Category: Celtic music theory

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Artist interviews Celtic music theory

Nye Farley and Tiffany Schaefer live Irish accompaniment workshop, July 13th 2025

 

Myself and my very talented friend Tiffany Schaefer will be presenting a complete guide to accompanying Irish music on harp, guitar and any other stringed instrument (bouzouki, mandolin etc) on July the 13th! The workshop will be conducted over Zoom and will be a really fun opportunity to learn all about how to join in with folk sessions by ear. We’ll be sharing a little music theory knowledge, some simple ear training exercises and a whole host of fascinating tips that you can use to make your backing sound professional and musical, quickly and easily! The workshop will take place over Zoom with participants tuning in from across the globe. You’ll then receive a link to watch the whole event back whenever you want, so you’ll be able to instantly review what you’ve learnt and come back to the tricky parts later! This will be an incredible opportunity to train your ears and pick up some really cool techniques from hugely experienced tutors so don’t miss your chance to join us; CLICK HERE to find out more and book your place today.

For viewers who missed the live event, please be aware that you can still pay to access the playback and accompanying materials from the workshop- just check out as usual and I’ll send you a log in link!

Questions? Click here to contact me.

Thanks to Jack Hughes for the beautiful fiddle playing! The tunes in this set are The Old Flail and Health to the Ladies.

Tiffany’s social media:

Mastering Celtic Music

Tiffany Harp and Song

Categories
Celtic music theory Chord scales for modes

How to play along with LOUD guitarists at folk sessions PART 2- CAGED system substitutions

In today’s video I’ll be continuing from my last video and showing you how you can combine the CAGED system with some handy shapes for common chord substitutions to enhance your playing as you move up the fretboard, to add interesting rhythmic and harmonic elements over the top of LOUD folk session guitar players!

Watch part 1 here.

Check out my book, Backing Guitar Techniques for Traditional Celtic Music for a complete guide.

CLICK HERE to join me and Tiffany Schaefer for our complete accompaniment Zoom workshop on July the 13th!

Categories
Celtic music theory Chord scales for modes

How to play along with LOUD guitarists at folk sessions… PART 1 – CAGED progressions

I’m finally back with another tutorial! This will be a two-parter, showing you how you can play over the top of LOUD guitarists in sessions while still being heard and adding something interesting to the overall sound. In this part we’ll be looking at how the CAGED system can be used to quickly find alternative chord voicings higher up the fretboard. I’ll also be showing you how you can take those and use them to quickly find the three main chords for popular major keys. In part two, I’ll be looking at some more advanced tips and tricks which will enable you to add substitutions and cover tunes in minor keys and the mixolydian mode.

My upcoming harp and guitar Zoom accompaniment workshop with Tiffany Schaefer is coming up very soon, on July 13th 2025! Click here to find out more and book your spot!

The PREVIOUS workshop can be watched back by clicking here.

Check out The Guitarist’s Guide to Chord Inversions for quick gateways to all sorts of crazy chord voicings right across the fretboard!

Categories
Celtic music theory Chord scales for modes

Inversions for Irish guitarists part 2: chords in A major for Ger The Rigger

Here’s another video from Folk Friend Celtic Guitar Tutorials, celebrating the release of my latest book (see below) with a guide to how to use inversion shapes for Irish and general Celtic guitar accompaniment in the key of A major / ionian! I’ll be using an Irish polka called Ger The Rigger which you can find in the Folk Friend tune playalongs pack with on-screen guitar chords and played on a loop at three different speeds- perfect for practicing your Irish guitar backing!

Guitarist’s Guide To Chord Inversions Book

Tune Playalongs

Categories
Celtic music theory Ear training

The best kept secret about Irish guitar chords in minor keys. Ssshh!

In this week’s free Irish guitar lesson from Folk Friend, I’m going to be letting you in on a little secret about backing tunes in minor keys… You can BLEND THE MODES! No longer will you be tied to either building chords from the dorian or aeolian mode… Now you can mix and match for super-cool chromatic effects!

I’ll be applying this mind boggling technique to my free playalong video for The Cliffs Of Moher which you can watch here:

Categories
Celtic music theory Chord scales for modes DADGAD Drop D Ear training Strumming patterns

Very first Irish guitar lesson: the ultimate top 5 tips for beginner Irish guitar accompaniment

https://youtu.be/K-2QuP35y70

In this free lesson from Folk Friend I’ll be running complete beginners through the top 5 tips for complete Irish guitar beginners! I’ll be showing you how to hold your guitar and plectrum, some of the best things to learn to begin with, which chords fit with tunes in the most common keys and general tips for how you can improve your Irish guitar backing fast!

Categories
Celtic music theory Jazz chord theory

Jazz chords for Irish guitar lesson 2 – the ionian, dorian, mixolydian and aeolian modes

This is the second free Irish guitar lesson from Folk Friend covering tetrads or four note “jazz chords”. This week I’ll be demonstrating how to use the principles covered in part one with classic Irish tunes in each of the four modes used in north western european folk music, ionian, dorian, mixolydian and aeolian.

Part 1 is available here

And part 3 here

I’ll be demonstrating with my playalongs for:

Maid Behind the Bar

The Butterfly

Fahy’s: Become a Folk Friend member now for access to this and 20 other playalongs, with guides to the theory and diagrams for all the chords used!

Categories
Celtic music theory Jazz chord theory

How to add jazz chords to Irish guitar backing PART 1: The three types of seven chord

In today’s free Irish guitar lesson from Folk Friend, I’ll be running you through the three families of 7 chords and how you can implement them to make your traditional folk guitar accompaniment sound more jazzy! We’ll be looking at major 7 chords, minor 7 chords and dominant 7 chords and discovering which ones fit with traditional tunes in certain keys and why.

My Celtic music theory for beginners videos can be found below:

Part 1

Part 2

 

The rest of my series on jazz chords in folk guitar can be found below:

Part 2

Part 3

Categories
Celtic music theory Chord scales for modes

How to pick chords for Irish / Scottish music in the dorian, mixolydian or aeolian modes- Folk Friend

In this week’s free Irish / Scottish / Celtic guitar lesson, I’ll be finishing off my series of videos about how to pick chords by ear. In this one I’ll be covering the dorian, aeolian and mixolydian modes and showing you how to apply what you have already learnt in my previous videos to quickly and easily pick the right chords to back your favourites folk tunes every time!

Here is the rest of the series:

Complete Guide to Celtic Music Theory part 1

Complete Guide to Celtic Music Theory part 2

Easiest Way to Pick Chords By Ear part 1

Easiest Way to Pick Chords By Ear part 2

Categories
Celtic music theory Chord scales for modes Ear training

Easiest way to pick chords for Celtic guitar accompaniment PART 2

In my previous free guitar lesson I showed you how to pick the right chords for Irish / Celtic music by ear. I realised after I’d made it that there was another chord available to you, so I’m following up with one more type of simple chord substitution you can use to make your Irish backing guitar more interesting! If you haven’t already seen it, watch part 1 here.

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