Donegal Fiddle Styles Overview

  • 13 lessons teaching how to play 13 popular Irish tunes.
  • Progress at your own pace, pause & repeat videos.
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  • PDF sheet music & mp3’s to download & keep for each tune.
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BONUS:
  • Access our Entire Course Catalogue for Every Instrument.
  • Library of over 150 popular Irish tunes to practice along with.
  • Virtual Reality Sessions for the unique Irish Pub Session experience – a real treat for the Irish music lover.
  • Community Forum of students and teachers, all friends with a love of Irish music.
Donegal Fiddle Styles covers a lively collection of jigs, reels and hornpipes for the discerning Irish fiddle player who has a particular grá (Irish word for love) for the fiddling and musical legacy of the Dohertys, the McConnells, James Byrne, Francie Dearg O’Beirn, Con Cassidy, Vincent Campbell and Danny Meehan.

By the end of the course, you will have a great variety of Irish traditional tunes to add to your growing repertoire. The course has 13 lessons, broken into 3 to 4 tutorials each, where tunes are taught phrase by phrase.

Course Structure

All the tunes taught on this course are firmly rooted in the Donegal tradition. Bowing techniques feature prominently: the use of the up-bow, tight bowing, open and closed triplets, and crans. Various droning techniques are also taught: the use of finger drones, octave drones and double stops. This is all rounded off with teachings on position playing, octave playing and finger plucking. This course is a must for any student interested in the fiddle styles of Donegal or advanced Irish fiddle techniques.

Tunes taught in this course:

James Byrne’s Reel
Bundle And Go
The Glen Road To Carrick
The Teelin Highland
The Cat That Kittled In Jamie’s Wig
Séan Sa Cheo
Bean An Tí Ar Lar
The Glasha Highland
Mickey Doherty’s Reel
The Low Level Hornpipe
Alec McConnell’s Waltz
Danny Meehan’s
Trip To The Cottage

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Sheet Music and Mp3s available to Download for each Tune

Sample Sheet Music

Download James Byrnes Reel ABC Sheet Music.
Download James Byrnes Reel Standard Notation Sheet Music.

Sample mp3 of James Byrnes Reel

Download James Byrnes Reel mp3.
Your Tutor
Aidan O’DonnellAidan O’Donnell has been described as one of the finest young Irish musicians at present. He began his music making at the age of 12, and since then has performed with some of traditional music’s finest artists, including Donal Lunny, Mícheál Ó’Súilleabháin and the Chieftains. In 2007, he won the prestigious ‘Oireachtas na Geailge’ fiddle title, and has been a regular tutor at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance, at the University of Limerick, for the past number of years. Read more.

 

Detailed questions and discussion on the course can be found in the Community Forum, available to paying members only.

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Donegal Fiddle Styles Lessons

Level

Jame’s Byrne’s Reel

Donegal Fiddle Styles Lesson 1

  • D Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
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Bowing: The ‘Up-Bow’ Technique

Reel

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Bundle and Go

Donegal Fiddle Styles Lesson 2

  • A Minor
  • Level 3
  • Melody
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Bowing: The ‘Up-Bow’ Technique

Jig

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The Glen Road to Carrick

Donegal Fiddle Styles Lesson 3

  • D Mixolydian
  • Level 3
  • Melody
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Bowed Triplets: Open and Closed

Reel

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The Teelin Highland

Donegal Fiddle Styles Lesson 4

  • A Minor
  • Level 3
  • Melody
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Bowed Triplets: The Half Triplet

Highland

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The Cat That Kittled in Jamie’s Wig

Donegal Fiddle Styles Lesson 5

  • A Minor
  • Level 3
  • Melody
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Tight Bowing!

Highland

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Séan Sa Cheo

Donegal Fiddle Styles Lesson 6

  • A Mixolydian
  • Level 3
  • Melody
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Position Playing (For Fiddles)

Reel

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Bean An Tí Ar Lar

Donegal Fiddle Styles Lesson 7

  • D Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
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Finger Droning

Reel

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The Glasha Highland

Donegal Fiddle Styles Lesson 8

  • D Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
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Octave Playing

Highland

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Mickey Doherty’s Reel

Donegal Fiddle Styles Lesson 9

  • D Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
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Cranns: Melodic and Percussive.

Reel

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The Low Level Hornpipe

Donegal Fiddle Styles Lesson 10

  • Bä»_Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
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Position Playing: The Challenging Key of Bä»_Major

Hornpipe

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Alec McConnell’s Waltz

Donegal Fiddle Styles Lesson 11

  • G Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
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Bow Control and Plucking

Waltz

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Danny Meehan’s

Donegal Fiddle Styles Lesson 12

  • G Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
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Droning and Chords

Reel

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Trip To The Cottage

Donegal Fiddle Styles Lesson 13

  • D Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
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Double Stopping and Chords

Jig

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