Irish Fiddle Lessons - How to Play "Farewell To Ireland"

Hi, I'm Ian Walsh with OnlineLessonVideos.com. And today, I'm teaching a request that came in for real and its tune called Farewell to Ireland. I've also heard it called Farewell to Aaron. And it has four parts and the first three are in kind of an A Dorian key, and the fourth part lifts into an A major key for few notes. So here it is real called Farewell to Ireland. [Demonstration] Let's begin this tune by sliding our first finger up on the G and the D string up into our first position right here. And the notes you should be hitting are an A and an E and try to hit them together. It should sound like this. [Demonstration] Okay, and you can test that and see if it’s in tune by playing your open A and E string. [Demonstration] Good enough for now. So the first couple of notes here are an A followed by C and then to the E. Play this with three bows to start. [Demonstration] Okay. Here are some important notes, we’re going to add rolls to them which really gives the tune Farewell to Ireland with it’s feeling. [Demonstration] Okay. Just for now, I'll show you a few of the notes after we use an F sharp in this key. [Demonstration] Okay, just let's— [Demonstration] You put all that together. [Demonstration] One more time. [Demonstration] Now, let's add into these rolls, we’re going to roll the low A and then we’re going to roll the E on the D string. [Demonstration] Let just work on rolls for a second here, the low A. [Demonstration] Alternate when you're practicing rolls with the down bow and then followed up with an up bow. Let's start on the down bow. [Demonstration] Okay. So now we’re going to play this sequence of three notes here, the A rolls, C and then E roll and now we’re just to use two bows. So slur the A roll and the C and then change your bowing for the E roll. [Demonstration] Okay, rolls tend to sound a little bit better if you're playing that a little bit faster. [Demonstration] Okay. [Demonstration] Let's try that whole section. [Demonstration] Okay, and let's continue on with the rest of the first part.