- 13 lessons teaching how to accompany 13 very 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
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.
Banjo Progressions bridges the gap between Banjo Foundations and Irish Tenor Banjo Technique. So you’ll be expected to be familiar with the tenor banjo and ready to dive right into some serious ornamentation and styling. Don’t worry though, you’re in good hands and have a lovely repertoire with which to practice these exciting new techniques.
By the end of the 13-lesson course, you’ll have renewed your banjo inspiration with some serious techniques that you’ll be able to carry over to almost any tune.
Course Structure
This course is comprised of a highly detailed series of 13 lessons, each featuring one or two specific techniques, broken down in a clear concise way.
Each lesson begins with the tune being played as it naturally would be played in a session. The tutor then demonstrates and discusses the technique relevant to the tune before going on to teach the tune phrase by phrase. At the end of each lesson, the tune is played slowly with the focus on the technique that was taught in the lesson. Each lesson is structured in this way to carefully flesh out the tune and the corresponding highlighted techniques, ultimately bringing them together in such a way as to not only train you in being able to play the technique but to train your ear to be able to recognise and incorporate them at the most optimal moments in a tune. In this way, you can begin to develop your own style of playing.
Using the 13 different tunes (listed below), the following techniques will be covered:
How to use triplets to imitate rolls
Fitting triplet runs into a tune
Chromatic triplets
Sliding up the fret for colour and effect
How to use pull-offs to mimic cuts and rolls
Trill effects on the banjo – a legato embellishment
Using the fourth finger for the sixth fret
Consecutive downstrokes for Polka rhythm
Double stops
Position shifts
Scotch snaps
The traditional Irish tunes taught are:
Dan Breen’s Reel
Cooley’s Jig
Cucanandy Hop jig
The Geese in the Bog (Old Version)
The Glenties Mazurka
Bere Island Reel
The Curlew Hills Barndance
Cooley’s Jig
Cucanandy Hop jig
The Geese in the Bog (Old Version)
The Glenties Mazurka
Bere Island Reel
The Curlew Hills Barndance
Ballydesmond Polka
Tom McElvogue’s Slip Jig
The Ships in Full Sail
Farewell to Whiskey
Tribute to Larry Reynolds
The Killarney Wonder Schottishe
Sample Sheet Music
Download Dan Breen’s ABC Sheet Music.
Download Dan Breen’s Reel Standard Notation Sheet Music.
Sample mp3 of Dan Breen’s Reel
Your Tutor
Alan Reid, from North County Leitrim in Ireland, is a highly-adept multi-instrumentalist. His banjo, bouzouki, mandolin, and oud playing has seen him work extensively in both performance and recording settings, as well as making a movie appearance in the 2014 movie ‘Noble’. Alan also featured on the compilation CD ‘Leitrim Equation 3’, where he recorded duets with highly-acclaimed Irish musicians Donal Lunny and John Carty. 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
