Learn to Play the fiddle

Tag: tutorial

  • The Home Ruler (hornpipe)

    The Home Ruler is a lovely Irish hornpipe, well-known in the Irish tune tradition and played wherever Irish music is played.

    It is a great hornpipe to learn if you are not familiar with hornpipes, as to my ears, it has a really ‘typical’ hornpipe feel – brilliant for learning to get the bounce and rhythm we associate with playing hornpipes.

    The Home Ruler is in the key of D major.

    The video below will give you an introdution to the tune. The full 30 minute tutorial will be part of my Complete Irish Fiddler course.

    The full video covers the whole tune played slowly phrase by phrase so that you work it out by ear. Then discussion of hornpipe rhythm and bowing, as well as suggested bowed slurring patterns for the whole tune, and ornamentation includes cuts, triplets and casadhs.

    I really hope that you enjoy learning this great hornpipe. It pairs nicely with other hornpipes – I especially like playing it with ‘The Lone Bush’, a great hornpipe by Ed Reavy, or The Bachelor hornpipe, which is in G major. You can also move from this hornpipe in to a reel in D major instead, which creates a nice change in tempo!

    The Home Ruler was written by Frank McCollam (1910-1973), a fiddler (and piper) and composer of tunes from Ballycastle in County Antrim.

    Frank McCollam, the composer of The Home Ruler, was from County Antrim in the north of Ireland

    Frank was a contemporary of Sean Ryan and Cathal McConnell (of the Boys of the Lough), and was a well known musician in the area.

    It is natural to imagine that the title – The Home Ruler – might refer to Irish politics. But apparently, that isn’t correct.

    According to Dick Glasgow, who spoke to a good friend of Frank’s, Frank named the tune for his wife, Sally – apparently many of the men in the area used to refer to their wives as ‘The Home Ruler’. We hope affectionately!

  • The Mouse in the Kitchen (jig)

    This tutorial is for a fun Irish tune called The Mouse in the Kitchen, a lovely Irish jig. I’ve been teaching this jig to a few of my students recently, and they have been enjoying playing it.

    The Mouse in the Kitchen

    This tutorial takes you through the melody slowly, and shows the melody played slowly with a close up of the fingerboard.

    This jig tutorial for The Mouse in the Kitchen is intended for fiddle players who can already begin to work out tunes by ear when played slowly.

    For the full 35 minute tutorial of this tune including all my ornamentation suggestions, chords, bowing patterns, left hand technique tips and more, please take a look at my Online Irish Fiddle Courses.

    The Mouse in the Kitchen is a two part (double) jig written by Colin Farrell, and has been recorded by Flook and other bands. It’s a fun jig to play, and I think it really captures the sound of a mouse scurrying around a kitchen!

    The Mouse in the Kitchen video lesson

    It’s a really popular tune in sessions. It seems to me like it had a spike in popularity about 5 or 10 years ago, but is still well-known, and often played in sessions. As a jig in A major, I find The Mouse in the Kitchen is a particularly good tune to put at the end of a set of gigs in, for example, G or D, or related minor keys. The move to A major can give a set of tunes a real sense of ‘lift’, especially if it is one that lots of people will join in with!

    I hope you enjoy learning this jig, The Mouse in the Kitchen!

    And for more online fiddle lessons, take a look at Irish fiddle lessons online.

    My online fiddle course — The COMPLETE IRISH FIDDLER – Essentials — is now launched.

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    With modules on fiddle bowing technique and bowing patterns, ornamentation and where to use it, pulse and rhythm, the core Irish tune types, plus all my best exercises and practice tips. This course is guaranteed to take your fiddle playing further.