A Tune A Week

Also from Under the Moon. He plays it in G on the album, and there’s a nice transition into The Kilnamona Barndance in F. I didn’t play them together because I play them both in G, and they don’t sound nearly as nice next to each other in the same key. I have no skill in the key of F right now.

A nice pair from Martin Hayes’ album Under the Moon. He plays these beautifully, and slowly enough that they’re easy to pick up. This particular record is a good place to go for learning by ear for that reason.

Here’s a set I picked up from the Rogues. They sound rather better at it, too. Heh. I am still stubbornly using only one button per note of the scale, meaning that there are many more bellows reversals than if I took advantage of the other buttons. But I am convinced that practicing this way will eventually make me better with the bellows and quicker to pick up tunes on the fly.

As I’ve mentioned, a nice follow-up to Winnie Hayes’. It falls pretty nicely into my standard base fingering for the D scale, except for the last phrase of the B part where there’s a bellows switch that still throws me sometimes. (The scale, from low to high: Left ring finger push D; L middle push E; L ring draw F#; L index push G on the C row; L index draw A on the C row; L index or middle push B; R index push C#; L index/middle push D; L index/middle draw E; R index draw F#; R middle draw G on the third row; R ring draw A on the G row; R ring push B. I often use R middle push A on the third row and R index push G on the G row also.) Yes, fingering can be complex on this instrument.