How to play in a local Irish music session with confidence

The humble egg shaker.

Get yourself a nice heavy one, the contents need to be heavy so they hit the wall with impact.

It's very easy to make one if you don't have one - something like a kinder egg or a food box - anything really will do it.

Find something heavy to go inside and bingo you've got yourself a shaker.

Hold it as shown in the video.

Keep your wrist fused so your arm is pretty much straight.

Move your arm back and forth without stopping.

Emphasise beat 1 for a reel. You can vary it to beats 1 and 3 or even 2 and 4 for a lighter feel.

Bones.

Rhythm bones.

You can buy them quite cheaply or make them from wood or even bone without too much difficulty.

Put a rubber band on one bone and hold it between your middle and ring fingers very loosely - dangling.

Hold the other one firmly as shown on the video.

Twist it to the right and the left as demonstrated to make the sound.

Playing jigs is easier than reels so that's what I demonstrate in the video.

You will need a bodhran for this part.

Or a tambourine or any frame drum.

Actually you can practice on a hardback book and a pen for the moment.

We are learning to play a reel in this lecture.

4 beats to the bar.

Play beat 1 louder.

A waltz is 3 beats with the heavy accent on beat 1.

A jig is like a fast double waltz and has 6 beats with the accent on beats 1 and 4.

The Dan Moi is another easy instrument to play.

Any jews harp will do although the lip played dan moi are easier in my opinion.

I'm using one in G but anything will do for now.

I get mine from soundforhealth.com - they are really cheap and great fun to play.

Hold it in the left hand and pluck the pointy end with your right thumb pushing it away from you.

BE CAREFUL NOT TO SPIKE YOUR TONGUE.

I'll show you how to play in the video.

Grab yourself a harmonica.

Put your mouth over holes 1 and 2 or even 3 as well and follow the instructions.

You simply breathe out and in the get the chord pattern.

Please watch the video for detailed instructions.

Spoons.

So many different types of spoon are available.

I'm using silver ones here but they don't feel comfortable - I might re-film that with plastic spoons.

Plastic spoons have a better sound to me and are much easier to play so I would recommend trying different types and sizes. I might re-film this with plastic spoons to show how easy they are to play.

Wooden spoons can be great as well.

In this video we learn the roll (across your outstretched fingers) and a decorative flick which can be used as a triplet and works really nicely in jigs.

So that's the course wrapped up.

You should now have enough skills on some of these instruments to go to a session and make some great contributions to the group!

Please let me know how you get on and if there are any follow up or extension ideas (courses) you would like me you do.