I started this site out with a rough list of core tunes for our sessions.
It's helpful to have a set of tunes that most of the musicians at the session know,
but that doesn't mean these are all that we play at our sessions.
There are always new tunes being added.
Feel free to come and play any of your favorite Irish tunes at the session.
In the list below I've marked in bold tunes that I believe we've played enough
to be clearly considered part of our regular list.
Sheet music may help you get started if you're new to these tunes but
be forewarned that sheet music never tells the whole story with this type of music.
If you don't know a tune, what I recommend most is looking it up on youtube or Spotify or some other source so that you can listen to it.
You need to listen to a tune to get a feeling for its rhythm and the ways the melody can be played.
And there tend to be many different versions of the melodies to tunes.
The sheet music will just represent (or approximate) one of those versions.
Note that sheet music(and other info) for almost any Irish tune you can think of can be found at the wonderful website thesession.org
polkas
Ballydesmond (3 of them!)
Britches Full of Stitches + Bill Sullivan's (both in A)
East Limerick 1 & 2 (aka Kerry Polka and Murroe Polka)
Galway Belle + Mairi's Wedding
Johnny O'Leary's 1 & 2 (aka John Brosnan's 1 & 2)
jigs
Assembly of Munster Men
Banish Misfortune
Boys of the Town Cindy brought this one to our sessions
Boys of the Town 2 Adam brought this other jig by the same name
Christy Barry's #2 (aka The Butlers of Glen Avenue)
Connaught Man's Rambles + Coppers and Brass
The Frieze Breeches (Cunla) recently updated
Haste to the Wedding
Humours of Trim (Rolling Wave)
Leitrim Fancy + Sword in Hand (jig into reel)
Luachrachan's + Mist Covered Mountain (Junior Crehan's jigs)
Saint Brigid's + The Road Home Adam originals
Sliabh Russell + Jimmy Ward's
Tripping Up the Stairs + My Darling Asleep
Waiting for Turkey Bacon Blake original
hornpipes
Boys of Blue Hill + Good Natured Man
Home Ruler + Off to California
Off to California + Harvest Home
Red Haired Boy (aka Jolly Beggarman)
reels
The Ashplant + Drowsy Maggie
The Congress + Drowsy Maggie
The Congress + Rolling in the Rye Grass
Duke of Leinster + Miss Lyon's Fancy
Limerick Lasses + The Blacksmith's
Maudabawn Chapel + Beare Island + Lads of Lois
O'Connell's Trip to Parliament + The Torn Jacket
Over the Moor to Maggie + Banshee
Paddy Fahy's #14 + Killavil Fancy
Silver Spear + Concertina + Sally Gardens
Thanks to Shelly JT original
Wise Maid
slides
Star Above the Garter + Lisheen
Old Favorite + Dingle Regatta
slip jigs
Butterfly + Snowy Path
Fair Canavans / Redicans / Give Us a Drink of Water
Fig for a Kiss + Open the Door for Three
Give Us a Drink of Water + A Fig for a Kiss
Is the Big Man Within? (part slip jig and part jig) with Haste to the Wedding
Kid on the Mountain (with Hardiman the Fiddler)
O'Farrell's Welcome to Limerick (An Phis Fhliuch)
Soggy's + Waterboogie (Soggy's/Waterboogie version for guitar with capo)
barndances
Joe Bane's + Gypsy Princess (barndances)
marches
Sean South + Mountains of Pomeroy
​
airs/planxties
Give Me Your Hand (Tabhair dom do Lámh)
Si Beag Si Mor
Planxty Fanny Power
Carolan’s Welcome (aka Carolan's Air)
waltzes
Southwind
other
Shove The Pig's Foot A Little Closer To The Fire
La Coccinelle and Crested Hens (Les Poules Huppees)
Some History
Here's a record of tunes played at some of our earliest sessions
list of tunes played at the February 19, 2020 session
list of tunes played at the October 9, 2019 session
list of tunes played at the August 5, 2019 session
​list of tunes played at the July 1, 2019 session
​