Sheet music--where to find...

[si beag si mor]

Hi everyone,
I just joined mainly to find out where on the internet I can find sheet music that I can print out.
I play/teaching myself the button key accordion. I first have to learn by note and after enough practice can play without the notes. I have tried a few times to play at a session but can't hear the other players because the accordion is kind of loud. I did play a few tunes and others joined in.
Anyway, I'm looking for notes of Irish tunes like O'Carolan's music, the Chieftans etc.
Appreciate any feedback.

[hans]

http://abcnotation.com/

[Clarinetcat]

http://www.thesession.org/tunes/

http://www.cpmusic.com/music.html


That should keep you busy.

[Clarinetcat]

Also a great sheet music source, I just learned of it myself thanks to jemtheflute ...

http://tunedb.woodenflute.com/

[benhall.1]

I suppose someone has to point out that, if you do learn tunes just from the sheet music, you'll be playing them wrong? Especially if you can't hear the other session players. Actually, there is another point in there - if you can't hear the other sessions players, you're playing too loud. The instrument might be capable of playing loud, but it doesn't mean that you have to.

Overall, I'd suggest persevering with learning tunes by ear, say from the Foinn Seisiun series of recordings on the Comhaltas website, or from the session itself. Nowt wrong with just listening for a while too.

[si beag si mor]

Thanks to all who responded. This is great that I can get these notes.

To give a perspective of where I am: I have to know the tune in my head before I get the notes and learn them but I have no place playing with "real" players. I could, at best, go up and play a few tunes by myself and hope everything turned out ok. A lot of this is, understandably a lack of experience and a lack of confidence==I know all that comes with listening, practicing and taking chances. The truth is, I'm a wishful thinker--I would love to be able to play with others but even though I love the music I will have to settle for sometimes going up there and playing solo. That's ok. You do what you can with what you have. I'll stay in touch with this forum. I can see it's the real thing. Slan....

[benhall.1]

I would suggest not being so defeatist. Listen lots, and be prepared to go to the session and not play, and, sooner or later, you will find that you're joining in and it's fine. But the trick is in not trying too hard, and in being patient and being prepared to listen rather than play.

[Anyanka]

Although you asked specifically about internet sources, I'd also like to recommend Karen Tweed's book 'Traditional Irish Music' and the two CDs that contain all the tunes from said book, played expertly on piano accordion - The Silver Spire and Drops of Springwater. Those three items give you notation and audio for 93 trad Irish tunes. No idea how easily they're available on your side of the pond, though.

[si beag si mor]

Thanks much for your good advice, guys. I'm glad I found this forum. Just ideal.

[s1m0n]

I suppose someone has to point out that, if you do learn tunes just from the sheet music, you'll be playing them wrong?

This point can stand some repetition. You need to be aware that unlike classical music, it is conventional to render ITM in standard notation in a greatly simplified form. There can be some melodic differences, or maybe variations, but the main difference is rhythmic: ITM is played heavily swung, and swung in different ways depending on tune type and regional style. You need to know how and where this happens before you can reproduce a tune from a score. If you have classical training, you may need to unlearn hard-won habits.

[si beag si mor]

I'm self taught, whatever that means, but I've been listening to ITM all my life. I only started learning to play the accordion a few years ago. Of the tunes I can play best I imitate the melody as I heard it played by professionals on tape or whatever, because that's what I hear in my head. Don't get to many sessions because of where I live.
I'm content with getting better slowly and learning new tunes. Thanks for the good advice.

[intrepidduckling]

Sounds like you'll do great! Keep listening! I tell myself that I'll never be much good but I can always get a bit better. Also, depending on where you are in MA I wouldn't be surprised if there is a good accordion teacher around who would teach you by ear...maybe ask at the session you've been to? Or email someone at the Button Box? If you can do it, a few lessons are amazingly helpful.

If you listen to a lot of CDs I bet you can learn by ear more easily than some people. I taught myself to learn by ear just by listening to a slow tune on a cd and making awful awful noises for a long time till I figured it out (I lived alone at the time). (Note: this method has not been clinically tested, and there perhaps are more effective ways to get started?) I also played Christmas carols by memory. It's the season where you can do that and it's semi-legitimate!

Also, check this out: http://www.clare.fm/music/ClareFM%20trad%20archive It's super cool radio shows to download and just listen to when you're doing whatever.

Have fun, listen lots, and learn more cool tunes!

[si beag si mor]

Thank you intrepidduckling---what a name--as bad as the killer penguin lol,

I met someone who taught by note but lives too far away from me. I really don't think I could learn by ear judging by my years of listening to all kinds of songs, tunes, etc. and trying it. Given the opportunity I'd give it a try.
I do know that the more you practice the better you get, so that's my plan.
Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.

[straycat82]

I like this site very much and haven't had the need to go elsewhere since I found it:

http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/cgi/abc/tunefind

I haven't seen any other site where you can get so many tunes in one spot. You type in your tune name and the site pulls up matches from all over the internet and lists them all in one spot so that you can choose any setting you'd like. Great way to look for variations too. You can view the music in standard notation, ABC format, or listen to them in (shudder) MIDI format. If you click the "get" link it will take you directly to the website where the tune was found.

What? You like the tunebook saving function on thesession.org? Well, I often will learn tunes from a recording I like and then search here for a basic ABC version. Once I find a setting that is close to the one I just learned, I copy and paste the ABC text into the ABC Navigator2 (free) program and modify it to taste so that I can preserve my own tune book with any notes or variations I want to catalog. Beats keeping a tunebook of the session.org generic tune versions that you can't modify. Kinda makes thesession.org obsolete for me.

Leave it to the guys at MIT

[oggiesnr]

It's also worth pointing out that if you learn tunes from a session or single source you'll probably be playing them "wrong" at another session in another area.

Personally I use a combination of notes and listening to learn tunes and then apply my years of listening to ITM to make the neccesary adjustments so that they sound right (at least to me )

Steve