Session Instruments

Tin Whistle — Pennywhistle or metal whistle is an ever-present instrument in traditional sessions. The whistle might be called a cousin of the simple-system flute because of its nearly identical fingering. Tin whistles were mass-produced in 19th century Manchester, England, as an inexpensive instrument. Clarke whistles almost identical to the first ones made by that company are still available, although the original version, pitched in C, has mostly been replaced for traditional music by that pitched in D, the “basic key” of traditional music. Whistles today are made in wood, metal, plastics, and PVC pipe. The low whistle, a derivative of the common tin whistle, is also popular, although some musicians find it less agile for session playing than the flute or the ordinary D whistle.

Flute — The flute has been an integral part of Irish traditional music since roughly the mid-1800s, introduced to Ireland by the English when it fell out of favor among classical flute players after the introduction of the silver Boehm flute. Keyless old flutes were available cheaply second-hand and traditional musicians scooped them up. The wooden instrument has a distinct sound and continues to be commonly preferred by traditional musicians to this day. There are dozens of traditional wooden flute makers around the world today, crafting these beautiful instruments by hand from timbers such African blackwood (most common), cocus wood, rosewood, boxwood, and ebony.​

​Fiddle — One of the most important instruments in the traditional repertoire, the fiddle (or violin – there is no physical difference) is played differently in widely varying regional styles. It uses the standard GDAE tuning. The best-known regional fiddling traditions are from Donegal, Sligo, Sliabh Luachra, and Clare counties.

Button Accordion — The accordion plays a major part in modern Irish music. The accordion spread to Ireland late in the 19th century. In its ten-key form (melodeon), it is claimed that it was popular across the island. Modern Irish accordion players generally prefer the two-row button accordion. Unlike similar accordions used in other European and American music traditions, the rows are tuned a semitone apart. This allows the instrument to be played chromatically in melody. Currently, accordions tuned to the keys of B/C and C#/D are by far the most popular systems.

Piano Accordion — The piano accordion became highly popular during the 1950s and has flourished to the present day in céilí bands and for old time Irish dance music. Their greater range, ease of changing key, more fluent action, along with their strong musette tuning blended seamlessly with the other instruments and were highly valued during this period. They are the mainstay of the top Irish and Scottish ceilidh bands.

Concertina — Concertinas are manufactured in several types, the most common in Irish traditional music being the Anglo system with a few musicians now playing the English system. Each differs from the other in construction and playing technique. The most distinctive characteristic of the Anglo system is that each button sounds a different note, depending on whether the bellows are compressed or expanded. Anglo concertinas typically have either two or three rows of buttons that sound notes, plus an “air button” located near the right thumb that allows the player to fill or empty the bellows without sounding a note.

Bohdran — The Irish word “bodhar” means deaf or haunting. The bodhrán began as a skin tray used for drawing turf (peat) on the bogs. It stirs the spirit when played with the “tipper” or beater hitting the skin in a racing style while a hand presses the back of the skin to vary the tone. The skins are treated in hydrated lime mixed with ingredients that are the closely guarded secret of every bodhrán maker. They are soaked for 7–10 days in a solution of lime sulfide that softens the skin, de-hairs it and dissolves the fatty tissue. Sometimes the skin is buried in manure. It is finally stretched under tension onto a birch frame. It is also glued on; this is important for bodhráns being sent abroad. It thus cannot “rip off” at the tack — traditionally the weakest part of the bodhrán — when exposed to excess heat. The skin is stretched tight when new to give room for residual stretch. In the hands of a skilled player the bodhrán can be a subtle and exciting instrument — striking the skin in a variety of ways, one hand tucked in behind the skin, pressing and moving to vary the color and intensity of the sound. The side of the beater is also used to good effect on the wooden rim. Genuine goatskin is a natural “live” material, expands and contracts slightly with changing temperatures, it has an infinite variety of subtle “veining” and its rich luster becomes more beautiful with age.

Uilleann Pipes — The uilleann (pronounced ill'-in) pipes are Irish bagpipes. The most obvious difference between them and the great Highland bagpipes of Scotland is that the uilleann pipes are not blown with the mouth — air is pumped into the bag by means of an elbow bellows. Also, uilleann pipes are not as loud as Scottish bagpipes. However, there are other special features of uilleann pipes. Those addicted to the uilleann pipes describe them as beautiful, complex, ancient, mysterious, and even as a “hive of honeyed sound”. Although uilleann pipes have been around since the early 1600s, their revival in modern time began in the 1960s with a musical group called The Chieftains. It’s important to note that uilleann pipes are much more difficult to play than standard Scottish pipes, and they are also a great deal more expensive. There are three parts to a full set of uilleann pipes:

This means that a set of uilleann pipes plays the tune, has drones playing, and also accompanies itself with other notes all at the same time. The piper therefore must pump the bellows with his elbow while he plays the chanter with both hands and leans his wrist on the keys of the regulators. To the uninitiated, it must seem that an uilleann piper needs three hands to do it all or preferably four; the good players make this all look very easy.

Mandolin — The mandolin is becoming a somewhat more common instrument amongst Irish traditional musicians. Fiddle tunes are readily accessible to the mandolin player because of the equivalent range of the two instruments and the practically identical (allowing for the lack of frets on the fiddle) left hand fingerings. Although almost any variety of acoustic mandolin might be adequate for Irish traditional music, virtually all Irish players prefer flat-backed instruments with oval sound holes to the Italian-style bowl-back mandolins or the carved-top mandolins with f-holes favored by bluegrass mandolinists. Greatly preferred for formal performance and recording are flat-topped “Irish-style” mandolins (reminiscent of the WWI-era Martin Army-Navy mandolin) and carved (arch) top mandolins with oval sound holes, such as the Gibson A-style of the 1920s. Resonator mandolins such as the RM-1 from National Resophonic are beginning to show up in Irish sessions in the US because they are loud enough to easily be heard.

Bouzouki — Although not traditional, the Irish bouzouki has found a home in the modern Irish traditional music scene. The Greek bouzouki was introduced to Irish traditional music in the late 1960s. Today's Irish bouzouki (usually) has four courses of two strings (usually) tuned G2D3A3D4. The bass courses are most often tuned in unisons, one feature that distinguishes the Irish bouzouki from its Greek antecedent, although octaves in the bass are favored by some players. Instead of the staved round back of the Greek bouzouki, Irish bouzoukis usually have a flat or lightly arched back. Peter Abnett, the first instrument maker to build an Irish bouzouki (for Dónal Lunny in 1970) makes a three-piece staved back. The top is either flat or carved like that of an arch top guitar or mandolin, although some builders carve both the back and the top.

Guitar — The guitar is not traditional in Irish music but has become widely accepted in modern sessions. These are usually strummed with a plectrum (pick) to provide backing for the melody players, or sometimes a singer. Irish backing tends to use chord voicings up and down the neck, rather than basic first or second position “cowboy chords”; unlike those used in jazz, these chord voicings seldom involve barre fingerings and often employ one or more open strings in combination with strings stopped at the fifth or higher frets. Modal (root and fifth without the third, neither major nor minor) chords are used extensively alongside the usual major and minor chords, as are suspended and sometimes more exotic augmented chords; however, the major and minor seventh chords are less employed than in many other styles of music. Ideally, the guitarist follows the leading melody player or singer precisely rather than trying to control the rhythm and tempo. Most guitar parts take inspiration and direction from the melody, rather than driving the melody as in other acoustic genres. Many of the earliest notable guitarists working in traditional music tuned their instruments in “DADGAD” tuning, although many players use the “standard” (EADGBE) and “drop D” (DADGBE) tunings.

Banjo — The four-string tenor banjo is played as a melody instrument by Irish traditional players, and is commonly tuned GDAE, an octave below the fiddle. It was brought to Ireland by returned emigrants from the United States, where it had been developed by African slaves. It is seldom strummed in Irish music (although older recordings will sometimes feature the banjo used as a backing instrument), instead being played as a melody instrument using either a plectrum or a “thimble.” With a few exceptions the five-string banjo has had little role in Irish traditional music as a melody instrument.

Harp — The harp is among the chief symbols of Ireland. The Celtic harp was played as long ago as the 10th century. In ancient times, the harpers were greatly respected and, along with poets and scribes, assigned a high place amongst the most significant retainers of the old Gaelic order of lords and chieftains. Perhaps the best known representative of this tradition of harping today is Turlough Ó’Carolan, a blind 18th century harper who is often considered the unofficial national composer of Ireland. The native Irish harping tradition was aristocratic art music with its own canon and rules for arrangement and compositional structure, only tangentially associated with the folkloric music of the common people, the ancestor of present-day Irish traditional music.

Harmonica — Although not as well-documented within the tradition as other free-reed instruments, the Irish harmonica tradition is represented by Rick Epping, Mick Kinsella, Paul Moran, the Murphy family from County Wexford, Eddie Clarke and Brendan Power (the latter being of New Zealand). Paddy Clancy became the first world famous Irish folk harmonicist in the early 1960s as part of The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.

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