Helpful Music Resources

Playing rhythm guitar is super fun, especially when you play in a group like at an Irish music session. Here we are playing with the County Crossing band and other session musicians at Milwaukee Irish Fest. Looks like fun? To get you started, here's a link to a beginner-friendly rhythm guitar book with clear instruction and practice tunes found on Amazon.

You can also find many more helpful books on learning to play rhythm guitar on Amazon. One book we recommend highly is Mel Bay's Celtic Back-Up for All Instrumentalists.

Here's my recommendation for a learn to play bouzouki tutor book with 20 traditional tunes, multiple tunings and audio tracks included on Amazon.

I bought this book when starting to play bouzouki and octave mandolin, because it focuses on Irish and American folk styles. Both melody and accompaniment are presented in standard notation and tablature, with a stereo audio download that is really useful because the left channel is melody and right channel accompaniment. There's a lot more to this book, so it will keep you growing as you progress.

One of the joys of my life is playing my accordion. When getting started learning to play it, I sought out as many resources as I could find from instruction books to videos, and a wide variety of helpful tutorials really provides results and fun when learning. If you would like to give accordion playing a try, here's a small collection of accordion method books and learning resources found on Amazon.

When learning to play Irish music on my piano accordion, one of the first gems I found is the book The Irish Piano Accordion by Tommy Walsh. It's especially for beginning to intermediate players and features 44 well-known double jigs, hornpipes, songs and reels - all tunes I still love to play.

Be ready for any Irish music session. Here's a collection of 100+ popular Irish session tunes with a play-along CD. This book is on Amazon and it's full of commonly played Irish tunes including a CD that's great for playing along. Among Celtic musicians, it's well known as The Blue Book of Irish tunes.

There's also a Red Book of Irish music that I want to share with you. This one contains over 100 Irish dance tunes and airs in each volume. It's a varied selection of widely played and lesser-known tunes, divided into different dance rhythms, including sets of similar tunes to be played at Irish sessions.

The Session is a community website dedicated to Irish traditional music. You can find tunes to play, sessions to play in, join in discussions, find events (like concerts and festivals) or explore the track listings of recordings.

On TheSession.org you may also contribute. Membership is free and The Session is really an amazing extensive resource for Irish music.

NoteWorthy Composer is a wonderful music notation program we use for creating and editing musical scores. The software is available in a free version, and the paid version is inexpensive. NoteWorthy Composer offers score creation, including support for lyrics, multiple staves, and MIDI input. In addition, NoteWorthy Viewer is a free tool for viewing and playing, but not editing. The NoteWorthy User Forum provides extra support and user interaction.

There's also NoteWorthy Scriptorium, a large collection of .nwc music files contributed by NoteWorthy Composer users. The Scriptorium includes a variety of musical styles, all in NoteWorthy .nwc format. NoteWorthy users have contributed many helpful files, answers to Frequently Asked Questions, and there's a NoteWorthy Composer Forum.

We have contributed a few of our own compositions to the NoteWorthy Scriptorium.

Mary Kay's song Blue Little Girl on the Scriptorium

NoteWorthy Scriptorium was the first place we posted Mary Kay's melody, and since then it's become a full composition and music video. This is a nice little NoteWorthy .nwc file that users can print a score from, for playing along to Mary Kay's sweet tune.

If you are playing traditional music, no matter what instrument you are playing, The Fiddler's Fakebook is truly the Ultimate Sourcebook, and you can find it on the author's Amazon page. This is the musician's must-have reference book for both beginner and advanced fiddlers. This score book contains nearly 500 traditional tunes, including jigs, reels, rags, and hornpipes, plus information about each tune. Whether you are preparing for a square dance, jam session, or simply enjoying making music with friends, this collection is an invaluable resource for any fiddler, violinist, accordion player, guitarist, penny whistle player or mandolin bouzouki player.

Looking to go beyond taking cell phone videos of yourself playing, and get into home recording and publishing your own music? The software we like to use is Fender Studio Pro It's a full featured and pretty easy to use digital audio workstation for recording, mixing and publishing your music. The software is easy to learn to use to create studio quality recordings and it runs on PC or Mac. You can find this DAW and more from Fender on the Fender Amazon Store.

I recently researched electronic keyboards, and want to share that I am super happy with my purchase of the GO:PIANO 61-Key Portable Digital Piano Keyboard with Onboard Bluetooth Speakers and Electronic Teaching that I found on Amazon. This piano is fun to play, and I also call it my "serenity machine" because I love sitting down to the GO:PIANO every morning as I get into my music. It's got a nice feel to the keyboard and as Roland says, "premium piano performance in a compact and affordable instrument with full-size keys and authentic touch response." The Roland piano sounds offer a variety, and I especially like that several types of acoustic piano sounds are included. To find out more and read customer reviews, visit the Go:PIANO page on Amazon.

Need a little boost in volume for your guitar or mandolin? If you are playing tunes in Irish music sessions, you know that your sound can be greatly overpowered by other instruments. This Roland Micro Cube Guitar Amp is a super solution that provides amplification in a small package, and sounds great too! It's easy to carry along and reliable over many years. Tom takes his with him when we play at small venues, like music sessions, and even for our gigs where we only amplify his guitar to perform with our vocals, my accordion and even the occasional fiddler or bagpiper who joins us. There are still Micro Cube amps available on Amazon, as well as many other models to fit your guitar amp needs. To find out more, read customer reviews and view the latest Roland amplifiers, visit the Roland brand amplifiers page on Amazon.

Looking for a a super entertainer for all kinds of events? Here's your man! In the image above, the bagpiper on stage with us is Pierre Ogea entertainer for weddings, funerals, Karaoke and other special events. Pierre serves the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

A talented, eperienced and popular performer and organizer, Pierre's clients and audiences give him glowing reviews. With Pierre, we have danced and performed in the streets, on festival grounds, in concerts, at Karaoke bars, old folks homes and even at the local mall.

More about the entertainment services of Pierre Ogea.

For those interested in Scottish music and traditions, Nevada Society of Scottish Clans is a vibrant community hub dedicated to preserving Celtic heritage through social events, educational resources, and the annual Reno Celtic Celebration. We have enjoyed bonding over Scottish music and history, performing at the Reno Celtic Celebration and the annual Burns Supper extravaganza at the Grand Sierra Resort.