Irish Flute Technique Overview

  • 13 lessons teaching how to play 13 popular Irish tunes.
  • Progress at your own pace, pause & repeat videos.
  • Access on all your devices.
  • PDF sheet music & mp3’s to download & keep for each tune.
  • 14-day free trial. Cancel anytime
  • Access to 14 instruments, 40+ courses, 700+ tutorials

Start Your Free Trial

BONUS:
  • Access our Entire Course Catalogue for Every Instrument.
  • Library of over 150 popular Irish tunes to practice along with.
  • Virtual Reality Lounge 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.
Irish Flute Technique is aimed at the more experienced player as it includes advanced ornamentation and articulation skills. Although the techniques taught in this course are challenging technically, many of the tunes taught are also suitable for the less advanced player. A keyed flute (or a keyless flute player with half-holing ability) is required for a few of the tunes taught in the keys of F major and D minor.

By the end of this course, you will have a wealth of technical tips and tricks to use with your current repertoire, as well as thirteen new, quirky flute tunes. The course has 13 lessons, broken into 3 to 4 tutorials each, where tunes are taught phrase by phrase.

Course Structure

Irish Flute Technique expertly guides you through a myriad of cranns, rolls, triplets, back-stitch triplets, key-work and cuts. One of the main themes of this course is articulation; the tutor constantly refers to throat articulation as a means of accentuating the rhythm of the tunes and demonstrates again and again how to use glottal-stops to attack the notes for percussive effect.

The traditional Irish tunes and corresponding techniques taught are:

The Quaker’s Wife (Creating Rhythm Using Throat Articulation)
John McKenna’s Jig (Creating Rhythm Using Throat Articulation)
The Red Haired Girl (Key Work and Various Ornamentation)
Joy Of My Life (Challenging Keys: F Major)
The Drunken Landlady (The Long Roll)
In The Hen House (The Back Stitch, Triplets and Crans)
Andy McGann’s (Challenging Keys: D minor)

The Drogheda Reel (Ornamentation: Triplets and Rolls)
Cormac O’Looney’s (Tongue Articulation)
Farewell To Phillip Lane (Challenging Keys: F Major)
The Standing Abbey (Embouchure and Cranns)
The High Hill Of Tara (Vibrato and Slides)
The Rising Sun (Cranns)

 

Your Tutor
Born in Birmingham, England to parents from Miltown Malbay, Co Clare, Kevin Crawford’s early life was sound-tracked by the resonance of the lively traditional music scene in the midlands city. Moving to Co. Clare in 1989, he soon became a pivotal member of the effervescent session trail in the Banner county before enhancing his burgeoning reputation in the group Grianán and the trio Raise the Rafters. He then propelled himself to international recognition with Moving Cloud, with whom he recorded Moving Cloud in 1995 and Foxglove in 1998. Kevin joined Lúnasa in January 1997 for a tour of Australia and has been ever-present in the group since. To date, the instrumental quintet have eight albums to their credit while Kevin has released two solo records, ‘D’ Flute Album (1994) and In Good Company (2001). Read more.

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

Start Your Free Trial

Irish Flute Technique Lessons

Level

The Quaker’s Wife

Advanced Irish Flute Technique Lesson 1

  • G Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
Learn Irish Flute Online

Creating Rhythm Using Throat Articulation

Jig

Start Free Trial

John McKenna’s Jig

Advanced Irish Flute Technique Lesson 2

  • G Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
Learn Irish Flute Online

The Glottal Stop

Jig

Start Free Trial

The Red Haired Girl

Advanced Irish Flute Technique Lesson 3

  • A Minor
  • Level 3
  • Melody
Learn Irish Flute Online

Key Work and Various Ornamentation

Slip Jig

Start Free Trial

Joy of My Life

Advanced Irish Flute Technique Lesson 4

  • F Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
Learn Irish Flute Online

Challenging Keys: F Major / Key Work!

Reel

Start Free Trial

The Drunken Landlady

Advanced Irish Flute Technique Lesson 5

  • A Minor
  • Level 3
  • Melody
Learn Irish Flute Online

Rhythmic playing and embellishments

Reel

Start Free Trial

In the Hen House

Advanced Irish Flute Technique Lesson 6

  • D Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
Learn Irish Flute Online

Ornamentation: The Back Stitch, Triplets and Cranns

Reel

Start Free Trial

Andy McGann’s

Advanced Irish Flute Technique Lesson 7

  • D Minor
  • Level 3
  • Melody
Learn Irish Flute Online

Challenging Keys: D minor / Key Work

Reel

Start Free Trial

The Drogheda Reel

Advanced Irish Flute Technique Lesson 8

  • B Minor
  • Level 3
  • Melody
Learn Irish Flute Online

Ornamentation: Triplets and Rolls

Reel

Start Free Trial

Cormac O’Looney’s

Advanced Irish Flute Technique Lesson 9

  • G Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
Learn Irish Flute Online

Tongue Articulation

Reel

Start Free Trial

Farewell to Phillip Lane

Advanced Irish Flute Technique Lesson 10

  • F Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
Learn Irish Flute Online

Challenging Keys: F Major / Key Work

Reel

Start Free Trial

The Standing Abbey

Advanced Irish Flute Technique Lesson 11

  • G Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
Learn Irish Flute Online

Embouchure and Cranns

Hornpipe

Start Free Trial

The High Hill of Tara

Advanced Irish Flute Technique Lesson 12

  • A Minor
  • Level 3
  • Melody
Learn Irish Flute Online

The use of Vibrato and Slides in Slow Tunes

March

Start Free Trial

The Rising Sun

Advanced Irish Flute Technique Lesson 13

  • D Major
  • Level 3
  • Melody
Learn Irish Flute Online

Ornamentation: Cranns

Reel

Start Free Trial