**** Tune Index all Muddled up ****

 

I've just posted a tune here for the first time in months. While I was on the site I noticed that the tune names are no longer in alphabetical order. I think they are now in chronoligical order. If you just type Ctrl +F and then put in the tune name, or part of the name,  it will take you to the link for that tune if it is on the site.

 

*** Some recordings not playing ***

 

Some recordings go missing from this site from time to time; the internet seems to suffer from memory laspses jist like the rest of us. If you find that a recording doesn't play, please let me know. I have the recordings backed up somewhere (though I'm not sure where) and as a last resort I think I might be able to find some of the tunes in my head and somehow transfer them from there back onto the site.

Hello. This site contains recordings I have made as a source of tunes for people who play the flute, or other instruments for that matter. They are often just versions of tunes as I remember them. My memory isn’t the best so in some cases I cheat and find the dots online. In some cases the online versions and the dots inside my head aren't quite the same so there may be a sort of 'average' appearing. I usually play the tunes once through slowly to make them easier to learn, then I have a bit of a run at them to give another view of them. I hope this approach is OK. If anyone has any comments, or tune suggestions, please get in touch (iflute@googlemail.com).

Thanks, Michael Clarkson (Belfast, Luxembourg and on the Dublin-Belfast Aircoach). 

Slowing Down Tunes

Just in case the tunes on this site aren’t dull enough, you can slow them down using recent versions of Windows Media Player (I’m sure there are plenty of other ways of doing this too).

In Windows Media player click Now Playing at the top of the screen then pick Enhancements and then Play Speed Settings. There is a nice range of speeds displayed but I can only get the half speed one to work. That’s probably enough to be getting on with in any case.

As requested, here's an attempt at a flute version of a steadfastly fiddle tune.

X: 1
T:Jackson's Reel (sort of flute-friendly'ish)
R: reel
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
K: Dmaj
|:F|D2FD EDFE| DEFD EAcE|GE ~E2 GABd| ceAc dBAF|
D2FD EDFE| DEFD EFGE| ABce dBAG| F/2G/2F EG FDD:|
|:g|fd d2 ~d3f| edef edcB|A2cA BAcB| ABcA Bcde|
fd d2 ~d3f| edef edcB|ABde faea|1fd d2 ~d3:|2fddc d/2d/2c dB||
A3A B2AG| FAAF G/2F/2E F/2E/2D| ~E3F GFEG| Agec dBAF|
D2FD EDFE| DEFD EG ~G2| ABce dBAG| FAEG FDAF||

Here's the uncut version: https://thesession.org/tunes/1665

Here's a tune high in vitamin C. Also called the 'Belfast March', named after a town low in every vitamin.

 https://thesession.org/tunes/5000

Here's a tune I was asked to post here. It's a great tune but I can't play polkas, so I never play them, so I can't play them, so I never play them, so ...

The associated polka dots are here: https://thesession.org/tunes/1560

Here's a tune which Tom Morrison recorded i 1928. London clogs are probably mainly fatbergs in the sewers these days.

Here it is played properly:

https://archive.org/details/TomMorrisonTheLondonClog

Here it is written out badly:

This reel was made in space for the flute; sorry this effort isn't as out of this world as the title would suggest.

Here's a tune written by Josie McDermott in honour of Peg McGrath who made one of the nicest flute noises I've ever heard.

A short tune to fill a spare minute. I don't know how much postmen/postwomen (or even postmodernists) whistle now under the burden of Amazon boxes.

Here's a tune I first heard from a recording of John McGuire - Seán's father. The guy in the photo was Jack Rowe - looks like he could blow a flute with the back of his neck. Some feat. Some neck.

Here's a reel which you can hear Denis Murphy playing at: Mount Collins Reel / Doon Reel. There are special wobbles in the second tune which, according to the info at archive.org, are due to a hole being 'punched slightly off-center'. I'd imagine that could cause a wobble or two right enough.

Here are some notes: https://thesession.org/tunes/4026

I've been living in a teeny weeny flat in Luxembourg for the last three weeks and have been afraid to play in case the people in the teeny weeny flats above and beside me objected. I finally got playing last night in a pub at a session with 4 flutes - just like home only the drink was a lot dearer. This tune was mentioned (not by me) but nobody knew it well enough to play it. I've given myself a crash course in playing the tune today in my teeny weeny apartment in this nice little country. I think the first half of the term 'crash course' might be the most relevant here. I'll blame that on my fear of annoying the residents near my little Luxembourgish lodging.

I think Tommy Peoples made this tune up. Best to find a recording of him playing it, or any other tune for that matter.

https://thesession.org/tunes/327

Here's a reel which was included in O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland in 1907 as 'An Bhó Mhaol / The Hornless Cow' but was recorded by Liam Walsh in 1933 as 'The One Horned Cow' 

https://archive.org/details/LiamWalshTheFairyReelTheOneHornedCowTheLimestoneRock.  The beast must have sprouted a bit in the intervening 26 years; unless 1930s Waterford had a population of bovine unicorns - possibly only visible to Uilleann Pipers.  Maybe it still does.

(There's a baby battering a table in the background of this recording - more in time than many percussionists). 

Here are the cow's dots.

https://thesession.org/tunes/2825

Here's a Lonesome Jig.  It only has 681 companions on this site so far - no wonder it feels a bit isolated.

Here's a tune I've managed to overlook during the years I've been putting tunes on this site.  It refers to the Blarney Stone the kissing of which is reputed to leave a great facility for fine talk on the lips which were in contact with said stone.  I was taken for my contact with the Blarney Stone when I was a child, though I think I was held the wrong way up and the incorrect bit of me made contact with the little rock of eloquence.

This tune appears to be the third Mama's Pet I've posted here so she'll maybe able to open a small zoo.  I'm not sure what species this pet is or even how many limbs it has, if any, or whether it has fur or just skin or scales.  The details I could find are here:

Here's a tune popular among some fiddle players in Donegal.  I'm not sure whether it is unpopular among everyone else in that county but I'll maybe avoid playing it there just to be on the safe side.

Just grabbing a rare moment in the house when not being entertained / attacked (it's a fine line) by children.  The first 2 minutes of that moment have been used up by playing this reel.  www.tunepal.org told me it is called the Walls of Limerick.  I have it on a recording of John McKenna on the flute with Michael Gaffney (I think) on the banjo.  The notes at http://tunepal.org/tunepal/show_tune.php?tunepalid=266-hnr2.abc-2-Walls~of~Limerick%2C~The look very like it.  I'm sure all will be revealed and explained when 'Imminent' becomes 'Recent' in a while ... http://www.johnmckenna.ie/irish-time/.

http://thesession.org/tunes/12577

Here's a reel I just heard on a recording of the Donegal fiddle maestro John Doherty.

Here's an old, neglected Sligo jig.   There's a recording of Paddy Sweeney from Moylough in Sligo playing it on a fiddle in 1937: http://archive.org/details/PaddySweenyRogersJigVillageJig.  I like listening to recordings like that of tunes played at a quick pace and then hearing people who extol the virtues of Coleman, Sweeney, Killoran et al, giving off at people for playing too fast when they are playing much slower that their heroes every played.  I'm sorry if that was a very clumsily cobbled sentence - I'm not used to the heat - a bit of which has been visited upon us of late.  You'll be able to find the tune in squashed tadpole form at http://thesession.org/tunes/11483 and play it at whatever speed you like.

Here's a jig from the South West - mar atá Co. Clare.  I associate it with Willie Clancy.  I'm not sure whether its title refers to the direction the air flowed through his pipes while he played it.  I think my flute was more Mecca-wards when I was playing it on this occasion - that would just be a west wind - with slight precipitation towards the end of the tune.

For disciples of the dot there's always http://tunepal.org/tunepal/show_tune.php?tunepalid=8445-75.abc-1-Southwest~Wind%2C~The.

Here's a Gan Ainm - one of a host of Gans Ainm in Breandán Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2.  At least the person BB got the tune from had an ainm - namely Michael Ryan, a flute player from Co. Sligo, so (that's 'so' the conjunction rather than the Sligo 'SO' that you may see on a numberplate in Ballymote) I'll call the tune after Mr. R.   Mr. B. gave the reel the rather appealing number 142 in his book.

Here's another Lad O'Beirne's reel.  I don't know much about it.

The notes in dotty form can be found here:

http://tunepal.org/tunepal/show_tune.php?tunepalid=1209-misc-tunes2_A-M.abc-30-Lad~O~Beirne~s~Reel~%28a%29~%28key~D%29~%25~misc%3CBB

Here's a close relative of the 'Lark in the Morning'.  This one has fewer parts - from my playing it sounds as though it may be missing a wing and part of its voice.

http://tunepal.org/tunepal/show_tune.php?tunepalid=87-cces-tunes2.abc-20-Morning%7ELark

Here's a reel I was reminded of today by listening to a recording of Brendan McGlinchey, the great fiddle player from Armagh.  He plays it in C on the recording but I'm all at sea without a paddle in that key for this tune so I'll wear my hat with a 'D' on it for now.

Here's another effort on my Rudall and Lazarus flute.  The version of the tune here is decidedly dodgy.  I half learned it lots of moons ago before I ever heard a recording of it.  A more reliable version can be got here: http://tinyurl.com/auc5x3n .  I was reminded of the tune today about 10 minutes after the postman kindly delivered a copy of this lovely recording: http://claddaghrecords.com/WWW/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=3521 (the packaging was quite hard to open otherwise I'd have heard it a bit sooner).

Here's my latest attempt to play my old Rudall flute.  I've been using a combination of insulating tape, knives, scissors, super glue, our child's skin moisturiser and kettle steam as tools of resuscitation; maybe I should be trying them on the flute.

http://tunepal.org/tunepal/show_tune.php?tunepalid=2708-25.abc-1-John~Dwyer~s

Here's a jig which comes from up Sligo.  Dots can be found up here: http://tunepal.org/tunepal/show_tune.php?tunepalid=2272-21.abc-1-Up~Sligo