The Northern Virginia Irish Session

Tune Teaching Sessions

In our tune teaching session, the leader spends the first hour teaching a common session tune phrase by phrase.  To facilitate learning, we distribute a CD to everyone who comes to session with recordings of all the tunes for the year.  We also provide sheet music to help people who are more visually oriented, but our goal is to play without sheet music and, if possible, learn by ear.  In the second hour of the session, we go around the room letting people pick tunes to play.  We will play as slowly as desired, and this is a great time to practice tunes that you are still mastering. The teaching session is open to anyone with basic mastery of their instrument -- including children.

Our tune teaching sessions meet the first Saturday of every month (except during the summer) from 10-12 AM at Green Acres School. 

The planned tunes for 2009-2010 are:

Date Teacher Tune ABC Sheet Music MP3
Oct 3 Mike Schaeffer The Copperplate Reel

There are two reels that go by this name; the "Copperplate" and the "Old Copperplate."  Mike will teach both.  The name Copperplate is a corruption of the Scots phrase "Caber Feidh" meaning "The Deer's Antlers."		 The Old Copperplate

The New Copperplate		 The Old Copperplate

The New Copperplate		   
Nov 7 Maddy O'Neill-Dean
 Ashokan Farewell (Waltz)

This tune was written by fiddler Jay Ungar (West Hurley, New York), who composed it at the end of an emotional year at the 1982 music and dance camp run by he and Molly Mason at Ashokan, New York.  It has become hugely popular after being chosen as the theme for Ken Burns' PBS series "The Civil War."		 Ashokan Farewell

Tobin's Favorite		 Ashokan Farewell

Tobin's Favorite		     
Dec 5 Liz Cronauer The White Petticoat (Jig)

The source of this tune is unknown, but it is one of the few tunes in O'Neill's in aeolian minor.		 The White Petticoat The White Petticoat The White Petticoat (Unknown Artist)   
Jan 2 Bill & Terry Johnson Patsy Geary's (Slide)

The second part of this charming tune is "The Yellow Rose of Texas"!		 Patsy Geary's Patsy Geary's Patsy Geary's (Michael Clarkson)
Feb 6 Jim Langley The Gallowglass (Jig)

A ‘gallowglass’ was the name for a mercenary soldier, often Scottish, who in ages past fought in Ireland.  The melody was originally written by the Scots fiddler and composer Nathaniel Gow, as “Neil Gow’s Lament for the Death of his Brother.”

Paul de Grae relates that “The Gallowglass” was the jig Cork accordion player Jackie Daly was playing in a pub in the mid-1990s when he collapsed with a serious medical problem.  After a period of convalescence Daly recovered and quipped that he'd have to go back to the pub and play the whole tune, in case they thought he only knew the first bit of it!
 The Gallowglass The Gallowglass The Gallowglass (Randal Bays)   
Mar 6 Howard Rhile The Otter's Holt (Reel)

This tune was written by the late fiddler Junior Crehan, who related that he and friends used to play by a stream associated with an otter den, and that cattle would come by and  be soothed by the music.		      The Otter's Holt The Otter's Holt (Michael Clarkson)
Apr 3 Steve Wilson I Ne'er Shall Wean Her (Jig)

This jig was also recorded by the band Patrick Street as "Mrs. O'Sullivan's Jig".		               
May 1 Claudette Sikora Over the Moor to Maggie (Reel)

Not to be confused with "Over the Moor to Betty", "Over the Moor to Ketty", "Over the Moor to Peggy", "Over the Moor Among the Heather," etc.		               
Jun 5 Scott Turner Around the Fairy Fort (Barndance)

A modern composition by flute player Vincent Broderick.
 Fairy Fort Fairy Fort