What we’re about
We are a learning session for beginning to intermediate players of various traditional and non-traditional instruments to learn and develop our ability to play new and familiar Irish and Scottish traditional tunes, and learn the etiquette and various techniques needed to participate in a traditional Irish session.
We are all learning together and welcome everyone, but intermediate/advanced players who have a great deal of experience with Irish sessions, or who are experts with their instruments should bring their patience and be willing to support new players.
Advanced players who wish to create a more standard Irish/Scottish session in the Sacramento area are invited to join the group and contact the group facilitator to get help organizing such events.
Participants should bring their own instruments, a music stand and have some familiarity with their instruments and either know how to read music, or to play by ear. Participants should also be prepared to learn about traditional Irish/Scottish music specifically. Some familiarity with Irish/Scottish music will be helpful, since the session isn't "free form" but is a learning session designed to help participants prepare for Irish traditional music sessions. We are developing a tune list, and current tunes are listed here:
Sacramento Learning Session Tunes
Here is a link to a website that has many of these tunes recorded at a slower tempo, with similar sheet music so learners can play along for practice:
https://slowplayers.org/
Once we have developed a crew of people with a strong grasp of a good repertoire of tunes, we can branch off to create a more traditional Irish session. More advanced players who wish to create a more traditional session right away may contact to help organize such a group as well.
Someone who has grown their own Irish music session has provided an extensive list of common tunes to help support us. I provide that link here for reference, so we can discuss when/how/if we incorporate these tunes into our list. In the Democratic nature of our group, however, I'm not going to impose this list, since I strongly feel personal interest should also motivate the growth of our tune list as well.
Thanks!
Upcoming events (1)
See all- Learning SessionThe Strum Shop, Roseville, CA
Learning Session.
To help us build our repertoire and skills at playing together, we have opted to focus on eight songs from the tune list linked below. We recently added a tune, a "reel," but a step out of "traditional" Irish tunes, "Whiskey before breakfast". More than one of us has heard this old standard at an Irish session or two, depending on how flexible the groups are. The current list is:
Cooley’s Reel (Reel)
Miss McLeods (Reel)
Whiskey Before Breakfast (Reel)
Drowsy Maggie (Reel)
The Maid Behind the Bar (Reel)
The Boys of Bluehill (Hornpipe)
The Road to Lisdoonvarna (Slip Jig)
Kesh Jig (Jig)
Swallowtail Jig (Jig)
Blarney Pilgrim (Jig)
Banish Misfortune (Jig)
Donnybrook Fair (Jig)
Ingonish (Jig)Tunes linked below:
Sacramento Learning Session Tunes
We will try to create some sets at some point. Which ones will be created together when we know the tunes well enough.
We are a group of learners supporting one another’s musical growth and knowledge of Celtic tunes. Advanced musicians should be aware and bring their patience as well as their instruments. Newer musicians welcome, but we aren't instructors, we are all learning together to develop our playing skills so we can participate in Irish Sessions.
