My Working Theory of Irish Music

I'm starting to see Irish music as a collection of melodies that use the notes D, E, F#, G, A, and B, and then either C or C#. Those notes will get you through about 90% of the tunes played at sessions. The tonal centers of these tunes are most of the time going to be D, G, A or E. Note that the tonal center is almost never going to be C, and yet that choice of  note - C or C# - can tell you a lot about the nature of the tune.

Tunes that sound major are more likely to have a tonal center of D or G. Of those, the ones that sound major and have G as the tonal center are going to have a C natural. The ones that sound major and have D as the tonal center might have either a C or a C#. You have to listen to find out which. The ones that sound minor are more likely to have either A or E as the tonal center. The minor sounding ones with A as the tonal center are going to have a C natural. The minor sounding ones with E as the tonal center are probably going to have C# in the melody.

Of course there are exceptions. There are a few tunes with an F natural note instead of F sharp. These are going to resolve to D and have a minor sound. And then there are some major sounding tunes with a G# instead of G natural. If it has a G# then it's also going to have a C# instead of C and will have A as the tonal center. Also there are some minor melodies with E as the tonal center and a C note instead of C#. 

Some things you can hear just by listening to the tune, even before you pick up your instrument. You can tell by listening if it's a standard AABB structure or not. That's usually the case but there are also 3-part and 4-part tunes. Does it sound major or minor? You can also pick up on repeated sections. For example, it's not unusual for the 2nd half of the B-part to be the same as the 2nd part of the A-part. That's something to listen for. 

Sometimes the 2nd time through either an A-part or a B-part will be different than the first time through. This is also something you can notice just by listening. Usually when this happens it's going somewhere or leading back into something else. You can also listen for scalar type things, like sequences of notes that sound like they are running a portion of a scale. Or when it goes up versus when it goes down. And patterns also - brief sections of the tune where some type of pattern is repeated. A pattern you might do as an exercise like jumping thirds but here it is plopped right in the middle of a tune. 

If you listen to a tune enough, and get the sound of it in your head, then when it comes time to learn it (or play it) you're not really learning it so much as you are composing it. If you can think the tune and know how it is supposed to sound then a portion of the work is already done. I like to pretend that I am "writing" a tune that sounds exactly like the tune I am trying to learn. 

After you've got the sound of the tune in your head, and maybe after you've tried to play along a few times with a recording, a fun exercise might be to turn on a metronome and make up a tune on the spot that, as far you can tell, sounds like the one in your mind. The metronome will keep you on pace and force you churn out a steady string of notes. Keep going back to the recording and the actual sound of the tune and whittle away at your "original" tune until the tune you composed and the tune that already exists are pretty much the same.

I like to put pencil to paper and notate the tune as I am learning it. Grab on to little sections and build from there. Maybe it's the first two measures and then the note that measure 4 lands on. What's going on between there? Where does it want to resolve and/or what's the tonal center? Does one phrase want to go away to an unresolved space, and then does the next phrase bring it back? Those can be like your stepping stones that help you get across the river without falling in. If you get a little wet so what? The more blanks you fill in, the more stones you will have to step on until you are walking on water.

It's good to get comfortable with the uncomfortable. Get comfortable with the trial and error as you translate a tune from your ear/mind to your fingers. Irish music is usually logical and efficient. Make note of how the tune is put together. The structure and the gist. If you are having trouble hearing a section, it's possible that the section is actually more fluid and sensible than you are making it out to be.

I learned the term mondegreen recently because Phish had a festival this summer called Mondegreen. A mondegreen is basically a mishearing of a phrase or lyric in which the listener supplies their own words that match the rhythm and syncopation of the original phrase. The term comes from writer Sylvia Wright who heard misheard the words in the balled "The Bonnie Earl of Moray". Sylvia heard "They hae slain the Earl Amurray, and Lady Mondegreen", when the actual words are "They hae slain the Earl Amurray, and laid him on the green". Hearing Prince sing "she wore a brass miracle ring" instead of "a raspberry beret" is another example!

Anyway, I bring up a mondegreen because in instrumental Irish music if what you are hearing or playing is not quite exactly right, but is the musical note equivalent of a mondegreen, then in my view it's getting pretty close. Then when you do actually look at the notation it's like reading along with the lyrics to the song that you can already sing along with. You might laugh at the (words) you got wrong.

You know how you can hear an old song on the radio, one you haven't heard for years, and suddenly sing along with it? I think that's kind of what an experienced Irish trad musician is doing when a random tune that they haven't played in a long time comes up in a session. They might not know the name of the tune but can recognize it and play along with it. That's where we're going with this. 

Irish Trad Music Practice - Five Things to Focus On

Here are five areas of focus for me at the moment.

Repertoire - learning/memorizing the common session tunes played locally.

Ear - learn more by listening than reading. Absorbing, hearing it in my head. And then repeating or mimicking that sound on my instrument.

Speed - work on getting up to session speed. I am currently much more comfortable at like 60 to 70% speed!

Sound Better - Pretty self explanatory. Try to sound better. This doesn't necessarily mean trying to sound like a typical Irish tenor banjo player. But just play in a way that sounds good. For example, relaxed with clear notes, less staccato.

High B - lots of Irish tunes go up to a high B note, which can be troublesome on a tenor banjo. I am working on being able to play these sections more smoothly. Occasionally, like in the case of the Star of Munster B-part, I might just learn it a whole octave lower. But for other tunes such as Cliffs of Moher or Maid Behind the Bar, that high-B might become achievable with enough practice.

Playing Irish Music - This Time's Gonna Be Different (?)

My first serious attempt to play Irish music took place from 2013 to 2017. I tried to familiarize myself with a previously unfamiliar type of music and memorize enough tunes so that I could attend sessions. The large repertoire of melodies you are supposed to have memorized, and the speed at which they are played can be a daunting task. I grew frustrated and quit.

Now, as of 2024, I'm revisiting Irish music (jigs, reels, hornpipes, slides, polkas, slip-jigs, barn dances, mazurkas...that kind of thing), but I'm going to try and go about it differently.

Spend less time tabbing - Instead of tabbing out tune after tune to put into a three-ring binder, I want to apply that time to listening and trying to mimic the sound of the tune on my instrument. Less visual, more aural. Or at least listen first, then try and write down what I am hearing and compare it to what it is supposed to be.

More focus on ear - When I quit playing Irish music, I turned my focus into creating my own little melodies, free from any genre or style. My method for "writing" a melody was actually a lazy version of transcribing. I would find something I liked, such as a melody from weird elevator music on Spotify or a melody Trey latched upon at minute 20 during a Phish jam, and then use that as the basis for creating a "new" tune. With no right or wrong and no written music to check my work, the more wrong I got it the more original the melody was. It turns out this might have been good ear training because I think I am better now at repeating a melody as I hear it.

No Old-time - During the years I was trying to learn Irish music I was also equally devoted to trying to get up to speed on old-time fiddle tunes, mostly on mandolin. This took me away from focusing exclusively on Irish music. My plan is to just stick to Irish music for now.

Irish Tenor Banjo primarily - My instrument of choice is a 4-string tenor banjo, set up left-handed and tuned GDAE one octave lower than a mandolin or violin. I no longer have a marimba, so I'm not going to get sidetracked trying to play that. I may occasionally still pluck out a melody on a guitar tuned in all 4ths (EADGCF), but the majority of my instrument time will be with the tenor banjo.

The Trailjams.org website - Jonathan Lay has done a fantastic job setting up, maintaining, and adding to Trailjams. Instead of having to hunt around for the audio or music to common Irish session tunes, Jonathan has assembled that all into one place so you can spend less time searching and more time actually learning. He even has the tunes arranged into sets of two or three that are then played at the local session he runs in Portland, OR. Previously, I never practiced playing sets or pairing tunes. 

When necessary Dots, not tab - Up 'til now my favorite way to play any melody was to play it while reading the (mandolin) tab. I've realized that if I need the music, chances are the tune is already shown in sheet music notation on the Trailjams website, so by getting more comfortable with reading the standard notation already there - AKA "the dots" - I can simply glance at this written transcription when I need clarity and have not have to take the time to translate it into tab.

Portland's Irish trad community - Now that I have relocated to the left coast, the session options are numerous. There's the Trailjams open session every Sunday afternoon at the Hostel Cafe in downtown Portland, another session every Tuesday at Cooper Mountain Ale Works in Tigard, and one every Thursday at the Dublin Pub in Beaverton. Plus, an occasional session at a brewery in Forest Grove about ten miles to the west of me. Lastly, Portland also has a slow-players tune-learning group called Tune Explorers that I hope starts up again. I missed it the first time around because I wasn't living here yet.

First 30 Days in Oregon - Top Things Done

Take a Trip to the Coast

Drove out to Tillamook and then went up the coast through Garibaldi, Rockaway Beach, Manzanita, and Cannon Beach on the way to Ecola State Park. Took in the views there and did a 3 mile loop hike. 

Ecola State Park

Go See Live Music

Saw a Jerry Garcia Band style cover band called Rhapsody in Red at the Laurelthirst Public House and the Phish cover band Shafty at The Get Down.

Attend a Professional Sports Game

Went to a Hillsboro Hops baseball game (High-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks) and also rooted for the Portland Thorns at Providence Park (National Women's Soccer League, NWSL).

Hillsboro Hops game

Sample Nearby Breweries

There are three breweries within walking distance: Three Mugs, Vertigo, and Mazama. It took less than a week to sample each of them!

Take the Train (light rail system)

The nearby Orenco MAX station makes it easy to hop on and go either west toward the actual town of Hillsboro or east to Beaverton downtown. Both of which are worthy destinations. Or take it farther east into the wilds of Portland!

Explore Local Parks

Have walked through Orenco Woods Nature Park, Noble Woods Park, Jenkins Estate Park, and Rood Bridge Park. All are close by. The best by far though has been Hoyt Arboretum in Portland. With 12 miles of beautiful trails this is a place I'll be returning to a lot.

Ride My Bike on the Rock Creek Trail

My bike arrived three weeks after I did, thanks to slow cross-country movers, but within time for me to ride it on the Rock Creek Trail during my first month in Oregon. The ride from my door to my sister-in-law's house is 4.5 miles, mostly along this paved path with a few road crossings along the way. There are a couple hills each direction that present a challenge for my single-speed, coaster brake bicycle, but so far I've been able to handle it.

Make it to Tomorrow's Verse, Portland's Phish-themed Brewery

Made it there once during the first 30 days. It was pretty cool. They had an acoustic duo playing so it was almost like a listening-room atmosphere that night. I'll be going back to watch some Phish summer tour 2024 webcasts for sure.

Check out the Nearby Restaurants

Let's see, within walking distance there's a Thai restaurant, a pizza place, a burger place, an awesome French-style bakery open for breakfast and lunch, a coffee shop that's open long hours, a neighborhood steakhouse, a sit-down Indian restaurant, a Lebanese eatery, a Japanese sushi and sake bar, and a Vietnamese pho house. Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I've been to five of these so far. And that's not even counting the other restaurants you can quickly get to using public transportation.

Scope Out Portland

We've been to the Laurelhurst, Bucktown, St. Johns and Beaumont-Wiltshire neighborhoods so far. Next on the list is the Mississippi Avenue District and the Hawthorne District. Find a city, find yourself a city to live in!

It's not supposed to be this hot!

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Cross Country Drive - Towns/Cities along the way

We recently did a cross country drive from Virginia to Oregon. We stayed approximately 16 hours in each of the following locations, half of which was spent sleeping. So here are some very superficial first impressions based on notes I took along the way.

Yellow Springs, Ohio

As if transient artisan hippie tailgate vendors from the Grateful Dead Shakedown Street matured and got together to form a town based on agreeable, utopian ideals. Very gay-friendly, Black-friendly, and welcoming overall. Surely an anomaly in Ohio. With many trails converging upon the town center and a bohemian aura, this would make a good place to live. Safe, pleasant residential streets for walking. Great for bicycles and for raising a kid. It might get a little boring in the long run. You could easily think you were in small-town Vermont instead of small-town Ohio.

Yellow Springs, OH

Davenport, Iowa

Blue collar, gritty and proud. Down to earth. No nonsense. Identity bound by being on the Iowa side of the Mississippi river. Slightly in decline? With a nice riverside walkway/bike path. It was VERY windy when we were there which may have influenced my perception. Davenport has an edge to it. Not much else to say.

Davenport, IA

Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Bigger and more cosmopolitan than you might think. Artsier than you might think. Lots of sculpture everywhere. Could be Anywhere, USA except for the river that runs right through the city center. Everything felt new as if the whole place received a face lift over the last 20 years as the population has boomed. Definitely a city on the way up. Started to see indigenous people as part of the demographic makeup. There was a lovely greenway from our Air BnB to downtown. And of course the Falls by which Sioux Falls gets its name were stunning! They've built a tremendous park around the Falls that we visited on a glorious morning. The Porter Sculpture Park about 30 miles west of the city is one of the best places I have ever been! 

Sioux Falls, SD

Deadwood, South Dakota

Situated in the mountains all the way across the state from Sioux Falls, you know that you're in "The West" by the time you reach Deadwood. We were there on a weekend when a rodeo and a sold out country music concert were happening in this little mountain town, so it was quite crowded at first. Later there was a mid-evening lull when most of the crowd went to either the rodeo or the concert. In Deadwood there are lots of saloons to go drinking in and see cowboys, but not that many places for eating anything beyond bar food. They lean into the Wild West, Wild Bill Hickok theme with re-enactments designed for tourists happening at a couple different locations. It's a very music oriented town with most bars playing a mix centered around Bocephus and Merle Haggard (or live musicians playing the same), which I was fine with. There's an awesome cemetery on a hill overlooking the town where Wild Bill and Calamity Jane are resting.

Deadwood, SD

Livingston, Montana

This was a quirky town that reminded me of Nederland, Colorado or Black Mountain, North Carolina. Very vibey with mountain vistas everywhere you look. Apparently it can very often be very windy here, but we caught it on a (somewhat rainy but) non-windy day. The locals (both humans and dogs) are friendly and engaging. I got the feeling that we could just live here and fit right in, although I am definitely not as rugged as the Montana people tend to be. Livingston had a cool town-center springing off of both Main Street and Park Street. A great spot!

Livingston, MT

Sandpoint, Idaho

Pedestrian-oriented, dog-friendly and on beautiful Lake Pend Oreille, Sandpoint has everything you might want from a small municipality. Second only to Yellow Springs for town most likely to see a person with dreadlocks. Or maybe first in that regard. We met some almost too-friendly locals who are more than happy to be your instant friend and/or guide or I don't know what. It seemed like a resort town where people with money from Spokane or Couer d'Alene are slightly at odds with those born and raised here. As a blow-in, I have nothing but positive things to say about Sandpoint. It would be a swell place to return to if the 7-hour drive from Oregon to there wasn't across such a dry, dusty, windy part of the country! 

Sandpoint, ID

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My Ten Favorite Songs

I created a Spotify playlist to listen to while driving across the country from Virginia to Oregon. I don't know how many songs it has on it, but the playlist is over 38 hours long! This large collection of favorite songs by my favorite artists got me to thinking about what my ten favorite songs might be. So I went through the playlist and jotted down the names of songs that I thought might be candidates for the top ten. This initial run-thru came out to over 30 songs. So then I whittled it away to these final ten.

Half Moon Rising by Yonder Mountain String Band, from the album Elevation.

Brown Eyed Women by The Grateful Dead. Pretty much any version, but I guess the Europe '72 version is the standard.

Windfall by Son Volt from the album Trace. It could have also been Tear Stained Eye from the same CD.

Tangled Up in Blue. This is a Bob Dylan song, but I'm specifically thinking of the Jerry Garcia Band version from the 1991 live album entitled Jerry Garcia Band.

Galway Girl by Steve Earle from the album Transcendental Blues. 

What Deaner was Talking About by Ween from the Ween album Chocolate and Cheese.

To Live is to Fly. This is a Townes Van Zandt song, but I'm thinking of the Cowboy Junkies cover of this song found on their Black Eyed Man CD.

Good Guys and Bad Guys by Camper Van Beethoven from the album Camper Van Beethoven.

Ginseng Sullivan. This is a Norman Blake song and I love Norman's version from his album Back Home in Sulphur Springs. Of equal status is the Tony Rice take found on Manzanita. However, I would be omitting a primary booster of this song if didn't give Mike Gordon from Phish credit. I first heard Phish do it on a bootleg CD of their 12/31/93 show from Worcester, MA. I was already familiar with Norman Blake's music at the time and this connection sealed the deal!

Paradise by John Prine from his album John Prine. Honorable mention to every single other song from that same LP!


I must also list these five runner ups: A Horse in the Country by Cowboy Junkies, Golden by My Morning Jacket, Just Before the Evening by Leftover Salmon (Drew Emmitt), Truck Stop Girl by Little Feat (Lowell George), Desolation Row by Bob Dylan (as played by the Grateful Dead with Bobby spewing out the lyrics!), and In Tall Buildings by John Hartford.

Back to the ten favorite...I didn’t want to repeat artists, however the Grateful Dead/Jerry Garcia could have easily had a couple more besides Brown Eyed Women. Ship of Fools or Mission in the Rain, for example. 

Lastly, my favorite band is Phish. Phish is known for jamming more than songwriting, so I didn't want to fluff the list or undermine its credibility by arbitrarily including a Phish song in my list of ten favorite songs. But it wouldn't have been arbitrary. Evening Song, Friday, and All of These Dreams were all strong contenders. Yes, even Friday! Last word.

The Five Oregon Jambands I'm Most Excited About Seeing

Before I list the five Oregon bands that I'm most excited about seeing, I'd like to list ten bands that I would have been excited about seeing almost 25 years ago.

In 1999 I moved from Richmond, VA to Longmont, CO. Longmont is near Boulder and also not far away from Denver or Fort Collins. Music was thriving in Colorado at that time, and I'm sure it still is. At any point during the year 2000, my list of ten favorite bands to see live would have likely been these ten acts:

Phish, moe., String Cheese Incident, Yonder Mountain String Band, Leftover Salmon, Dark Star Orchestra, Sound Tribe Sector 9 (or just Sector 9 back then), The Big Wu, Strangefolk, and Ween.

This is still a few years before I would learn about My Morning Jacket. Anyway, except for Ween this is a pretty jamband-centric list. Before long I ended up moving back to Virginia and have the spent the last 20+ years here.

Of the above mentioned groups, the only local-to-Colorado bands were Leftover Salmon, String Cheese Incident and Yonder Mountain String Band, with YMSB being the most local of the three. When I first began seeing the Jeff Austin-led Yonder in October 1999, the jamgrass quartet was only about a year old and still playing small local venues such as Wolf Tongue in Nederland, Mountain Sun in Boulder, and Oskar Blues in Lyons. Good times. 

Now it's now all over again, and with a move to the PDX metro area just a few weeks away, these are the five young Oregon bands I am most excited about seeing!:

Spunj - To me Spunj sounds like they are at Eggy or Magic Beans level. Maybe even better! Spunj kicks ass and I can't wait to see them live.

Bodhi Mojo - Earthy and hippie with an emphasis on song structure. Their annual campout festival looks great!

Yak Attack - Instrumental organic jam. Might take me back to the days of seeing Sector 9 at Tulagi in Boulder.

Lost Ox - Maybe the most psychedelic of this bunch.

Shafty - Portland's own Phish cover band.

These five are all different breeds of jambands, and most seem to embrace that identity. Spunj is actually from Eugene but I'm willing to make an overnight out of it if necessary. 

Things are different now than they were 25 years ago. For one thing I'm 50 years old and much less likely to stay out late on a weeknight, much less a weekend. A couple beers at a walking distance from home brewery and in bed by 9pm is more my style now. But I'm hoping to find some of that same youthful energy that I had back in Colorado all those years ago so that I can check out these bands in their natural environments. 

Being near Portland will also offer the opportunity to see touring acts in a brand new setting. For example, Jake Xerxes Fussell at Mississippi Studios in Portland. Other music-oriented hangouts include The Goodfoot, The Get Down, Laurelthirst Public House, The Landmark Saloon, various McMenamins branded places, and the Phish-themed Tomorrow's Verse brewery. 

Lots to check out!

The Five Albums with the Biggest Influence on my Musical Taste

 

Grateful Dead - Reckoning

Phish - Junta

Yvonne Casey - Yvonne Casey

Sun Ra - Lanquidity

Tommy Guerrero - Lifeboats and Follies

Honorable Mention - Five More

Ween - The Mollusk

My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves

John Prine - John Prine

Grant Green - Blue Breakbeats

Tony Rice - Manzanita

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Special Addendum - Must Add Two More

Merle Haggard - Back to the Barrooms

Culture - Two Sevens Clash

Ten Reasons Why Irish Music is the Right Choice (the Only Choice) for Me

If I was going to focus on one style of music to play it would have to be Irish music. In fact, I've come to the conclusion that Irish music might be the only choice for me. I'll be moving to the Portland, Oregon area in a few months and in anticipation of that I've been trying to get back into playing Irish tenor banjo. I haven't played much Irish music since 2018 but it's starting to come back. Here are some reasons why I think Irish music is/was the right choice in the first place and will the best choice going forward.

All Melody All The Time

If you play one of the melody instruments, such as I do, then in most situations you just play the melody in unison with the other instruments doing the same thing. You don’t have to solo or play chords. You just play the tune…same as the violin, tin whistle, concertina, accordion, flute, et cetera.



No Chords or Soloing
I’ve tried and failed to learn chords many times over. I will never be a New Orleans style tenor banjo player. I completely understand how chords are formed from a theory perspective, but that doesn’t mean that I know what the chord changes should be for any song in the world. So, it’s a relief not having to think about chords in that way. Also, I have no interest in soloing like people do in bluegrass or jazz, therefore it’s another relief that in traditional Irish music sessions you don’t have to ever solo.



My Instrument is one of the Instruments
I play tenor banjo. There are two main styles of music that the tenor banjo is a part of: New Orleans jazz and Irish trad. Of those two, Irish trad is the only viable option for me. While the banjo is often made fun of, it is also generally considered an acceptable instrument for participating in an Irish session. More accepted than showing up with a saxophone would be.

A Welcoming Community
If you understand the etiquette and how to interact with others, then your local Irish trad community can be a fairly built-in social group to be a part of. It’s a pretty insular crew and once you prove yourself to not be completely ignorant you are usually made to feel welcome simply because of your common interest. It’s sometimes more about your ability to hang than it is about your ability to play.

A Common Repertoire
Once you become familiar with the repertoire, the style, and the etiquette, you can pretty much go to any open Irish session and find common ground. At least that’s been my experience. Especially sessions that are accepting of learners/beginners.

The Music is Available in Tab and Notation
Those who can pick up tunes by ear definitely have an advantage, but the music to any well known Irish tune is going to be available for free online. You can usually also find it in mandolin tab, which works for Irish tenor banjo. Plus, it’s easy to find audio examples of almost any tune several times over so that you never have to just rely on the audio alone or the notation alone.

A Variety of Time Signatures and Rhythms
It’s not just 4/4 time. There are also jigs, slip jigs, polkas, and slides. Barn dances, marches, and hornpipes have a different feel as well. You cover a decent variety that way and get to play in time signatures that some genres completely ignore.

Play Alone or in a Group Setting
In Irish music the tune is the tune. One instrument playing the tune makes it complete. So it’s a great style of music for the hobbyist who plays tunes at home by themself. Of course in a group setting you have to listen closely and keep time with the other instruments, but what you played or learned at home by yourself (should) easily translate when playing along with other people.

Non-Performance
Irish music is often played in public settings, but having participated in this environment I can tell you it doesn’t feel the same as performing for an audience on a stage as part of a band. For the part that I’m able to play along with - the instrumental tunes - the circle would be doing it the same whether there was anyone listening or not. The occasional song might break out and that may be the closest it gets to a performance, but in that case I am going to be sitting back and taking a break from playing. It’ll never be me signing the song!

The Tunes Themselves are the Practice
Once you get the basics down, the practice can be as simple as learning the tunes and building up speed playing them. There’s no need to work through a bunch of scales, etudes or exercises. In Irish music the learning and playing of the tunes usurps these other forms of preparation.

The Limitation of it Being a Specific Thing
There’s something to be said about limitations. Within the world of Irish music, there are hundreds of tunes you could learn, but for the most part a reel is a reel, a jig is a jig, and so on. It becomes less overwhelming when you view it as a specialty and hone in on the traditional repertoire. I can finally say "I play Irish tenor banjo" and leave it at that.

It’s Fairly Entry Level - You can be self taught
Some might disagree, but the fact that I can play it is proof that it is fairly entry level. It’s pretty much the only “genre” or option that I have for playing music. Anything else would be out of my depth, but Irish music I can kind of grasp. And yes, I’ve had some lessons but really for the most part you can learn it all yourself. It doesn’t require an understanding of music theory or even how to read music. In my case, I like to look at the music and I like knowing about modes such as Dorian and Mixolydian, but you don’t need any of that to play the music.

AABB - Consistent Structure
There might be hundreds of tunes, but many of them follow an AABB structure, meaning a two-part tune. Play the A-part (first part) twice and then play the B-part (second part) twice. 16 bars each. Twice through the A-part and twice through the B-part equals one time through the tune. Play through the tune a total of three times and there you have it. I think this consistency stems from the music being of service to dancers who require this format.

It’s Non-Electric
No fussing with cables, pedals, amplifiers, microphones and so on. You just play your instrument!

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