh? Ali beag would hear that fiddle alright! Good playing too. Hows you all? Saw Luke at CC but nothing else planned ....

----------


## Dagger Gordon

> A recent facebook friend! Great fun eh? Ali beag would hear that fiddle alright! Good playing too. Hows you all? Saw Luke at CC but nothing else planned ....


Not too bad. Just had a farm inspection where they went over everything with a fine toothcomb and my lovely old dog died a week ago so it's not been the best time.

Really enjoyed the Northern Lights gig in Eden Court on Saturday. No plans to go to CC, but I probably should.

----------

kmmando

----------


## Dagger Gordon

> Saw Luke at CC but nothing else planned ....


He seems to have just got married!  (See Facebook)

Great! He looks well.

----------

kmmando

----------


## kmmando

Yes, out in Greece. His health is improving and he is indeed looking well, and in top form. Back in Oz now. It was great to make some new music with him. he's brilliant!
best to all at Inchindown
Kevin

----------


## HughLee54

If you go to the free web site  http://thesession.org/you'll find hundreds of Celtic tunes - the sheet music, tabs and ABC files (which will enable you to hear the melodies).  A few simple hornpipes are pretty good to start with.

----------


## Randi Gormley

I'll add -- if you're just interested in hearing the masters play -- a two-CD set from www.shamrockirishmusic.org, "The Celts Play Connecticut," features cuts from 10 years of house concerts. Definitely worth it. DISCLOSURE: this is my group and any money we make on the CDs goes to paying artists for other house concerts.

----------

