Celtic Sessions

Welcome! The Celtic Session tries to meet once a month in the homes of our players. You’ll need to join our exclusive Celtic Session email list to learn the dates and places, as these will change from one month to the next.

VERY IMPORTANT – To get added to our email list, complete the form below.

Type this exactly: music

There are convenient ZIP files available below – Have Fun!

Some simple guidelines for our gatherings:

All acoustic instruments welcome. We currently sport fiddles, whistles, bodhrans, bones,
hammered dulcimers, accordion, mandolin, octave mandolin, guitars, and a bass. We’ve been favored with flute, concertina, and harp; along with an occasional ballad or rousing song.

We offer a Slow Celtic Session (a vast resource page for newer players), for those who wish to slide gently into this musical experience. The playing is generally at the Beginner/Intermediate Level, and the tunes will be a bit less challenging and played with more repetitions. There will be “coaching”, so if your instrument is out of tune or you’re playing too loud, you’ll likely be asked to make adjustments (with a smile of course!).

The The Regular Repertoire gathering follows a relaxed session protocol. Everyone takes their turn in suggesting a tune or set, which are then played in unison. If you’re not comfortable starting the tune, someone else will be glad to help out!

Some Celtic Resources:

Though music stands will be seen at our sessions, an effort should be made to apply the appropriate rhythm and lilt to the tunes. They need to “Sound Celtic”! Listening to various session recordings or videos is highly recommended.

We have a tune list, and we’ve put many of these together into “Sets” of two or three tunes. “Suggested” settings for our tunes are available below for your convenience. Other sources for these tunes can be found through the links in the table on the right.

We try to meet once a month in the homes of our players. You’ll need to join our exclusive Celtic Session email list to learn the dates and places, as these will change from one month to the next. To get added to that list, subscribe here.

The Regular Repertoire Sessions usually run for about 3 hours on a Sunday afternoon, and snacks and beverages are welcome. Come prepared to play a lot!

Tom Walsh’s Learning and Playing Resources!

Follow this link for a pdf of an Alphabetical list of tunes we play!

At this link, you can find an extensive Session Tune Memory Jogger consisting of the first two bars of each part of all our tunes for those who do not wish to lug around a full notebook of music!

NEW! Tom, for his own use, has created an awesome Dropbox folder containing mp3 snips of a couple times through each tune to use as a memory jogger for the tunes played in our session. He has graciously offered to share that link with anyone who might find a audible source useful in learning how to play and style the tunes in our sets. These snips aren’t the exact versions in the music pdfs on the web-site, but they’re close, and more important, they demonstrate how the tune should sound when you’re playing it.

These links can be opened in any audio player; or in your Amazing Slow Downer ($) or Music Speed Changer (Free in the Google Android App Store from Single Minded Productions) if you want to learn or play along with these snips at a slower speed.

To get the Dropbox link, email Tom at tdwalsh1030@gmail.com. You can listen to the snips from the shared folder, copy them to your own device, or link this folder to your own Dropbox account if you have one.

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CFS Celtic Session Tune Sets

Click here to: download a PDF of our NEW! Session Tune List (ordered by tune type)

New and Modified Sets bundled together: here in a Zip File!

ALL Sets bundled together: here in a Large Zip File! (4 MB)

Click on a link below to view or download each individual set. New or modified sets will be in BLACK!

House Cleaning - Retired Area of CFS Tunebook

HOUSE CLEANING! Sets that have been moved to the “retired” area of the CFS Tunebook!
The following sets have been re-arranged, enhanced, or never called; so these particular settings are not likely to be played in a CFS session (Famous Last Words…GRIN).
  • Ballydesmond 1/Scarteglen Polka
  • Burning of the Piper’s Hut/Cutty’s Wedding/High Road to Linton
  • Drunken Piper/Banks of Spey – Tamlin
  • Fair Wind – Toss the Feathers (Em)
  • Fingal’s Cave/Captain Campbell – Jenny Dang the Weaver
  • Glencoe March/Miller o’Drone – Trip to Windsor
  • Goat on the Green/Six Penny Money
  • Hardiman the Fiddler/Another Jig Will Do
  • High Drive/New Rigged Ship
  • Killavil Fancy/Bag of Spuds
  • Longford Collector/Sailor’s Bonnet
  • Mason’s Apron/Iggie and Squiggie
  • Musical Priest/The Salamanca
  • Night B4 Larry was Stretched/Redican’s Mother/Dever the Dancer
  • Padraig O’keeffe’s/Patsy Gearys
  • Off She Goes/Stool of Repentance
  • Peggy’s/Hills of Glenorchy/Stan Chapman’s
  • Pigeon on a Gate/Tam Lin
  • Shandon Bells/Mug of Brown Ale
  • Sleep Soond I’da Moarnin’/Tarbolton Lodge
  • Sligo Maid/High Reel
  • Spootiskerry/Brenda Stubbert’s
  • Steamboat Quickstep/Riverbend
  • Trip to Durrow/New Copperplate
  • Wind that Shakes Barley/Rolling in Ryegrass/Boyne Hunt