How to Begin Playing Irish Music on the Recorder

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By ACORN12
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Begin Playing Irish Music on the Recorder

Although the recorder is not a common instrument found in Irish sessions, its distinctive pure tone and versatility is well suited to Irish music. This article will give you tips on how to adapt your skills and playing style to the Irish genre and to develop as an Irish musician.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

A wooden recorder.
Recordings of classic Irish bands, Irish tin whistle players, flutists and pipers.
Sheet music covering the tunes in the standard Irish repetoire.

Step 1

The first step is to familiarize yourself with some of the common Irish tunes by ear. This can be through both recordings and by attending Irish sessions or performances. Begin to understand the difference between jigs, double jigs, slip jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas, marches, airs, and set dances and planxtys. Start becoming familiar with the modal nature of many of these tunes. Try the link below to listen to Irish music recordings and commentary.
Step 2

Begin learning some of the basic Irish repetoire by sheet music. A standard reference that most Irish musicians own is O'Neills Music of Ireland, which is a collection of over 2000 tunes (available through Amazon Books and at many music stores). I recommend, however, first looking for transcriptions that (unlike O'Neill's) omit the ornamentations. Refer to the web link below to access a large database of Irish session tunes.
Step 3

If you are playing a plastic recorder, I recommend upgrading to a wood instrument before playing in any sessions. Basic pearwood recorders for as little as $50 are of a surprisingly decent quality. Purchase a soprano recorder, which most closely matches the range of the tin whistle. If you have more money, boxwood, grenadilla, or ebony recorders work well for emulating the Irish sound. In my opinion, rosewood has too much of a baroque sound for session music, but is appropriate for the baroque influenced music of Turlough O' Carolan.
Step 4

Look for an Irish beginning or slow session in your area. Locations of beginning, intermediate and advanced sessions around the country can be found at the web link below. Before attending one of these as a player, familiarize yourself with the expected ettiquite at the below web link. Except for some of the slow sessions, bringing sheet music to play is generally frowned upon, so bring at least a few tunes you can play by heart.
Step 5

Begin working on your Irish sound. A common mistake made by recorder players initially coming from a classical background is to do too much tonging. Begin experimenting with Irish ornamentations such as the cut, the roll, the slide, and the triple tongue. Begin learning how to jump octaves. See if you can find an advanced Irish tin whistle player to show you these basic techniques. Each is adaptable to the recorder, however alternate fingerings for some notes may need to be found to facilitate some of these. There is no written source explaining Irish ornamentation for recorder that I know of, so a little experimentation will be necessary. A good resource for getting a taste of ornamentation applied to common tunes is "121 Favorite Irish Session Tunes." This includes sheet music and solo recordings on tin whistle of each tune first without, then with ornamentations. See the below web link for ordering information.
Step 6

Irish reels are often played at blazing speed in sessions. Don't let this intimidate you. Once you have memorized several Irish standard tunes, it will be only a matter of time before you learn to play them up to session speed. Begin developing your own playing style.
Step 7

Begin developing your own playing style. This includes developing your breath control to enhance the rhythm of your playing, and improving your phrasing.
Step 8

Listen carefully to new tunes at sessions and on recordings and start developing your ability to learn tunes by ear only. An understanding of the structure of various types of tunes will eventually allow you to retain many tunes after hearing only a few repetitions. Gradually you will find yourself learning more and more tunes in this way.
Step 9

Whenever you are planning your next trip, use the below web link to find, listen to and/or play in sessions in other regions of the United States, Ireland and Canada. You will find an abundance of regional playing styles and repetoires to enhance your understanding and personal playing style. Also consider attending any of several regional Irish music camps held annually throughout the United States. See the below web link for more information.