The final lesson in the series is a reel. As we are in the key of D left hand fingering is to use the first finger for the second fret, second for the third fret, third finger for the fourth fret, and fourth finger for the fifth fret. The accompaniment is a little complicated. Tony uses a lot of D/F# …
Lesson 17. Mist Covered Mountain
The Mist Covered Mountain is a very haunting piece in A Dorian. Normally it’s played in the key of D, but Tony’s arrangement is in the key of C, with a capo on the 2nd fret. Tony talks about trying to arrange music so that it seems as if it’s naturally written for the guitar. There’s a very nice version …
Lesson 16. Na Ceannabháin Bhána
A slip jig. Slip jigs are in 9/8 time – think of each bar as having 3 groups of 3. The chords are very simple – just G, C and D.
Lesson 15. Man of the House
‘Man of the House’ is a 16-bar reel, normally played in Em (Dorian mode). Tony’s version is in Dm (Dorian). Its name in Irish is Fear an Tí , which literally means ‘Man of the House’.
Lesson 14. Planxty Irwin
This is a finger-style arrangement of an O’Carolan tune. The tune was written in G. Tony’s arrangement is in open D, with strings tuned as follows (from lowest sounding to highest): D A D F# A D. The booklet contains both the finger-style information, and a traditional version if you’re not quite ready to tackle that! If you’re learning the …