Music
The building blocks of Irish music are our stepping stones.
Music
- Music Basics — Kinds of music used with Irish dancing.
- Irish Instruments — Instruments used with Irish dancing.
Additional Resources
Luckily, Irish music is far more diverse than Irish dance music would have you believe. Check out the following resources for more information on traditional Irish music.
General
- Answers.com: Music of Ireland — Fantastic comprehensive article.
- What is Irish Traditional Music? — Definitions and characteristics of Irish traditional music by the Irish Traditional Music Archive’s official website.
- Ceolas — Ceolas houses the largest online collection of information on Celtic music, and has links to hundreds of related sites.
- The Session — The exchange of tunes is what keeps traditional Irish music alive. This website is one way of passing on jigs, reels and other dance tunes.
Organizations
- Comhaltas — Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann is the largest group involved in the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music.
Instruments
- Celtic Music Instruments — Ceolas.org has a wonderful resource page for Celtic instruments, including descriptions of many, many instruments and links to other related websites.
- The Chieftains: Instruments — A look at Irish instruments via The Chieftains' official website.
- The Instruments of Irish Folk Music — While the background makes the information hard to read, this web page offers good information.
- Irish Traditional Musical Instruments — Murphy Roche, a Chicago-area Irish traditional musical session group and school, offers an informative page on their website illustrated with photos for each instrument.
Tin Whistle
- Fordham University’s Introduction to the Tin Whistle — Video lessons by feis musician Ryan Duns
- Whistle This! — The world’s largest group whistle lesson. Hear a tune—get the music. Learn the tune—make it your own. Share the tune—upload your recording.
- Whistle Tutor — As you might have guessed, this site focuses on teaching Irish traditional music on the tin whistle. The beginner tin whistle tutorials are done in Macromedia Flash, RealAudio/RealVideo, and Windows Media, so you need to have those plug-ins installed in your web browser in order to use the lessons.