Booli: This thread came up about a month or so ago. There are lots of resources for Celtic Uke players here:
Are there Celtic Ukers out there.
Thanks for the link. Somehow that one slipped by and I missed it, but have been reading it now. Lots of great info there. Had I seen that thread, I may not have created this one. Yet, reading that thread, there is just SO much information, that I am completely saturated and overwhelmed now.
I am guessing you are interested in Dance Tunes in general rather than Appalachian and Canadian Folk Songs.
All of this music is completely foreign to me, I wouldn't now a 'dance tune' from a doorknob right now. LOL. But that is a big part of the draw for me, the fact that it's all new. I'm kinda bored with rock, pop, jazz, reggae and other american derivatives, and microtonal and tunings other than 12-step equal temperment (from middle-eastern and asian music) are VERY unpalatable to me at this time.
I've had minimal exposure to Appalachian and Canadian Folk Songs, but can't name any, but what I've heard was interesting to me, and what I've read suggested the origins of such music are in Irish/Scottish/Welsh/British Celtic music, so rather than look at the derivatives, I was thinking of going back to the origins, and maybe working forwards in time.
For Jigs, hornpipes and other tunes in 6/8 time work on your left hand triplets as well as the Cherry Picking. Get comfortable with playing out of the Keys of A, D, and G, and their relative minors if you want to play with other Old Time Musicians. Elofs Tutorial you spoke of touched briefly on double thumb, Drop Thumb or Clawhammer. He calls it Thumb Index.
Thanks. All that you mentioned here are basic building blocks that are not in my skillset as of yet, so I need to develop these playing techniques as well as get the paradigms of genre-specific proper keys, scales, modes into my head.
I feel like I need to learn to 'think' in Celtic about the music, and not so much the previously learnt music. Lots of times I feel trapped by the motifs, themes and tropes of 'western' music (and also the south-western european classical and baroque periods to some extent).
It's like a need to expand my vocabulary from only 2,3 & 4 syllable words, to include some 5,6,7 & 8 syllable words, and then use them whenever possible.
If you read sheet music, you can find it for a lot of the jigs and reels on:
https://thesession.org/tunes
Plus, the site lets you look songs up by first searching for a musician that you know has recorded the song.
Thanks for the link. I will check that out. As I don't know this music, finding an example of a good recording right now, is like trying to exclusively pick a single drop of water from the ocean.
Admittedly I've (ignorantly) never been a fan of tablature, I really need to brush up on my ability for reading sheet music. I CAN read, it's just abysmally slow and painful. I know this will improve over time, and will be super useful again later.
I agree with Brimmer, if I know the tune I can usually play it from tabs, but if it is new to me I find I can get the notes ok but somehow the tune isn't there. A great challenge though!
My problem is that I'm not familiar enough with this style of music yet. However, I am pretty decent at playing by ear, and can 'pick out' the melody and key after listening about a dozen times (and fumbling along with instrument in hand) before it sticks in memory. It's easier with the music I've already heard millions of times (I worked as a mobile DJ for 15+ yrs) as most of that music has more in common (like 50's rock'n'roll for example) than it is disparate. With the music I've already been exposed to, it 'seems' easy since you can fall back on known patterns, progressions or musical tropes, once you start to get the gist of the song.
I have no such reference point with Celtic music. I need to get really basic, and find the scales, modes, and patterns that are used as the building blocks, otherwise the songs will remain abstract and 'far away' to me. I need to find a starting point, even if only to dissipate the feeling of being overwhelmed. So I guess I am looking for some kind of genre-specific instructional materials as opposed to the songbooks or music sheets. I need to hook into a way to approach the music as a whole.
There are lots of good suggestions here, and lots of learning I have yet to do, and I am quite grateful for the support so far.