Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Unknown/None Chosen Key: Am Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: BeginnerAnach Chuain / A Dorian
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 4/16/2013 1:55:38 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDownload from hangoutstorage.com
Notes: This is a beginner's arrangement like one would find in my most recent tune collection, Mel Bay's Easy Irish & Celtic Melodies for 5-String Banjo: Best-Loved Airs and Session Tunes. Here is a bare bones arrangement of the famous Irish air and lament about an 1828 boating accident near Galway town, based on Dolly MacMahon's sean-nos version in A Dorian. It can also be played in 3/4 and in 6/8, as a jig, known as 'The Sheep in the Boat' (Junior Crehan). Compare this arrangement with the highly ornamented version of 'Anach Cuain' (Air/Lament), for advanced players. |
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Unknown/None Chosen Key: Am Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: ExpertAnach Cuain (Air/Lament)
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 4/16/2013 1:55:58 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDownload from hangoutstorage.com
Notes: The famous Irish air and lament about an 1828 boating accident near Galway town, based on Dolly MacMahon's sean-nos version in A Dorian. This is a highly ornamented setting for advanced players, similar to the arrangements one can find in my first tune collection, Mel Bay's Complete Book of Irish & Celtic 5-String Banjo. This tune can also be played in 3/4 and in 6/8, as a jig, known as 'The Sheep in the Boat' (Junior Crehan). |
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Unknown/None Chosen Key: Em Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: BeginnerAnach Cuain (E Dorian/Beginner)
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 4/16/2013 1:56:23 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDownload from hangoutstorage.com
Notes: Moved from the standard A Dorian to E Dorian, this is a beginner version of the famous Irish air and lament. I've added fretting-hand fingerings. |
Genre: Bluegrass Style: Other Key: D Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: IntermediateAngeline the Baker (D)
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 1/21/2010 10:58:29 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDOWNLOAD: JPEG
Notes: Here's a bluegrassy version of this old-time tune, in standard G tuning, a fiery melodic version based loosely on fiddler Stuart Duncan's variations with the Nashville Bluegrass Band. I have tried to keep the melody flowing at all times, adding fill notes while keeping the main notes in the usual places, using slides, syncopation, pinches and pull-offs to keep it in the bluegrass camp. |
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Unknown/None Chosen Key: G Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: IntermediateBlackberry Blossom Jig
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 4/1/2013 8:49:51 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDownload from hangoutstorage.com
Notes: I thought it would be fun to come up with a jiggy 6/8 arrangement for Blackberry Blossom, the well-known fiddle tune. This has some interesting ornamentation in the B part, as well. Enjoy! |
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs) Key: G Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: IntermediateBlackberry Blossom Waltz
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 4/4/2013 7:19:53 PM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDownload from hangoutstorage.com
Notes: I've put in some fretting-hand fingerings, which I don't normally do. This one is tricky. It's not Old Time, and it's not exactly Bluegrass. But it is a melody, the way I hear and feel it, as a waltz and as a slow air (with rubato). I have added optional fermatas, but these only come into play when one is slowing it way down (not as the country waltz). |
Genre: Traditional Style: Unknown/None Chosen Key: G Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: IntermediateColored Aristocracy
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 3/3/2013 7:22:31 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
2 Member Comments Add Rating/CommentDownload from hangoutstorage.com
Notes: This is a fun arrangement, with ragtimey overtones! I came up with it after not playing this tune since the early nineties. It's a 3-fingerstyle up-picking arrangement that doesn't fit exactly into any box, except "traditional" I suppose. It's a cakewalk which goes back to minstrelsy that became a hoedown in Old Time and New England music. I think it would go over nicely at an Irish session, especially for dancers.
Enjoy! |
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Other Key: Bm Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: IntermediateEarl's Chair, The
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 4/10/2013 2:40:01 PM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDOWNLOAD: JPEG
Notes: These are A-Part Fretting and Picking-Hand exercises for the tune which appears (as a beginner version in its entirety) in my recent Mel Bay Book/CD compilation, Easy Irish & Celtic Session Tunes for 5-String Banjo: Best-Loved Jigs and Reels (MB21597BCD). |
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Other Key: D Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: IntermediateEighth of January
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 1/10/2010 9:54:18 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
2 Member Comments Add Rating/CommentDOWNLOAD: JPEG
Notes: Originally known as 'Jackson's Victory' (while he was still popular) and later changed to the 'Eighth of January', we also know this favorite tune as the melody or "air" to the 'Battle of New Orleans'. Notice the Celtic-sounding drones and raggy syncopation I have put into the second part to give it more lift. I use a lot of staccoto-single-string work in the second part to capture the melody down the neck, but it could also be played an octave higher in a more legato-melodic style. |
Genre: Bluegrass Style: Bluegrass (Scruggs) Key: G Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: IntermediateEighth of January
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 1/10/2010 3:51:46 PM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDOWNLOAD: JPEG
Notes: This is a Scruggsy version of the tune; please also see my two other more melodic/single-string versions, one in D Major, another in G Major. |
Genre: Bluegrass Style: Other Key: G Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: BeginnerEighth of January
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 1/10/2010 9:53:08 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDOWNLOAD: JPEG
Notes: See my melodic version in D and my Scruggsier version in G. Originally known as 'Jackson's Victory' (while he was still popular) and later changed to the 'Eighth of January', we also know this favorite tune as the melody or "air" to the 'Battle of New Orleans'. Notice the Celtic-sounding drones and raggy syncopation I have put into the second part to give it more lift. I use a lot of staccoto-single-string work in the second part to capture the melody down the neck, but it could also be played an octave higher in a more legato-melodic style. |
Genre: Bluegrass Style: Other Key: C Tuning: Drop C (gCGBD) Difficulty: ExpertEighth of January
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 1/25/2010 7:27:20 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDOWNLOAD: JPEG
Notes: For Paddy Kiernan, who proved to me about reaching top speed with accuracy using 21st-century picking-hand fingerings. I've also tabbed this here in D and G (both melodic/single-string), also a Scruggsy version (G), and now this one in Drop C tuning, dedicated to Bill Keith. |
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Other Key: D Difficulty: ExpertEighth of January
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 1/13/2010 3:02:19 PM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDOWNLOAD: JPEG | JPEG | JPEG
Notes: Here I make (1) “melismatic variations” in the form of grace notes, using slides and pull-offs, (2) “intervallic variations” by moving away from the normal melody, substituting higher and lower notes, also developing a series of either ascending or descending note patterns, and (3) “rhythmic variations” in the form of syncopation, also by making two eighth notes a quarter note (as in the first full measure), or by making a quarter note two eighth notes (as in measures 6 and 10, on the third beat). The pinches, sometimes straight, sometimes syncopated, serve as examples of combined intervallic-rhythmic variation.
I have doubled the parts, also breaking them up into units of four measures each, indicated by a heavy bar line, putting in variations that sound good to me after all these years playing the tune.
Within the A and B sections, the order of parts can be moved around any way you want, but here I start with the simple before moving to the more complex. One can go back to playing the tune’s structure as AB, instead of doubling both sections.
The tune structure here is actually A1, A2, A3, A4; B1, B2, B3, B4. These are not the only variations, obviously, but these are what I like to hear and play. It’s about playing the sounds that you want to hear, not about playing variations just to play them, or an abstract exercise.
|
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Other Key: D Difficulty: IntermediateFisher's Hornpipe
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 4/18/2011 4:20:40 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
2 Member Comments Add Rating/CommentDOWNLOAD: JPEG | JPEG
Notes: Okay, here's a tune from my very first book (Limited Printing First Edition - 1994), in manuscript form: 25 Traditional Irish & Celtic Tunes. I expanded that book and made a CD, at the request of Bill Bay, to produce: Mel Bay’s Complete Book of Irish & Celtic 5-String Banjo. |
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Other Key: G Difficulty: IntermediateGarryowen
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 3/21/2013 4:51:50 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDownload from hangoutstorage.com
Notes: This in an original tuning, f#EGBD (Hanway Celtic E Modal). |
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Unknown/None Chosen Key: Em Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: BeginnerSwallowtail Jig, The
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 4/16/2013 2:32:39 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDownload from hangoutstorage.com
Notes: The prototype Tom Hanway Stelling Swallowtail is named for this jig, also the reel, and the book Swallow Barn. Here's the whole tune in E Dorian mode with melodic and rhythmic variations using grace notes, plus some picking-hand options. |
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Unknown/None Chosen Key: D Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: BeginnerSwallowtail Jig, The (Opening Phrase)
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 4/10/2013 2:40:23 PM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDownload from hangoutstorage.com
Notes: This is an exercise in Celtic fingerstyle banjo illustrating possible melodic variations for the opening phrase of this jig, also comfortable fretting-hand and picking-hand options. This is in E Dorian (a mode using the same notes as D Major). |
Genre: Jazz Style: Other Key: Dm Difficulty: ExpertTake 5
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 1/29/2010 2:52:26 PM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDOWNLOAD: JPEG
Notes: This is the popular jazz tune, here played a half-step lower in Dm, to make it more banjo friendly. You need to practice those quadruplets very slowly, They're even faster than triplets, so concentrate on them and watch the fingerings.
Notice the double hammer-on and the quadruplets, using both TITM and TITI right-hand patterns. We're in 5/4 here. If you tune up a half-step, you can play along with the Brubeck recording in Ebm. |
Genre: Jazz Style: Other Key: D#/Ebm Difficulty: ExpertTake Five
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 2/4/2010 5:27:17 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDOWNLOAD: JPEG
Notes: This is the "head" to the famous jazz tune in pure single-string style using contemporary right-hand fingerings. Watch the quadruplets and notice the fingerings. Enjoy and go slow at first. Speed comes with accuracy. |
Genre: Jazz Style: Other Key: Dm Difficulty: ExpertTake Five
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 4/21/2011 11:31:24 AM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDOWNLOAD: JPEG
Notes: This is a contemporary single-string version in Dm. If you tune up a half-step, you can play along with the Brubeck recording in Ebm. This is still based on the original "head" as played on sax, moved down from Ebm. It might be easier to start here then move it up a half-step, playing out of these closed positions. |
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Other Key: D Tuning: Standard Open G (gDGBD) Difficulty: IntermediateThe Maid Behind the Bar
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 2/11/2013 1:07:04 PM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
Add Rating/CommentDOWNLOAD: JPEG
Notes: These are variations on the first four measures in Celtic fingerstyle banjo. |
Genre: Fiddle/Celtic/Irish Style: Other Key: Am Difficulty: IntermediateThe Star of Munster
Posted by Tom Hanway, last updated: 5/16/2011 3:06:30 PM
Average Rating: (not yet rated)
1 Member Comments Add Rating/CommentDOWNLOAD: JPEG
Notes: This classic Irish reel is in A Dorian mode, not A minor. It's from my first self-published book, 25 Traditional Irish & Celtic Tunes for the Bluegrass Banjo Player (1994). |
|
|
|
|
Feeds
