Hello. This site contains recordings I have made as a source of tunes for people who play the flute, or other instruments for that matter. They are often just versions of tunes as I remember them but, as my memory isn’t the best, in some cases I cheat and find the dots online. As often as not, the online versions and the dots inside my head aren't quite the same so there may be a sort of 'average' appearing.

I usually play the tunes once through slowly (ish) to make them easier to learn, then I have a bit of a run at them to give another view of them. I hope this approach is OK. If anyone has any comments, or tune suggestions, please get in touch ([email protected]).

Thanks, Michael Clarkson (Belfast). 

Here's a nice tune from a nice county (you can probably work out which county from the sentence below).

It's named after the Fermanagh flute player on the right in the photo below (you can probably work out his name from the title above) and was popularised by Cathal McConnell, who is also in the photo (you can probably work out what side he's on from the side that's already been used up by the flute player whose name you hopefully worked out a minute ago).

More info here.

The way I'm playing this tune here is probabably about as reliable as the average Harlequin. Nice tune though.

More info here

And a more competent rendition here

I don't know anything about this tune apart from how it goes, or sort of how it goes. I do know some Jimmies and have met an O'Reilly or two, but that probably doesn't give me much to base a tune blurb on here. So there'll be no blurb. Enough to say that I like this tune because it never quite goes how I'd expect it to.

The session.org has some (occasionally strange) versions here.

Here's a reel composed by Charlie Lennon, who made up lots of great tunes. He had the ability to make a new tune sound like it had been there for years, thanks to his imagination combined with having heard thousands of traditional tunes thousands of times each over tens of years. Unlike Charlie Lennon, loads of people make up tunes all the time just relying on the imaginatioin bit. Leaving out the ex-perience factor rarely leads to anything useful. Thankfully this tune was made by someone who knew how. Sorry if the playing here lacks similar savvy. 

The "session.org" setting

(Here's a picture of a beartán of land. A spleotán would have been too big.)

Here's a tune written by the concertina player William Mullaly (1884 - ca.1955) from Mullingar.

I was reminded of it by a recording of the recently departed fantastic musician Charlie Harris. That recording, along with a recording of William Mullaly himself playing it in the extreme olden days, is available here: The Drunraney Lass on "The Session".

The tune reminds me of "The Lark on the Strand". I'm not sure whether that Lark's egg came before or after this particular Drunraney chicken.

Here's a tune I learned from a recording of the Chicago fiddle player Johnny McGreevy. The session.org call it "By Golly". I was  surrprised to see "By Golly" written on the "session" site without an exclamation mark. So surprised that I nearly said "OMG!!!!!!!!!!". 

There's more information about the tune and the Jimmy Neary (and it's played properly!) at https://connollymusiccollection.bc.edu/document/457.

I might have posted this tune under a different name in the days before AI, but here it is anyway, along with computer generated triplets in the picture below, to go with the flute generated ones in the recording. Sorry if the notation is a bit truncated and twisted. That's all my free Chatgpt account would give me. The rest of the notes are here: Wexford Lasses notation.

Here's a second post for this Olympic-length posting period. A sensible reel without much musical tautology. Rare enough in our times.

My new (cheap) phone can't seem to handle anything louder than a sigh so the recording is a bit distorted. No harm: I can hide my dodgy tone behind the buzzing. I've been keeping my flute and my mouth in a cupboard for over 9 years so rich resonances are rare in my reels. Or in anything else I do.

John Egan's Reel (thesession.org)

I was just reminded yesterday of the existence of this Irish Flute Tunes site by getting my annual subscription receipt from Podbean. So, I thought I might as well put a tune on it to get my money's worth. 

I played this one on a very reliable Rob Forbes flute which I got off eBay a little while ago. My wooden flutes are also reliable but my ability to find them is less so.

I'm in Belfast at the moment, on holiday from Luxembourg, so (another "so") I'm allowed to play the flute as it's not illegal here. I'll be back in Belfast FOREVER from 1st May. So ... I might go into work retirement and come out of flute retirement. So... À bientôt ...

The Crib of Perches (as "The Session" has it)