Irish Banjo Lessons

The fiddle master Mick Conneely was round the house a few days ago to record some backing tracks for my Patreon students and we knocked out a duet of Tom Billy's Jig & The Castle Jig.
I hope you enjoy them!

What Irish tune is on your AVOID list? The Musical Priest is one of those for many people (Mine is Jenny's Chickens by the way!!)
In this video I show you exactly how to play the awkward third part, making it really easy and simple way for you to join in at sessions.

Can you pick a favourite?

I played nine different Clareen Banjos and here is the comparison video. There are two Oysters, one with a black mouth head and one with a Renaissance head. And two Setanta banjos that look the same but sound quite different! You may need to listen a few times to pick the one you like.

Full tutorial for The Rocky Road to Dublin and Barney Brannigan's slip jig. Great tunes!!

Tutorial video for Air Tune, composed by the great Chicago fiddler Liz Carroll

PDFs, notation, all available on Patreon.

O'Carolan's Concerto, arranged for Irish tenor banjo. Full tutorial on Youtube and all lesson videos and notation available on Patreon

Full video tutorial for The Temperance Reel!

The deceptively simple waltz Inisheer offers great opportunities to learn quirky and tricky slide, pull off and hammer on ornaments. And to harmonise yourself as you play the melody.

10 video lessons available now

Inisheer - I'm deep in the weeds on this waltz at the moment, creating 10 graduated video lessons to teach you how to use hammer ons, pull offs, slides and chords, to ornament and harmonise the tune. Here's a version using some of these techniques.

Here is a full tutorial video for the Irish Washerwoman, showing how to learn the simple melody and then gradually add in ornamentation and harmony notes. The techniques relate equally to banjo and mandolin!

For more info you can find me on www.irishbanjolessons.com