- 13 lessons teaching how to play Irish music for classically trained violinists.
- 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
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.
If we got a penny for every time we were asked the difference between a fiddle and a violin… Well, let’s just say that we were so inspired by this popular question, that we decided to create a course. So, we recruited a classically trained violinist who also happens to be a highly acclaimed professional Irish fiddle player to set the record straight. This course opens the door for classically trained violinists worldwide to understand and enjoy the genre of Irish traditional music and in so doing magically turn their classical violins into blazing Irish fiddles!
By the end of the course, you’ll have thoroughly imbibed the uniqueness of the Irish fiddle style and have learned 13 beautiful Irish tunes with which you can demonstrate your newly found fiddle prowess.
Course Structure
This course assumes you’ve been classically trained on the violin, or play the violin from another tradition. Different to the classical approach, the Irish tradition encourages aural learning, learning by ear, by teaching each tune slowly, short-phrase by short-phrase, repeated many times.
Throughout the course the differences between Irish music and the Classical traditions are highlighted, such as the non-reliance of notation (notation is only a guide), not using vibrato, and alternatives to position playing.
The course clearly breaks down ornamentation and shows how to use it to create the typical Irish fiddle sound with triplets, cuts, and rolls. The tutor discusses the rhythm and bowing of various tune types, demonstrating how to create that distinguishing ‘Irish’ swing. How to bring colour to the tunes through the use of variation and chords is also explained and clearly demonstrated.
Finally, the influence the piping tradition has had on the Irish fiddle tradition is also discussed plus incorporating some of this intriguing influence into your playing is demonstrated.
The list of tunes taught includes reels, jigs, hornpipes, and a slow air.
Dinky’s Reel
Haste to the Wedding
Upper Church Polka
Patsy Geary’s
The Rambling Pitchfork
Tonra’s Jig
Fig for a Kiss
Haste to the Wedding
Upper Church Polka
Patsy Geary’s
The Rambling Pitchfork
Tonra’s Jig
Fig for a Kiss
The Dusty Millar
Casadh an t-Sugaín
Kitty Gone a Milking
The Golden Eagle
Martin Wynne’s Reel
Dancing Eyes
Casadh an t-Sugaín
Kitty Gone a Milking
The Golden Eagle
Martin Wynne’s Reel
Dancing Eyes
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Download Mp3 of Dinky’s Reel.
Sample Sheet Music
Download Dinky’s Reel ABC Sheet Music.
Download Dinky’s Reel Standard Notation Sheet Music.
Sample mp3 of Dinky’s Reel
Your Tutor
Niamh Dunne is a highly accomplished singer, fiddler, and composer from Co. Limerick. She is a member of the world-renowned band Beoga, with whom she has toured extensively and recorded 3 CDs, including the Grammy short-listed “The Incident” in 2009. The Wall Street Journal describes them as “the most exciting new traditional band to emerge from Ireland this century.” They recently co-wrote and performed with singer Ed Sheeran on two songs on his new album ÷ (Divide), one of which, “Galway Girl”, has met with huge success reaching number 1 in Ireland’s download chart the week it was released and number 2 in the UK 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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