The Folk Music Academy

Casadh an tSugáin means "the twisting of the rope" in Irish, and it's a beautiful old love song from the sean-nós tradition — a style of singing that is usually unaccompanied, often performed standing, and traditionally involves holding the hand of the person next to you while you sing. Tony McManus first heard this song performed by the Bothy Band, a legendary Irish folk group he saw live at the age of ten. He says his life has never been the same since. The song also appears in a quietly stunning scene in the film Brooklyn, where it's sung by one of the finest traditional singers alive. In this lesson, Tony works through his instrumental arrangement, tackling a beautiful challenge: when the verse and chorus share the same melody, how do you make them feel different? His answer — changing the chords underneath the same notes — opens up a whole world of musical possibility.

Dive into a tradition → https://www.thefolkmusicacademy.com/courses/49?lesson_id=747

FMA Friday -"Na Gossidich"

In the aftermath of the Jacobite uprising in the 18th-century, the authorities banned bagpipes, fiddles, flutes, and even dancing across parts of Scotland. But you can't really stop people from dancing. So a tradition arose of singing dance music to Gaelic nonsense syllables — vocal rhythms that kept feet moving even when the instruments were silent. This is called puirt-à-beul, which means "music of the mouth," and it's still alive today. In this lesson, Tony McManus teaches Na Gossidich — a short, rhythmic, irresistible tune that means "the gossips." There's an unusual extra beat woven into the rhythm, which is said to represent one gossip always getting the last word. Tony calls these small tunes "single-celled organisms of Celtic music" — deceptively simple, full of life. In his hands on guitar, they become little percussive explosions.

Dive into a tradition → https://www.thefolkmusicacademy.com/courses/49?lesson_id=745

Lea Rig is a song by Robert Burns, Scotland's beloved national poet — the man who also gave us Auld Lang Syne. Tony McManus knows Burns's world intimately: he played guitar on seven of the fourteen CDs in a landmark project to record every song Burns ever wrote. In this lesson, Tony brings his own arrangement of Lea Rig, inspired in part by Scottish singer Rod Patterson's version. What makes this lesson special is Tony's warmth around music theory. The arrangement uses wonderfully rich chords — but Tony's message is clear and encouraging: don't be frightened. These "complex" chords are just four notes with fancy names, and once you see that, they stop being scary. He also shows how to use harmonics — letting a note ring out like a bell — to give the melody a beautiful, glowing quality.

Dive into a tradition → https://www.thefolkmusicacademy.com/courses/49?lesson_id=744

David Glenn's Jig is a Scottish pipe jig that Tony McManus first heard on an early album by Capercaillie, the beloved Scottish folk band. The tune spoke to him immediately. In this lesson, Tony teaches not just the notes, but a principle that transforms how you play any melody: anticipation. The way you finger a passage right now should be shaped by what comes next — whether you're heading into a repeat or turning a corner into a new section.

It's the kind of insight that sounds simple but changes how you approach the guitar forever. Tony also shares chord ideas from his friend Donald Shaw, which give this arrangement a warmth and harmonic richness that goes far beyond what you'd expect from a pipe jig.

Dive into a tradition → https://www.thefolkmusicacademy.com/courses/49?lesson_id=743

When most people think of Celtic music, they think of Ireland and Scotland. But Tony McManus has spent years exploring the living Celtic folk traditions of mainland Europe — particularly Brittany in northwest France. In this lesson, he teaches Bloavez Mad, a tune by Perig Herber, a musician who was central to bringing the Highland bagpipes into Breton folk music. The Bretons have their own traditional bagpipe too — smaller, higher-pitched, and deceptively loud. Bloavez Mad means Happy New Year in Breton, and it's a beautiful piece. Tony found it almost by accident one afternoon, when the melody simply fell out of his fingers. Dive into a tradition

Irene Meldrum's Welcome to Bon Accord is a classic Highland pipe march — the kind of tune that has been part of the Scottish tradition for generations. But there's a wonderful story woven through this lesson. During a previous teaching session, one of Tony McManus's students accidentally played the wrong chord in the fourth part. Instead of correcting him, Tony stopped, listened, and said: play that again. It was better than what Tony had been playing for twenty years. That chord is now affectionately called the Chapman C, named after the student who discovered it by accident. This lesson is about more than a pipe tune — it's about staying open to what you didn't intend to play. Dive into a tradition → https://www.thefolkmusicacademy.com/courses/49?lesson_id=741

Miss Campbell of Shiness is a traditional Scottish tune originally written for the Highland bagpipes. In this new lesson, Tony McManus takes that melody and finds its true home on acoustic guitar. Rather than trying to imitate the pipes, Tony focuses on what matters: the melody, the ornamentation, and the beautiful minor-key feeling that makes this tune so compelling. It's a masterclass in how a great guitarist approaches music from another tradition — not to copy it, but to understand it and make it his own. Dive into a tradition → https://www.thefolkmusicacademy.com/courses/49?lesson_id=739

Dónal Lunny — the figure behind Planxty, the Bothy Band, and Moving Hearts — composed "Declan", a slow air for a once-in-a-generation concert in Dublin celebrating the legacy of Sean O'Riada. Tony McManus discovered a recording of that concert on YouTube and, with his guitar already tuned to DADGAD, found that the tune seemed to settle into place almost on its own. In this lesson, Tony reveals the harmony behind the melody: a three-note cluster that recurs throughout like a signature, one of DADGAD's most satisfying chord shapes — a full six-string voicing where every string is doing something different.

Dive into a tradition → https://www.thefolkmusicacademy.com/courses/49?lesson_id=738

The Humors of Tulla is an Irish reel from County Clare with a story behind it. Tony McManus learned this tune from his late guitar hero Tony Cuff — a traditional musician from the band Ossian whose album "When First I Came to Caledonia" was one of the first times Tony heard traditional music played on guitar from the inside. Cuff wasn't a guitarist who discovered folk music — he was a folk musician who played guitar, and that distinction shaped how Tony thinks about everything he plays. In this lesson, Tony brings that sensibility to the tune, along with the ornamentation he absorbed from Cuff's style.
Dive into a tradition → https://www.thefolkmusicacademy.com/courses/49?lesson_id=737

In 1998, Tony McManus traveled to Québec to record his second album — engineered by André Marchand, co-founder of La Bottine Souriante. On the way to the airport, André played a cassette and Tony heard Exile for the first time. André gave him the tape. Tony learned it his own way and has been opening concerts with it ever since. In this Fingerstyle Guitar lesson, Tony breaks down the tune in DADGAD, covers his hybrid right-hand technique, left-hand ornaments, and the rubato feel André told him was inspired by uilleann pipes playing a slow air. Dive into a tradition → https://www.thefolkmusicacademy.com/courses/49?lesson_id=734