Workshop Information

Recently, we have been trialling running a short tune-learning workshop at the beginning of each session. This involves spending 30-40 minutes learning a new tune by ear. The idea is to increase the confidence of the sessioners for playing tunes by ear and relying less on the music. After we have learned a tune, we will post notes about the tune we learned here.

The tunes here should all be shown as scores. If they're not then it could be your browser doesn't support the library used to draw the music. You can probably see the ABC notation used to generate the music. I'm trying to add PDFs to all the music so you can download that to see the score. Alternatively, use a new browser!

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2013.05.10 - The Star Of Munster (reel)

The Star of Munster is a very common session reel in A dorian (A minor with an F#). You'll be hard pushed to find a session where people don't know this tune!

That said, it's not the easiest of tunes (just like The Irish Washerwoman!). The second part is particularly hard on the fiddle with the pinky getting a good work out on that high B. That high B can also be a real shreek on the whistles, so careful how you blow - only just enough to overblow to the high octave!

Accompanists can stick to A minor and G major chords for the most part. Experiment with C and Em7 for some more interesting variations. You can throw in the F major chord now and again, but be aware that A dorian has an F# in the key so if you are going to do that, learn where the F#s are in the tune and don't play it there because it'll clash!


X: 1
T: The Star Of Munster
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Ador
|:c2Ac B2GB|AGEF GEDG|EAAB cBcd|eaaf gedB|
|c2Ac B2GB|AGEF GEDG|EAAB cBcd|ecdB A4:|
|:eaag ageg|agbg agef|g3a gede|gfga gede|
|eaag ageg|agbg agef|g2eg a2ga|b2gb aged:|

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