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.
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