Irish Fiddle Journeys
Welcome to the Irish Fiddle Journeys course!
You’ll find a progressive course outline below. It’s organized in “mini-modules” so that you move from easier to more challenging lessons. Think of this as a suggested path to follow. I say it’s a suggestion because I’ve learned that each person learns in a unique way.
That said, I strongly encourage you to dive deep into one tune and one technique at a time. Otherwise, you might fall into what I call The Ultimate Pitfall for Beginning Fiddlers.
I made an overview lesson and video for the course. This goes into the preparation, strategy, and fiddlosophy which will make your Irish fiddle journey fun, productive, and rewarding.
Progressive course outline
Below is a suggested order for you to take the lessons in this course.
Module 1: The Trill Is Not Gone
Core lessons
- Irish Fiddle Journeys – overview
- Trills variation – lesson
- Melodic Variation On Scales
- Melodic Scale Variation Exercises
Core tunes
I’ll teach basic and variation lessons for core tunes. Think of these as old friends that teach us new things when we re-visit them.
Learn or review at least two of the following core tunes:
- Mary Had A Little Lamb – melodic variation
- Note: we’ll return to this tune throughout the course. It’s an easy and fun way to integrate the embellishments you’ll be learning.
Bonus tunes
The bonus tunes will help to expand your fiddle vocabulary. They are also a way to experiment with adding variation on your own.
Module 2: Tripping With Triplets
Core lessons
Core tunes
Learn or review at least two of the following core tunes:
- Miss McCleod’s – basic
- Chief O’Neill’s Favorite – basic
- Rights of Man – basic
- Lilting Banshee – basic
Bonus tune
Review tunes practice in Module 1, trills and melodic variation exercises.
Module 3: On The Jig Swing
Core lessons
Learn or review at least two of the following tunes (or other jigs and slip jigs you know). Then try to add the jig swing variation.
- Lilting Banshee – basic
- Kerfunken Jig – basic
- Kesh Jig – basic
- Rolling Waves – basic
- The Butterfly – basic
Bonus tunes
Review tunes learned in Module 2, triplet exercises.
Module 4: Cutting The Rug With Cuts
Core lessons
- Cuts variation – lesson
- Mary Had A Little Lamb – cut variation
- Kerfunken Jig – cuts variation
- Foxhunter’s slip jig – basic
- Tam Lin – basic
Review tunes learned in Module 3, jig swing exercises. Then, learn any core tunes you may have skipped.
Bonus tunes
Interlude 1: Renew With Review
Now that you’ve learned a bit about Irish fiddling, take some time to refine the sound of what you’ve learned. This attention to good sound will bring joy to your practice.
Remember, there are three phases of learning a tune.
- Learning a basic version
- Making it sound better
- Adding expression
Learn more in this lesson: Three Phases of Learning a Tune
- Review tunes learned in modules 1-4. Also, review any other Irish tunes you know.
- Review all technique exercises: triplets, jig swing, trills, melodic variation.
Do you remember all the tunes you learned? Use fingerprinting to help you remember tunes better. Learn more in this lesson: How to remember fiddle tunes.
This can be done in one or two practice sessions. What do you need to go over? Just be honest with yourself.
Module 5: The Grace Is Greener
Module 6: Mordents In Your Car
Core lessons
- Kerry Polka – variation
- Wild Mountain Thyme – variation – Newly added in 2020
Learn at least one of the following:
Bonus tune
Module 7: Sixteenth Note Duplets For Peace
Interlude 2: Like Deja Vu All Over Again
As you learn more tunes and variations, older things might start to slip from your memory. So take some time to strengthen things you’ve recently learned. Making and practicing sets of tunes is a good way to approach them with a fresh perspective.
You can also continue these other review practices. They’ll help you remember what you’ve learned in a fun and productive way.
- Keep a list of tunes you’ve learned.
- Practice “review sets” of 4-10 songs.
- Practice “fingerprinting each song”.
- If possible, transpose tunes to other strings.
- This helps form a better mental map of the tune. (And it’s fun).
- Learn more about his process: Renew With Review.
Review all the tunes that you liked.
Review all technique exercises: triplets, jig swing, trills, melodic variation. This can be done in one or two practice sessions.
Did you skip any of the core tunes? If so, consider re-visiting them.
What techniques are still difficult? How can you reinvent your approach to practicing them?
Module 8: Roll With It
Core lessons
Learn at least one of the following:
Bonus tunes
Module 9: Further, Farther
Index of Lessons
Here’s a listing of all the tunes in the course, organized by type of lesson rather than the suggested learning path of the Progressive Outline above. Some fun ways to practice using the index:
- Play all the tunes you know of a certain type (reels, jigs, etc.).
- Make sets of two or more tunes.
- Play all the tunes you know with a particular drone note (D, G, A or E).
- Learn more about how this works in this lesson: The Dronopoly Game.
Variation Technique Lessons
This is a progressive series of lessons, starting with easier variations like jig swing and moving towards more challenging variations like rolls. We’ll start by practicing each technique very slowly and then gradually speeding up.
Reels
- The Banshee – basic
- The Banshee – variation
- Bird in the Bush – basic
- Clare Reel – basic
- Clare Reel – variation
- Cooley’s Reel – basic Newly updated in 2020
- Girl Who Broke My Heart – basic Newly added in 2020
- The Humours of Westport – basic Newly added in 2020
- Miss McCleod’s – basic
- Miss McCleod’s – variation
- Miss Monaghan’s Reel – basic
- Miss Monaghan’s Reel – variation
- Tam Lin – basic
- Tam Lin – variation
- Wise Maid – basic Newly added in 2020
Jigs
- Club Ceili – basic
- Kerfunken Jig – basic
- Kerfunken jig – cuts variation
- Kerfunken Jig – rolls variation
- Kesh Jig – basic
- Kesh Jig – variation
- Kesh Jig – Adding Double Stops
- Kesh Jig – Backup Chords
- Lilting Banshee – basic
- Lilting Banshee – variation
- Rolling Waves – basic
- Rolling Waves – variation
- Wassail – basic
- Wassail – variation
- Swallowtail Jig
- Swallowtail Jig – Variation
- Swallowtail – Harmony
Slip Jigs
- The Butterfly – basic
- The Butterfly – variation
- Drops of Brandy -basic – ? Newly added in 2020
- Foxhunter’s – basic
- Foxhunter’s – variation
Hornpipes
Polkas
Waltzes, solos, further journeys...
- Fisherman’s Blues – solo
- Lilting Banshee – Jig to Polka
- Galway Girl
- Hector the Hero – basic
- Hector the Hero – variation
- Ida Red: Old-time to Irish Jig!– Newly added in 2020
- Planxty Irwin – basic
- Planxty Irwin – variation
- Wild Mountain Thyme – basic – Newly added in 2020
- Wild Mountain Thyme – variation – Newly added in 2020
Tunes to play with D drone
All of the following tunes can be practiced with the D drone track:
- Boys of Bluehill – basic
- Boys of Bluehill – variation
- Chief O’Neill’s Favorite – basic
- Chief O’Neill’s Favorite – variation
- Dennis Murphy’s Polka – basic
- Foxhunter’s – basic
- Foxhunter’s – variation
- John Ryan’s Polka – basic
- Kerfunken Jig – basic
- Kerfunken jig – cuts variation
- Kerfunken Jig – rolls variation
- Miss Monaghan’s Reel – basic
- Miss Monaghan’s Reel – variation
- Planxty Irwin – basic
- Planxty Irwin – variation
- Rolling Waves – basic
- Rolling Waves – variation
- Tam Lin – basic
- Tam Lin – variation
- Wild Mountain Thyme – basic
- Wise Maid – basic
Tunes to play with G drone
All of the following tunes can be practiced with the G drone track:
- The Banshee – basic
- The Banshee – variation
- Bird in the Bush – basic
- Club Ceili – ? Newly added in 2020
- Drops of Brandy -basic – ? Newly added in 2020
- Girl Who Broke My Heart – basic – ? Newly added in 2020
- Kerry Polka – basic
- Kerry Polka – variation
- Kesh Jig – basic
- Kesh Jig – variation
- Kesh Jig – Adding Double Stops
- Miss McCleod’s – basic
- Miss McCleod’s – variation
- Off to California – basic
- Wassail – basic
- Wassail – variation
Tunes to play with A drone
All of the following tunes can be practiced with the A drone track:
Tunes to play with E drone
All of the following tunes can be practiced with the E drone track:
- The Butterfly – basic
- The Butterfly – variation
- Cooley’s Reel – basic
- Drowsy Maggie
- Ida Red: Old-time to Irish Jig!
- Swallowtail Jig
- Swallowtail Jig – Variation
- Swallowtail – Harmony
5 responses to “Irish Fiddle Journeys”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I entered in the giveaway, and will be hoping the Irish in me helps bring me luck!!
I wore green, made corned beef and cabbage, and took another FiddleHed Intermediate lesson on St. Patrick’s Day. Will that be enough to bring me the Luck o’ th’ Irish???
Is this the Irish Variations course I purchased? or is this the week free subscription?
Oooooh, I danced to all this stuff in my younger days. So excited to learn to play it
I may never truly master any of these but I’m trying things I didn’t believe I would ever even come close to attempting and having a great time doing it. Thanks Jason!