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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2014.06.13 - Concertina Reel (reel)

Here's another well-known session tune that you'll find played all around the world. It's pretty simple but that means when you hear it at a session it might be played at quite a pace.

It's a reel, so in 4/4 time. Remember in Irish music you often have the pulse on the off-beat (on 2 and 4) which this tune really accentuates. To do this on the fiddle it's best to use a 1-bowed, 3-slurred type of bowing. Do the 1-down-bow on the F-sharps and C-sharps in the first part of the tune, and slur the subsequent notes all on a up bow.

Because it's quite a simple tune, it has plenty of opportunities for adding ornamentation or variations in there, although once it's galloping along it can be hard to fit them in!

Download Score


X: 1
T: Concertina Reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: D
|: "D"A2FA BAFA | A2FA BAFA | "A"B2cB B2cB | B2cB BAFA |
"D"A2FA BAFA | A2FA BAFA | "A"B2cB B2cB | AFEF "D"D4 :|
|: "D"Addc d2Ad | d2fd edBA | "A"B2cB B2cB | B2cB BAFA |
"D"Addc d2Ad | d2ed edBA | "A"B2cB B2cB | AFEF "D"D4 :|

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