Mel Bay Irish Music for Mandolin

[lukmanohnz]

I am hoping someone could give me an appraisal of this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/078...pf_rd_i=507846

I'm looking for a book of Celtic/Irish tunes with tablature and a play-along CD. If anyone has other recommendations I would greatly appreciate it!

[John Kelly]

If you can work from standard notation without tab I'd recommend "The Dance Music of Ireland" (O'Neill's 1001) published by Waltons. It has 1001 Irish tunes in Jig, Reel, Hornpipe, etc and is the definitive collection. Its isbn is:9786000644338.

There is also the great collection of tunes at www.thesession.org with abc and standard notation and from the abc file you can play the tune as a midi file via free programs such as abcedit or easy_abc.

Sorry, don't know the Mel Bay book.

[lukmanohnz]

If you can work from standard notation without tab I'd recommend "The Dance Music of Ireland" (O'Neill's 1001) published by Waltons. It has 1001 Irish tunes in Jig, Reel, Hornpipe, etc and is the definitive collection. Its isbn is:9786000644338.

There is also the great collection of tunes at www.thesession.org with abc and standard notation and from the abc file you can play the tune as a midi file via free programs such as abcedit or easy_abc.

Sorry, don't know the Mel Bay book.

Thank you for the suggestions, John! Alas, I don't read standard notation. Wish I had had formal instruction in my youth and the discipline to acquire that skill. At this point, I'm dependent on tablature. I know it's a limitation - I just have too much fun playing tunes and working on technique so that's where my practice time goes.

[DougC]

I am hoping someone could give me an appraisal of this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/078...pf_rd_i=507846

I'm looking for a book of Celtic/Irish tunes with tablature and a play-along CD. If anyone has other recommendations I would greatly appreciate it!

I have John Berthoud's book for fiddle and it is a great resource. This mandolin book has many standard tunes and it would be a very good resource for you. You need to look no farther.

[CelticDude]

The book is pretty good, but be aware that some of the settings are not "standard", and may get you funny looks at a session.

[sixwatergrog]

The book the Original Poster linked to is not very good. Weird arrangements of tunes, tunes in the wrong keys and tunes nobody seems to play. I much prefer Joe Carr's School of Irish Mandolin http://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bays-Schoo...irish+mandolin

Also great, if only slightly cheesy, is Steve Kaufman's Four-Hour Celtic Workout. http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Kaufmans...celtic+workout

[Pete Braccio]

I like the other book by the author in the original post. http://www.amazon.com/Mel-Bay-Irish-...ndolin+playing

As far as I can tell, the keys are all correct. The tunes are noted out straight and with embellishment on the repeat. Maybe this is what other posters are taking issue with.

[Steve L]

If you want to play the tunes in anything resembling an Irish style, that Steve Kaufman thing is really dreadful.

There are lots of tunes in mandolin tab at www.traditionalmusic.co.uk

The Foinn Session tunes series by the Comhaltas is good for play along but is pretty fast...I'd use a slow down program if you're new to the music. The books are in standard notation and don't always reflect what's on the recording accurately.

[Steve L]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/folk/sessions/

This is useful as well.

[Werner Jaekel]

when I started I bought Philip John Berthoud - Irish Mandolin Playing.

From there on I started browsing the net and found many free download sources.

With tabledit, there are thousands of mid's, celtic or any genre for downloading..

Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ for slowing down any mp3 for learning by ear. Works also with youtube.

Abcnavigator http://abcnavigator.free.fr/ for collecting and converting abc's to mid.

Philip John Berthoud - Irish Mandolin Playing is ok for a start.

Different people have different ways of learning.

For somebody living in Ireland or Scotland it is alot easier, living with the music.

One should not neglect standard notation and some music theory. But to play from notation one should be familiar with the character of celtic music. With youtube, soundcloud or Comhaltas' page one gets familiar with the way they should be played. And Philip John Berthoud gives some clues.

[abuteague]

What ever you do, I think a recording that goes with the tunes is necessary for starting out. My favorite was The Irish Mandolin
by Pádraig Carroll - Mel Bay Publications. Listen, listen, listen, and listen again, then start trying to learn it.

[sixwatergrog]

Although I still like the two books I mentioned in an earlier response, including the Steve Kaufman one - as cheesy and non-Irish as it might be - I would also recommend going about it differently. If you don't already know how to read standard notation I would learn to do so. They are plenty of tunebooks available online in pdf form and other means, in notation, and mandolintab.net or mandolintabs.net pulls arrangements from thesession.org and puts them in tab form. Who will you be playing these tunes with? I recommend recording those folks playing these tunes, then playing along with those recordings by comparing the recorded versions to the written sources you are finding. Often you can create your own arrangement of a tune using a combination of different sources. I created my own blank tab paper and use a pencil to create my own tab arrangement, which I practice at home until I have the bones of the tune and then leave the tab at home when I go to the session. I try to get what I can and fill in more as time goes on. Tunes are incarnations and you learn them gradually...from 0% all the way up to 100% sure that you know it.

[Connor Toole]

I'm a new mandolin player but I've been playing violin for over nine years. One method that I've been using is Philip John Berhtoud's Irish Mandolin Playing: A Complete Guide, and it's been a very good introduction. I am self-taught and having his insight into practice, posture, and the mechanics of mandolin playing have been helpful. I recommend it.

[michaelpthompson]

I take all these comments about tunes being in the wrong key or not notated correctly with a grain of salt. This is folk music, and each session tends to develop its own way of playing the tunes. You find many variations from session to session. I would find it hard to accept the statement that one way is right and the other wrong.

In one of our local sessions, many of the players get most of their tunes out of either the Fiddler's Fake Book or Carpilation. The latter is a compilation of tunes from Carp Camp, which is a Celtic music gathering. Some of the tunes are in both books, and we always have to specify which version we're going to play.

There are certainly books and sources that obviously do not reflect an understanding of how Irish tunes are played, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that a certain version is "wrong."

[BBarton]

Have a look at the new but similar thread "Exploring Celtic Mandolin" under the forum: General Mandolin Discussions, for more tips and ideas.

[stevenmando]

What are your ideas about Celtic Music for mandolin , the book by Allan Alexander and Jessica Walsh

[Steve L]

Allan Alexanders books are nice for what they are. If you want to learn to play jigs, reels and hornpipes,etc in a session setting they are not the tool for that job.

[neil argonaut]

I take all these comments about tunes being in the wrong key or not notated correctly with a grain of salt. This is folk music, and each session tends to develop its own way of playing the tunes. You find many variations from session to session. I would find it hard to accept the statement that one way is right and the other wrong.

In one of our local sessions, many of the players get most of their tunes out of either the Fiddler's Fake Book or Carpilation. The latter is a compilation of tunes from Carp Camp, which is a Celtic music gathering. Some of the tunes are in both books, and we always have to specify which version we're going to play.

There are certainly books and sources that obviously do not reflect an understanding of how Irish tunes are played, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to say that a certain version is "wrong."

Although it may be a bit of a stretch to say that a version is "wrong", and although there is variation from session to session, when it comes down to keys, things can be fairly standard - whenever I'm at a session it's very rare that a tune gets played in a different key than the one I've learned it in. So for a beginner, it could be a bit of a step back to get a book containing tunes in not "wrong" but "unusual" keys.

John, I've been toying with getting O'Neill's 1001 for a while, but have read somewhere that a lot of the tunes have the wrong accidentals, and are in the wrong modes - do you find this to be the case / much of a problem?

And OP, sorry I can't be of more help, but would also suggest a)learning standard notation and b) checkiong out thesession.org.

In my experience, there's no quicker, easier or more enjoyable way to get better at reading standard notation fluently than learning loads of traditional fiddletunes using it.

[gortnamona]

Enda Scahills book and cd is well worth getting

[michaelpthompson]

OP, sorry I can't be of more help, but would also suggest a)learning standard notation and b) checkiong out thesession.org.

In my experience, there's no quicker, easier or more enjoyable way to get better at reading standard notation fluently than learning loads of traditional fiddletunes using it.

A good suggestion, but NEVER, EVER mention the word bodhrán.

[mickmando]

You might like to try the site I have started
http://www.playingmandolin.co.uk/

[DeamhanFola]

I am hoping someone could give me an appraisal of this book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/078...pf_rd_i=507846

I'm looking for a book of Celtic/Irish tunes with tablature and a play-along CD. If anyone has other recommendations I would greatly appreciate it!

As others have suggested, if you're new to Irish traditional music I would get Berthoud's Irish Mandolin Playing: A Complete Guide before I would get the tunebook alone. More tunes (that are replicated in the book to which the OP linked), plus some valuable instruction.

I'll respectfully disagree with those who suggested the Kaufmann instructional material. If you're interested in more traditional styles, run far, far away from anything with 'Celtic' in the title: go for the material specifically referencing 'Irish' or 'Scottish' etc. In Kaufmann's case, you end up with bluegrass rhythms incongruously jammed onto Irish melodies--in other cases you often end up in reverb-drenched Enya/New Age land pretty swiftly.

I'm not saying these artists aren't talented, nor am I saying that people shouldn't feel free to experiment and cross genres--rather, I'm just saying that if you're looking for more traditional settings of Irish music, look elsewhere.