The traditional music of Ireland has been handed down over several centuries, though new tunes have been continually added along the way as each generation of musicians makes their contribution to the repertoire. Traditional Irish music includes both vocal and instrumental music. At our school we are currently focusing on the instrumental ensemble music, which was primarily written to accompany solo or social dancing. The tunes are given names like reels, hornpipes, jigs, waltzes, polkas, and mazurkas based on the type of dance steps they were written to accompany.
Traditional Irish music is played on a variety of acoustic instruments including violin/fiddle, flute, tin whistle, guitar, mandolin, tenor banjo, piano, accordion, concertina, bodhrán (Irish frame drum), harp, and uilleann pipes (the Irish form of bagpipes). It is performed sometimes for listening, sometimes to accompany dancing, and sometimes just for the fun of it![/vc_toggle][vc_toggle title=”Who can join the Irish Youth Band?” open=”false”]
The North Texas School of Irish Music accepts students aged 6 and up. Although what we do at NTSIM is often particularly interesting to families with Celtic heritage, the NTSIM is open to all students of any ethnic background. All that is required is an interest in Irish music!
Many of our students are in middle school band or orchestra and are looking for something fun to augment their music studies, and also a chance to play in a smaller ensemble where they can be more easily heard.
Each class starts with learning a new tune. The music is taught by ear in the class, but audio or video recordings and sheet music will be available to the students after the class for follow-up and review at home. During the class, the tune will be broken down into sections, and each section repeated until most of the students have it. Teaching by ear is part of the Irish music tradition, and it’s a skill that improves with practice. So if a student has had no experience with this learning method, no worries– even if he or she can only pick up part of the tune in the class, they can work on it more at home using the recordings provided.
After we work on the new tune for each class, we will spend the rest of the class time reviewing and polishing the tunes learned in previous classes. By the end of the year, our intermediate/advanced groups will have learned 10 tunes, and our beginner group will have learned 7 or 8.
Ensemble playing is very different than playing solo. Things like timing, rhythm, and tempo all become very important. When you play as a group in this type of performance you don’t have a conductor leading you, so students must all learn how to work together and stay at the same tempo. Also, Irish music is played with a variety of rhythmic subtleties that don’t translate well to written music. Each type of tune has distinctive rhythmic and stylistic features. We will be talking about this in the classes as we polish the tunes, and students can work on imitating these style elements using the recordings at home.