Music

Sound samples of my playing:

Studio recordings:

These are samples of recordings done for the Brosnan School of Irish Dance show “Lark In The Morning”, coming to the Marin Veterans Memorial Auditorium on May 15, 2009!

Session recordings:

Recordings from the McBride School of Irish Dance recital in November 2008 (medium quality):

Music

Phone: (510) 928-6373

Email: douglowder@mac.com

WWW: http://homepage.mac.com/douglowder/

Last updated on May 24 2009

Notes on Irish traditional music One issue that can really be intimidating to the beginner is the sheer number of tunes out there -- literally thousands of reels, jigs, etc. Fortunately, there are now great resources on the web that can help you get started. A good place to start is thesession.org or Henrik Norbeck's tunes (HUGE numbers of tunes!)
thesession.org also has search capabilities, a nice interface, plus info on where you can play in open sessions in various places around the world. If you are looking for written tunes, you'll want to try to get tunes in "abc" format, so you can edit them easily. There are good resources and free programs to turn abc format into readable sheet music as GIF pictures, printable Postscript, even MIDI. I personally use the command line tools abc2ps and ps2pdf on Linux (that's how the PDF files below are generated), It is very important to note that the music isn't always played exactly the way it is written. At some point, it becomes much easier, and better, to learn new tunes by ear. There are many many recordings of Irish traditional music, played by great musicians. Some of my favorite artists who have recorded are (in no particular order) The Chieftains (their early recordings especially) Altan Teada Lunasa Liz Carroll Grainne Hambly Tommy Peoples Paddy Keenan

Here are some really great Bay Area local artists:
Tipsy House The Black Family (Shay, Michael, Martin, Mary, and Frances) The Gas Men Molly's Revenge To get an idea of what traditional Irish music sounds like when played in pub sessions, check out my archive of recordings from the Plough and Stars: Recordings from the Plough And Stars Just for fun, I've made some files of tunes that I like to play. Some of these are from other web sites; most I've transcribed myself by ear from recordings and live performances. Here they are, in abc format and as PDF (Adobe Acrobat) files: * Reels: ABC PDF * More reels: ABC PDF o (There are LOTS of reels out there -- these are the most numerous of the different tune types) * Jigs: ABC PDF * Slip jigs: ABC PDF * Hornpipes: ABC PDF * Polkas: ABC PDF o (In Irish dance, these are commonly used as the music for beginners doing reels) * Slides: ABC PDF o (In Irish dance, these are known as "single jigs") * Traditional set dances: ABC PDF o These tunes are used in the "traditional set" event in Irish dance competitions. While other dances are choreographed differently by each teacher, these dances are defined by the Irish dance commission ("An Coimisiun") and must be done exactly the same way by every competitor and every school. * Championship set dances: ABC PDF o These tunes are used in the set dance event which is one of the three events of an Irish dance championship competition. I've transcribed these from various CDs, especially "The Final Round" by Kevin Joyce.

My music

I play violin and viola. I play classical music for many different occasions (church services, weddings, concerts). I've also played a bit of early music with the Baroque orchestra of UC Berkeley's Collegium Musicum.

I also play Irish fiddle music. I play in shows with the McBride School of Irish Dance and play in sessions here and there... for example the Starry Plough in Berkeley and the Plough and the Stars in San Francisco. I also play for feisanna -- Irish dance competitions -- around the Bay Area and other locations in the Western U.S.