Irish Guitar Podcast

Polish in origin, mazurkas are not very common in Irish music.

Sonny’s Mazurka is arguably the most well known of the mazurkas played in Ireland.

As mazurkas are written in 3/4 time the rules that you use for waltzes also apply to mazurkas. In this tune most of the bars have a crotchet on the first beat followed by two groups of quavers over the next two beats.

As an accompaniment, a basic strum consisting of a bass note on the first beat followed by full or partial chord strums for each of the next two beats in each bar would be quite sufficient. In other words treat your accompaniment the same way you would a standard waltz.

Note the B Minor chord in Bar 3 of the second part of the tune. D would be quite acceptable but B Minor just sounds a bit nicer to Tony’s ear.

Chords are D, G, A and Bm.

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This tune is one of those lovely 16-bar reels in the key of D Major, of which there are many in Irish music. Structurally it is a very simple tune, containing only three chords (D , A, and G).

One of the better-known compositions of the great Turlough O'Carolan.

Tony has set this arrangement in 4/4 rather than 2/2 or “cut” time, that is 4 groups of 2 quavers rather than 2 groups of 4. This is a subtle difference although with a tune played at the somewhat slower tempo than a reel, or even a hornpipe, the difference is barely noticeable. On reflection this tune could be written as 4/4 or 2/2.

In the first part of the tune there is one high B (6th bar). And the second part of the tune has some tricky left hand work so we’ve included in the transcription the left hand fingering Tony uses for playing the tune. Note that your local Classical Guitar Club members will probably be horrified by some of the fingerings but they work for Tony!

The finger number is notated directly under the relevant note. Where there is no fingering markings you can assume that normal open position fingering applies.

There's a rather busy chord progression in the accompaniment, and Tony suggests you will need to spend longer than usual learning it. The chords are G, D, Em, C, A7 and D/F#.

Tony learned this lovely 3-part polka from the playing of New York button accordionist Patty Furlong.

48-bar polkas are not common in Irish music and are not used much for sets. Tony consulted Marie Brouder here in Melbourne about this. Marie is the number one person on set dancing in Melbourne and she could only find one dance that was of 48 bars duration. That is the first figure of The Kilkenny Set.

the lowest note is the open D string and the highest is the F# on the first string so the tune is fairly compact. You can play the whole tune from open position. In the first part Tony has notated the B notes as being on the open 2nd string, but you can play them on the 4th fret/3rd string if you find it easier to pick. Contrary to popular “lay” thought, part of the art of playing guitar is finding the easiest way to do things.

In this tune there is an example of how one well chosen chord can make a big difference to the tune and that chord can be found in the 2nd bar of the 3rd part of the tune. It is a B minor chord.

You could just as easily use a D chord but the Bm adds a wonderful melancholic tone to the tune.

Chords are D, G, Em, A and Bm.

This is an often-played polka, normally in the key of G.

Polkas, like marches, are in 2/4 time. That is, there are two groups of quavers, or the equivalent. Where you have two groups of four quavers, you should play:

• down on the first quaver
• down on the next quaver.

In this tune the only time you play an up stroke is on the last semiquaver (or sixteenth note) of a group of what would be two eighth notes if there were no sixteenth notes.

In this tune you will only be picking up on the last notes of Bars 1, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, 14, 17, 18, and 20.

There are only ten up strokes in the whole tune. Also note that the last 5 bars of part A are identical to the second time ending in Part B of the tune. In fact a lot of people just play the B part through twice without the second time ending. But Tony learnt it off P.J. Hernon and if it’s good enough for Mr Hernon...

If you're using the booklet (book 4), you will see that there are differences between the sheet music chords above the melody and the separate guitar accompaniment sheet. For the purposes of the recording we’ve used the guitar accompaniment sheet, but this will show you that there is more than one way to back up a tune. Tony loves that Em to begin the second part of the tune, but G Major is just as valid.

Chords are G, C, D and Em.

This is one of Tony's own compositions, which he wrote in honour of his friend Jim Connolly, an accordion player from Rossinver in North Leitrim.

It's played in C, with a capo on the 2nd fret. The second part is higher than the first.

The “normal” speed recording is the first track off Tony’s CD “An Sliabh Glas” and includes “Shores of Lough Gowna”, followed by “Jim Connolly’s Jig”. By the way you can purchase the CD, or tracks from it, on Amazon and iTunes and various online outlets. See the CDs page on this site for links.

Note the D Minor chord at the end of the third line. Tony could have just used a G chord for the whole bar (Bar 12) but the inclusion of a D Minor just adds a little bit extra to the tune.

Chords are C, F and G.

There are two jigs that carry the name “The Gold Ring” (“An Fáinne Óir” in Irish). One is a 7-part jig in G particularly popular with pipers, and the other, a 4-part jig in D Major. This tune is the D Major tune, and it's one of Tony's all-time favourties.

Although this is a D tune, Tony plays it in C with a capo on the second fret. This tune has a wide range of just over 2 octaves, but if your left hand is positioned correctly you should need very little, if any, lateral movement to reach all the notes.

Chords are C, F, G and Am.

A delightful jig with a strong underlying rhythm, which is probably why it is quite often used for playing at céilithe (social dances).

In the second bars of both the third and fourth lines you will note that Tony uses the same finger for the first two notes of those bars (G and F#), plays the high B with his fourth finger and the high A with his third finger.

In the booklet (Book 4), we’ve included a separate accompaniment sheet for this tune. Note that Tony uses a D Chord with an F# in the bass, a chord we’ve used as a stock chord for tunes not only in D but in other keys as well, where appropriate.

Just for something a bit different Tony ends the tune with two dotted crotchet chords in the very last bar. This is a little trick just to accentuate the end of the section. Don’t do it every tune but once in a while is OK.

Marches usually have a 2/4 time signature, but this tune is one of a number of tunes designated as a march, but carrying a 6/8 time signature. (“The Butcher’s March” is another.)

This tune is also quite often played as just a normal jig as part of a set.

It's fairly compact in the left hand, only going up to the high G on the first string, and of course even though called a march it should be treated as a jig without ornamentation, although you may wish to go the whole way and just play it as a jig, in which case you would of course include some ornamentation.

In the podcast, Tony emphasises the importance of getting the timing exactly right when accompanying tunes. Chords are G, D, C and Am.

The most challenging tune in Book 4, this is totally unrelated to "Farewell to Ireland". It's not at all unknonwn to encounter such confusingly similar titles in Irish music!

Normally played in A Dorian, but Tony has arranged it for gutar in E Dorian.

You can capo up to the 5th fret, but on the podcast there's no capo.

Tony has also brought the first part in some places so it can be played in one octave, giving it a more dynamic sound.

In some places there are triplets using three different notes. If these are problematic, you can isolate them and practice them on their own.

In the tablature, you'll notice that Tony plays the B on the 4th fret of the 3rd string in places, to make picking easier.

For the accompaniment, there are only two chords - Em and D.