O'Neill's Music of Ireland – Over 1,000 Fiddle Tunes | Violin Sheet Music Songbook | Irish Dance Music, Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes and Marches | Music Sales America | Edited by Miles Krassen

These are little tunes that you can learn to fill your repertoire of Irish music! Each tune is only about two or three lines, and you can just repeat them over and over. The print is nice and clear, and the font is not too small. It’s great to have a compilation of Irish Fiddle tunes in one volume like this! The only drawback is the binding, which makes it impossible to keep the book open on a music stand. But if you buy some little music clips, they work like a charm! They will clamp down on the pages and keep them open so you can read and play the tunes. I got mine on Amazon. It’s definitely something you need, because so many music books are bound this way.It will take me a very long time to get through even half of the tunes in this book. I look forward to getting started on them!

This recent purchase is my second copy. It is as far as I know the best available in America compilation of a substantial fraction of the library of Irish fiddle tunes. Difficulty of the tunes varies from moderately easy to knock-your-socks off hard. Translated to the guitar a lot of the tunes are easier to finger pick than flat pick, no surprise there. Since Irish music uses several distinct modes, more than a handful of tunes are easier on a guitar with alternative tuning. Same is true for fiddle; many are really hard to play or don't sound right with open fifth tuning, sound better cross tuned or with one of the other dozen or so old tuning schemes. So it is best to remember this is a library of tunes and it's up to the reader to learn them one by one.The book itself consists of a table of contents, two introductions, several chapters of music, an index. Listings in the table of contents include: Introduction, Ornamentation in Irish Fiddle Music, Jigs, Slip Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes, Set Dances, O’Carolan's Compositions, Index.This book is a tune book, not an exclusive fakebook for the fiddle or any other one instrument. It has no chords, no tabs, no music except the tunes themselves. I got my first copy in the 1970s and it did me good through my first banjo and my five year initial flirtation with the fiddle. A few years ago I started practicing the tunes for guitar, now am adding back another banjo. But I've played some of the tunes on clarinet and done running mental transcriptions for bass clef brass. For practice the most of the tunes are reminiscent of the middling pages of Arban's method book, some are easier, some are harder, a few a lot harder. Since these are real historic tunes and some of them are really beautiful.Many of the tunes are in C, D or G with enough in F, B flat or other keys to make it interesting. By interesting I mean that anyone who reads music beyond their first couple of years of lessons needs to learn to mentally transcribe keys as they play so there is some practice in that art here. Not much, unless you like to transcribe back and forth between C, D and G.There are some old favorites: Miss McLeod's Reel, Rickett's Hornpipe, Green Sleeves. This being Irish music most of the old British, Cajun, American traditional and Scottish favorites are missing. Saint Ann's Reel is one notable absence and you won't find anything from the Presbyterian hymnal in here. This, with the fact that there are lots of tunes unfamiliar to most of us Americans makes it important to remember that this is not just a songbook but is a library, can be used as a method book and for sight reading and transcription-on-the-fly practice, and does have some beautiful tunes.

Comprehensive collection of folk tunes

Came in great condition. The corners were a little bent, but the seller mentioned that in the description. The pages are in perfect condition. No writings at all (surprising). Very satisfied with the book and the seller’s customer service.

This is a valuable source as it has a wealth of tunes. However, I have some reservations. It doesn't seem to have many classic tunes starting from before the second half of the 20th century. For example, Cooley's Reel, Love at the Endings. Also, as a flute player, the ornamentations seem particularly fiddle-centric and not necessarily useful for the flute. Although this does not take away from the essence of the tunes themselves, it is distracting because I feel I should at least try them out.

Great stuff. It's big and easy to read. More tunes than you could ever need. The binding seems to be of high quality. It is mostly monophonic without too many fast position moves or hard stuff. It's very easy without being boring. You might want something to hold it open though.

No matter how little or deep you are into learning Irish music, this book is a great resource of tunes collected by the old chief of police of Chicago. If you're ever in town, please stop by and check out Chief O'Neill's Pub on Elston Ave. Along with being decorated with old artifacts of the chief on the walls, they provide great music sessions, concerts, & music workshops.

The book came packaged extremely well, love all the detail, music included and that it was in practically mint condition. I will definitely buy from this seller again, just adore the book and have learned a few songs already.

Excellent book of fiddle tunes. A must have. Like so many of us fiddlers, there are versions of tunes we have in other collections but one thing I noticed is that some of the tunes in O'Neill are not arranged the same way. Players with well-developed skills will enjoy these. Highly recommend having this collection.

Nice layout. Lovely collection.

item is in good condition as described and arrived well before expected. A wealth of Irish fiddle tunes, some of which I will use for classical guitar sight reading exercises. I can't comment on the editing quality as I only just have the book

Chi più ne ha più ne metta! Contiene quasi tutte le canzoni più tipiche irlandesi e una miriade di altre melodie. Stra consigliato a chi vuole provare a portare un pezzo d’irlanda Nella propria musica.

Every tune you’ll ever need & more.