Buttercup Karaoke

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

First Session in 2017

First Session in 2017

We went out to the Celtic Times Session on Thursday night last week. Good fun, about fifteen attended, mix of drum/harpsichord/fiddle/guitar/whistle. We both had our fiddles, and gave it a try. They all were very welcoming, and it was a seven dollar cover.

Songs that we could play included:

Sunny's Mazurka
Stitches in Britches
Road to Listernverda
The Butterfly

Ones to learn:

Cooley's Reel
Morrisons
SwallowTail
Silver Spear
The Blackthorn Stick
Wave over Wave
The Baneshee

Working on it!

Friday, March 17, 2017

Another Jig Will Do

Another Jig Will Do -- the first in alphabetical order on Session Tunes recommended tunes to know to fully enjoy sessions.

Here are several youtube versions. I'm going to practice for a few weeks and then make my own video.

Recommended starting session tunes.

Session Tunes in Alphabetical Order:

Another Jig will do

Bank of Ireland

Battering Ram

Behind the Haystack ...D

Blackthorn Stick

Bobby Casey's

Boyne Hunt

Boys of Blue Hill....D

Boys of Wexford

Brenda Stubbert's

Butterfly...Em

Chicago Reel

Chief O'Neils Favorite.....D

Clifs of Moher.....Am

Collier's

Concertina Reel

Congress Reel....Am

Cannaughtman's Rambles.....D

Convenience Reel

Cooley's Reel......Em

Crabs in the Skillet

Cup of Tea...Em

Dennis Murphy's Slide

Dick Gossip.......D

Dingle Regatta

Dinky's.......Am

Docherty's

Doctor Gilbert's...Em

Drowsy Maggie......Em

Drunken Landlady.....Em

Dust on the Windowsill......Am

Earl's Chair

Egan's Polka......D

Far from Home......G

Faral O' Gara

Farewell to Ireland

Father Kelly's Foggy Dew......Em

Foxhunter's reel....G

Frieze Britches

Garret Barry's

Gravel Walk....Am

Hardiman the Fiddler

Harvest Home......D

Haste to the Wedding......D

High Reel

Home Rule/Hangman's Noose.......D

Humours of Tulla

Hunter's House....G

Hunter's Purse

Hunting the Hare

Jackie Coleman's......D

Jenny's Chickens

Jig of Slurs

Julia Delaney......Dm

Kid on the Mountain.......Em

Kilarney Boys of Pleasure

King of the Fairies

Lark in the Morning.....D

Longford Collector

Love at the Endings......D

Maid Behind the Bar......D

Martin Wynnes 1 &2

McMahon's(The Banshee).......G

Monaghan's jig......Em

Mooncoin

Morning Dew........Em

Morning Star...G

Morrison's jig.......Em

Mountain Road........D

Mug of Brown Ale

Musical Priest

My Darling Asleep........D

Nine Points of Roguery

O'Keef's Slide

Off to California.......D

Old Copperplate

Out on the Ocean...D

Paddy on the Turnpike

Plains of Boyle

Providence reel

Rights of Man.......Em

Road to Lisdoonvarna.......Em

Rocky Road to Dublin.......D

Rolling in the Ryegrass........D

Rose in the Heather

Sailor's Bonnet

Saint Annes's reel........D

Salamanca reel

Sally Gardens reel.......G

Scholar, the

Sculley's Reel.......D

Sean Ryan's jig(the Banshee)

Shaskeen

Ships are sailing........Em

Silver Spear

Silver Spire

Sligo Maid

Star of Munster......Am

Swinging on a Gate.........G

Tarbolton.......Em

Temperence(Tee-Totaler's)Reel....G

Ten Penny Bit

Tobin's Favorite.......D

Top of Cork Road(Father Kelly's)

Toss the Feathers

Tripping up the Stairs......D

The Virginia

Walker Street reel.......G

Wind that Shakes the Barley.......D

Session Tunes, Most Common

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Vancouver Jams List 2016

In case anyone is looking for more advanced/longstanding jam sessions, here you go~ Folk Jam keeps a current list.

First River Jam Session 2016

September 29, 2016

First Fraser River Jam Session for Beginners.

Never been to a jam before? Want to get out to a session but unsure what goes on/if your skill level would suit? Come out to our jam! Geared for beginners and those who are still learning, featuring easily played group songs and repetition at various speeds to help get the ear up to speed too. Basically, the seed of this is a bunch of friends who have had that instrument in their closets for too long without any social way of playing it. We are Making Things Happen.

Guitars, drum, viola, voice, <insert portable non-electric instrument here>, tin whistle welcome. Mainly fiddlers right now though.

We play in a picturesque clearing beside the Fraser River, once a month, and sometimes at the VPL downtown when we want to record our sessions/the weather is bad.

This session is about having fun, practicing our skills, and learning to let go a little to enjoy the tunes instead of getting all cranked about not being "good enough" to play with other people. Tune types include Irish tunes, geek tunes, Greek tunes, and general horsing around.

Tunes that we tackle to follow.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Practiced AND remembered to blog about it.

Today was a good practice day!

Started with scales of D G C major/minor, then triads.

Launched into Stitches and Britches for three rounds, then Paddy McFadden twice and Road to Lis'ten'verda once. Tried different speeds.

Tried Mary's Wedding without a refresher, then with it at various tempos. Fixed a crappy note progression I had misremembered, and then played around with phrasing.

Stretched and shook hands.

Bowing Exercises!

Then theory practise as I tried to transcribe one of the conservatory testing peices from grade 4 piano to be played on the fiddle. Got a LOT frustrated because the phrasing for piano isn't designed to have to think about when to shift strings, let alone be in a key that I can do it all from first position rather than the harder bit of switching up to second. Gave up. Just finished some positive self talk, and will try again tomorrow.

Feeling cautiously pleased with myself.

Still haven't made it out to the new live sessions. One day.

Also thinking about starting a slow session down at the VPL, once a month? The problem would be it would have to be on a weekend, or a weekday morning, because spending that kind of time not at home on a workday is not okay when you have pets.

Ah well, another day a little more gained.