I was wondering if anyone knew of the best place to get sheet music for irish music? It would help also if they had ornamentation on them but I don't know if that is possible.
Any ideas?
Yerusha

I know that The Whistle Shop has quite a few books of Irish Tunes... many with CD's so you can hear the tune being played by others.

As far as ornimentation goes... do you prefer to buy Christmas trees already decorated? Do painters buy canvas that already has painting on it? Do you like to choose your clothing, or would you prefer that somebody else tell you what to wear? Then why would you want a publisher to tell you how to play a piece of music?

Most "Irish Tunes" are simple folk melodies that have been passed down the generations - many time by ear. Ornaments are there for you to express yourself. They allow you to personalize the piece while still keeping the melody in tact.

Play the music clean, and think about where you'd want to put some ornamentation. Some people are minimalists, and add only a few flourishes; then there are those who embellish the music so much that you can't tell what the original tune was. Neither performer is wrong, they're just adding their tastes to the music. Please, let the music reflect you - not the guy who put it on paper.

Music is Expression... Express yourself! Now, go eat a plum!

Oh, I can't believe I forgot this... you want free music? Go to http://www.tinwhistler.com. He's got soooo much free music on his website, that you'll be playing for hours.

Listen to his mp3's. He loves to Ornament his music and it'll help give you ideas on how to ornament yours.

Now go eat Orange, just wash your mouth out before playing...

Here are a few to get you started:

http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Info/RRTun ... utput=html

http://fingertrip.net/

http://www.guitarnut.com/folktablature/index.html

http://www.jigs-n-reels.com/

Here's my ...
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<b>Tune Links</b>:
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<a href=http://www.barnsdesigns.co.uk/tdixon-music/order-form.htm>Tony Dixon Music - Traditional Music</a><br><a href=http://ecf-guest.mit.edu/~jc/music/abc/FindTune.html>JC's ABC Tune Finder </a><br><a href=http://www.RedBrick.dcu.ie/~tradsoc/archive/>Music Archive -DCU TradSoc</a><br><a href=http://www.verinet.com/~ktcrumb/tunes/index.php3>Irish Tin Whistle Sound Files </a><br><a href=http://www.ceolas.org/tunes/#pdf>Tunes at Ceolas</a><br><a href=http://members.aol.com/boynehunt/ceili.html>Ceili House Band Home Page</a><br><a href=http://home.sol.no/~fnordber/MV/links/celtic.html>Musica Viva: The Free Sheet Music Directory</a><br><a href=http://www.contemplator.com/folk.html>Folk Music of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and America</a><br><a href=http://services.worldnet.net/~pybertra/ceol/tunes.htm> Ancient Irish Tunes</a><br><a href=http://rigel.csuchico.edu/%7Epubscout/songs.html>Pub Scout's Tunes</a><br><hr>
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If your looking for a tune that you have a title for JC's is the best starting point. They often have several versions of each tune with midi, gif, and abc formats. The midi's let you listen to the tune and identify by ear the song your looking for. The GIF format provides standard notation and the ABC format is great for quick sheets and imports into transcription software.

Hope this helps and ...



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Enjoy Your Music,<br><br><b>Lee Marsh</b><br>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: LeeMarsh on 2001-06-29 12:46 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: LeeMarsh on 2001-06-29 12:47 ]</font>

Another good site <a href="http://www.irishtunes.net">Irish Tunes</a> and of course <a href="http://www.sessioneer.com">Sessioneer </a>

Dave.

http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/
This site gives you the sheet music as a GIF, ABC, MIDI, or, my favorite, pennywhistle tablature.

It's not all Irish music, but who can pass up the opportunity to learn The Man Who Blows Up Railroad Trains for Trotsky on the pennywhistle?



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<small>A blowpipe is a universal mystery, methinks.
~Mega HAL</small>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: LittleMy on 2001-06-29 15:46 ]</font>

It's a good exercise to experiment with putting ornamentation into basic tunes, but it's also very instructive to see written ornamentation and try it out for a feel of what the pro's are doing, also.

A super source for free online sheet music (early, classical, traditional) is:

http://www.musicaviva.com

You can spend many fun days on this site. Here's that site's webpage for Irish tunes:

http://www.musicaviva.com/tunebook/list ... untry&no=1

(Alternatively, to get to this page, enter the site, click on the Free Sheet Music link, then click on The Tunebook, then select music by country.)

Just select a likely tune and up pops a page with the score (you can print that page and thus have score in hand - very much like C&F's Tune-o-matic). You can also hear a midi version of the tune to see if you like it (for those who can't hear scores simply by looking at the notes - like me).

Yes, the tradition is aural. But thank God, for those who can't play by ear, a written form of communicating music was invented. Don't think any the less of yourself if you start with written notes and work toward self-expression from there!!

Now, have some toast & marmite, then floss well and go get 'em!

FE

One of my favorite sites for both GIF and MIDI forms is the Kitchen Musician
http://members.aol.com/kitchiegal/kmmusic4.html
This is a hammer dulcimer site so many of the tunes are in the keys of D or G - friendly keys for the hammer dulcimer. :roll

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: BobP on 2001-06-30 21:26 ]</font>

I have two tune books available in .pdf format at:

http://www.michaeleskin.com

Click on the Irish Music page, there are two tune books I put together for our local pub sessions.

Cheers,

Michael Eskin