Workshop Information

Recently, we have been trialling running a short tune-learning workshop at the beginning of each session. This involves spending 30-40 minutes learning a new tune by ear. The idea is to increase the confidence of the sessioners for playing tunes by ear and relying less on the music. After we have learned a tune, we will post notes about the tune we learned here.

The tunes here should all be shown as scores. If they're not then it could be your browser doesn't support the library used to draw the music. You can probably see the ABC notation used to generate the music. I'm trying to add PDFs to all the music so you can download that to see the score. Alternatively, use a new browser!

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2014.11.14 - The Blackthorn Stick (jig)

The Blackthorn Stick is a very common session tune in G major. It's one of those tunes that, if you were to play it at any Irish music session, someone would know it.

It's a little tricky in places for all instruments because of the arpeggios, and also because of this there isn't a lot of space for ornaments. However, the very first 3 notes in the tune could be converted to a long note, a cut long note, a treble or a roll. Similarly, the BAB at the start of the 4th bar can also be replaced with those ornaments.

Slow Version
Normal Verison

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X: 1
T: The Blackthorn Stick
R: jig
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
|:d|gfg age|dBG AGE|DGG FGA|BAB A2 d|
gfg age|dBG AGE|DGG FGA|BGG G2:|
|:d|edd gdd|edd gdd|edd gfe|dcB A2 d|
gfg age|dBG AGE|DGG FGA|BGG G2:|

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