Curiousity

[Finistere]

Short scale Irish tenor banjo played badly, so my wife says and I'm not arguing with the one that has to be obeyed. Kit

[MinusHD]

Having been a professional bassist in the past I decided I would explore Celtic music a little bit, so I bought an inexpensive Irish Whistle (Tin Whistle) some months ago and went through a handful of beginner lessons on YouTube. I can play 4 songs, but not very well... and I haven't worked on it lately. I did enjoy starting learning something new, but it's definitely not easy by any means.

[Blupiper]

I noodle around on the tin whistle (or is it penny whistle?) when I find spare time. Another mental and dexterity challenge, with the added bonus of being very easy to pack and carry around.

JMB

[HighlandPark]

Short scale Irish tenor banjo played badly, so my wife says and I'm not arguing with the one that has to be obeyed. Kit

My tenors are also short-scale -- lot's of fun and can cut through the din like nothing else, except maybe big pipes...

[Finistere]

My tenors are also short-scale -- lot's of fun and can cut through the din like nothing else, except maybe big pipes...

Hi highlandpark, do you tune your banjo to GDAE? I've been thinking of going to ADAE as Enda Scahill does, I know its an octave higher but sometimes that G string can sound bad, I've tried different gauges without success, what do you think? Kit

[HighlandPark]

Hi highlandpark, do you tune your banjo to GDAE? I've been thinking of going to ADAE as Enda Scahill does, I know its an octave higher but sometimes that G string can sound bad, I've tried different gauges without success, what do you think? Kit

Hey Kit,

The flabby G string can be an issue with tenors tuned GDAE. Enda tunes to ADAE because it was easier when he was a wee lad learning. He just never switched.

I say stick with GDAE tuning and find strings that work. I use 40-30-20-12 gauges on my three tenors, and two of them are vintage, one with the original skin head. What gauges are you using?

[Finistere]

Hey Kit,

The flabby G string can be an issue with tenors tuned GDAE. Enda tunes to ADAE because it was easier when he was a wee lad learning. He just never switched.

I say stick with GDAE tuning and find strings that work. I use 40-30-20-12 gauges on my three tenors, and two of them are vintage, one with the original skin head. What gauges are you using?

Hi Highland park, I've tried 44,34,22,12 and 40,30,20,11, I still get a bad sound, my banjo is a Oakwood 17 fret, perhaps it just me and my wife is right. Kit

[OC Richard]

It's funny, when you get Irish banjo players together soon enough they'll start talking string gauges!

Probably because they're tuning GDAE on an instrument not designed to play that low.

Anyhow though the Highland pipes were my first instrument (40 years this year) I followed soon after by picking up the uilleann pipes, Irish flute, whistle, and bodhran.

For quite a few years I played Spanish pipes too, and for just a few years the Cornish pipes. (All these Celtic pipes led to my screenname Pancelticpiper which I use elsewhere.)

Some clips, first playing uilleann pipes, with organ accompaniment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onGGxt19ksg

whistle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35SqhcSojn8

and the big pipes, at our last contest, sorry for the wind noise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZxvJm1--90

[Finistere]

It's funny, when you get Irish banjo players together soon enough they'll start talking string gauges!

Probably because they're tuning GDAE on an instrument not designed to play that low.

Anyhow though the Highland pipes were my first instrument (40 years this year) I followed soon after by picking up the uilleann pipes, Irish flute, whistle, and bodhran.

For quite a few years I played Spanish pipes too, and for just a few years the Cornish pipes. (All these Celtic pipes led to my screenname Pancelticpiper which I use elsewhere.)

Some clips, first playing uilleann pipes, with organ accompaniment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onGGxt19ksg

whistle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35SqhcSojn8

and the big pipes, at our last contest, sorry for the wind noise

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZxvJm1--90

Irish tenor Banjo players
I'm not going to comment on that, Doh I just did!!!!