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We occaisionally have a sessioin in Dover, Delaware.

We have a small list we are working from at present! 
DOVER SESSION TUNE LIST (click here to open tune book on Concertina.Net to get the PDF's, including, but not limited to...)
//  Kesh Jig//  Morrison's Jig//  Blarney Pilgrim//  Red Haired Boy//  Rights of Man//  Wind that Shakes the Barley//  Musical Priest//  Arran Boat//  Swallowtail//  Coleraine//  Teetotaler//  Otter's Holt//  Paddy Ryan's//  Pipe on the Hob//  Star of the County Down//  Walls of Liscarroll//  George White's Favorite//  Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine/Listowell//  The Slipper//  Star of Munster//  Planxty Irwin//  Dark Island//  Butterfly (Note from Jeri Corlew:  you say this is a slide, I say it's a slip jig.  Does that make it a slip-slide?)//  O'Keefe's//  Toormoore Slide

Bill Black, Zouki to all of us, gives us this advice, "in the hope that some of the newer musicians might draw some encouragement from it."

Learning Irish Traditionl Music

* Maybe 90 percent of the tunes that I know well enough to play in public I have learned from written music - tunebooks. I have a tidy collection of them and can pass a very enjoyable evening for myself just sitting down with one and trying to learn something new out of it.

* There exists in certain quarters of ITM a distinct prejudice against written music as an aid to learning. Almost universally & not surprisingly, this view is held by those who are unable to read music. Fortunately it is quickly becoming history. I am totally unashamed to admit to learning from written music and to be honest, at this stage of my musical life no one really cares.

* There are musicians whose gift is learning tunes by ear. If I have any gift at all, it's not that one. I do know how to read music and take full advantage of that facility to expand my repertoire.

* A tunebook is a tool and should be used in whatever way suits your requirements. However, the etiquette/protocol/whatever you want to call it of Irish traditional music is clearly that no written music of any kind is used at a session. The theory is that you should utilize the session time to learn tunes, technique, phrasing etc. from other players. No one that I know of has the least problem with the use of tunebooks as "private" learning aids - the unhappiness arises when they are used to replace the session experience.

* Memorization is a sine qua non for a traditional musician, vocal or instrumental, and the sooner you feel confident about going book-naked to a session, the sooner you'll be starting your slow but steady upward progress.

* The brain has an amazing capacity for handling musical information, but like any other muscle, it's got to be exercised. Track stars don't use roller-skates, and IT musicians shouldn't use written music [at sessions or in other group contexts].

* A tunebook should aim at no higher goal than giving a player the very basics of a tune, unless it's attempting to illustrate a particular style or serve some other extended pedagogical purpose. The BB Tunebook, CRE 1, O'Neill's (mostly), are all designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator of musical experience. Other tunebooks contain ornamentation and stylistic features that may be of interest but are not essential to proper appreciation of the tunes themselves.

* ITM has two elements, the repertoire (which you can learn from printed sources) and the style (which you cannot). I would recommend your spending equal amounts of time learning notes and listening to what established players (not necessarily recorded "stars", just other IT musicians that you respect) do with them.

The great thing is that the notes you learn and the ones you listen to someone else playing don't have to be the same. The traditional style ("blás" in Irish) exists independently of the notes, with the result that you can eventually learn a tune out of a tunebook that nobody has ever heard before and make it sound quite respectably traditional by applying what you've been hearing.

By the way - at this point in your ITM development, avoid spending too much time in concerns about "regional styles". The relevance of this topic to those just starting ITM is minimal. If somewhere along the line you decide that the North-Central Longford style is something you'd like to pursue, go for it - just don't worry about it now!

* To make your slow session a real learning experience, you should arrange to spend a few minutes of it listening to a CD of someone like Joe Burke or Andy McGann or any of a dozen other players who are "musicians' musicians".  Ignore the speed - naturally they'll be playing a lot faster than you - but try to identify and absorb the "blás" I mentioned above. It's not always easy,
but just making the effort will make you all better musicians.

Reprinted with permission 8/9/00.  Thanks! Zouki!!

This is our Old Time band with Rick Hudson & John Kidd

We used to have a wonderful folk band called Dover Mountain Band. Yes, we perform Jim McGiffin's own original composition of "Love Chicken", by popular demand (ask him about his e-mail song). This is why we refer to our numerous fans as Chicken heads!!  Many of the other tunes we perform are originals from Tony Armstrong.  Don't forget our ace harmonica player with the best rhythm potato on Delmarva, either, John Kidd!!  Mike Nielsen, Kelly Crumpley and me, Jan Crumpley make up the rest of the band.

As you may know, my part in the band, besides being the only girlie, is switching off on as many musical instruments as possible. I am not the only one of us that does this- but I have the most, so I win. Hee, hee. I play flute, whistle, piano accordion & sing harmony vocals. My husband Kelly plays fiddle & mandolin with this group, although he is the one at our house that has the most musical instruments, so he wins at home, you see.

We did our Ireland Tour of the Dingle Peninsula and the surrounding area in July '01!  What a dream!  Go to Ireland to play American music for the punters and play Irish music there for ourselves!

 
Celtic Harvest, our Irish incarnation.  Joining us on lead vocals is Kathy Doyle, wife of Jim McGiffin.  Of course, John & Tony are excused as Irish music is not everyone's passion.  So, we have two married couples and Mike. 

Squawgum Possums is half Dover Mountain Band, so, John comes over there with Kelly & me to join up with Rick to play Old Time.

We have been known to do BLUES with John, sort of Crumpleys & the Kidd, really not named.  Our first paying gig for this configuration was a sheep wagon on the back of tractor in the car park of O'Dowds Pub for Lughnasa festival in Cloghane, Co. Kerry Ireland back in 2001.

It does make for an interesting life.  I just thought if you were still paying attention, I had to work in more links to the other pages.

We are all active in Delaware Friends of Folk!!

Stop back by soon to see any new changes that I may make, as I have learned some new tricks and am eager to try them out on you! Write to me from here: