How To Play Cooley's Reel - Full Guitar Tutorial (+ Accordion)

[@MdriscollIRR]

Hey Aodan, love the reels. I just stumbled onto your site and I’m digging it. I’m over here in the States and have been playing jigs, reels and other fiddle tunes for about 40 years. I play guitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo and keys.Just restarted playing with local band members. It’s good to hear traditional tunes played well at tempo. Thanks for a great refresher. Peace and music Michael

[@seansavage7010]

You are a brilliant teacher

[@aodancoynemusic]

Thanks for the kind comment! 😃

[@virtualobject]

Feel like I've come home, this is going to be good. Just brilliant.

[@sistiemoose7924]

Hey Aidan, loving this thank you. I am the guitarist for a folk band and trying to really broaden my guitar abilities as I tend to stick to standard tunings and fall easily out of folk style strumming patterns. So I am going to be learning this and then more of your stuff too! this is just what I have been looking for, so thank you

[@aodancoynemusic]

Hi, thanks a million for the nice comment. Sorry about the delay in reply. I've been away on tour for the past 9 weeks and just catching up on things. If there's anything in particular that you'd like me to focus in on let me know and I'll try my best. Have fun exploring DADGAD! 🎸

[@anniebalsbaugh2093]

That was sweet music to my ears! Thanks for jumping in Shane! "Happy New Year!

[@aodancoynemusic]

Happy New Year to you too Annie! 😊

[@commissarchad]

Man, your stuff is awesome. My background is jazz, flamenco, and some metal. I can play guitar pretty well. Started playing at the local weekly Irish session two weeks ago, and needed to get that sweet thick DADGAD sound (my wife calls it DADBOD....). Your videos are just plain practical, I haven't played standard tuning since I watched your first video. Really appreciate your work man.

[@aodancoynemusic]

DADBOD, lol. I'm using that one 😂 That's class Tom, good to hear you're sitting into a local session. I tried my hand a jazz, I love it, but I need to set a lot more time aside for it. Some day! Would love to try flamenco too, never ventured into that territory before. Any suggestions?

[@Mr_Woohpa]

Really appreciate your thorough approach for this accompaniment! Thank you!

[@aodancoynemusic]

My pleasure! 😀🎸

[@JG-DivMan]

Great video! I always feel like my Dorian mode accompaniments (honestly, Mix, too) aren't as interesting as they could be. This video is just packed with good ideas on how to get past that. Thank you for sharing it!

[@aodancoynemusic]

Thanks for the kind comment John. I'm really glad to hear you find the tutorial helpful. Cheers 😀👍

[@brennenfitzgerald]

I see Shane Hayes, I upvote! However, Aodan, you rock as well.

[@aodancoynemusic]

I'll tell him you said hello Brennen! 😃👍

[@auralresource6243]

so great, thank you for sharing this knowledge! accompany video at the end very helpful too

[@aodancoynemusic]

I'm glad you found it helpful! Cheers for the kind comment 🎸😀

[@lackingsensation]

Awesome vids man, learning so much! Just wondering if it makes sense to have the "actual" chord in brackets or something. Maybe it would add more confusion, but I think personally it would help me apply this capo position to other tunes more easily. Thanks for being a great teacher and helping keep the sessions alive!!!!

[@aodancoynemusic]

I'm very glad to hear you're getting something out of the videos! I know where you're coming from with this suggestion. It's something I was struggling with when beginning this channel. I made 1 or 2 videos with the "actual" chords names and I just started getting comments saying it was awkward to follow. As an example, I would still have to say it's a D modal shape although it was a G modal chord on screen... So I settled on saying the shape names when I'm using the capo and the actual names when I don't use the capo. I plan on getting around to making more videos without the capo in different keys. But most people are just starting DADGAD and the use of the capo and similar shape chords is defo the fastest way to getting to sit and play in sessions. And that's the main goal, get people playing happily in sessions. Hope that answers that. Sorry it's not ideal though.

[@MrBcaradec]

As a box player I appreciate the lovely style of Shane. Never heard such lovely variations on the Cooleys . Does he play b/c?

[@jonhoffmann8132]

Wow! That bonus section with just Sean seems a bit faster than the tutorial but it’s helping!

[@nature2964]

Great tutorial! 🍀🍀

[@VeryPenguinz]

I seriously haven't been enamoured like this for music in ages, thanks again! Do you recommend learning the melody aswell, or is it not really necessary for joining in on a session? (for guitar players) cheers

[@VeryPenguinz]

Also, in your tabs video of Cooley's reel in the 2nd repeat it the chords go to Bb and then Gm but not in this one. Is it usually played? or like accompaniment can choose to improv these kind of changes if they want to. I am very unaware of lot's of the context of how irish music sessions and accompaniment etc works haha thanks again lovely video

[@aodancoynemusic]

Thanks for the kind comment Very Penguinz, I'm very glad to hear this! It's good to at least know the melody of the tune, even if you get to a stage were you can humm the tune in your head. That way you can become more fluid with your guitar chord changes, it makes it much easier to follow the melody when backing Irish tunes, rather than being stuck play something standard like a 1-4-5 progression.

[@aodancoynemusic]

And yes, you'll find a lot of different ways to back Irish tunes. Some guitarists keep it solid with lots of root drones, (Emulating the Uillenn Pipe drones and regulators), other modern Irish guitarist introduce lots of jazz chords into their accompaniment. So you can take it as far as you like, it's an evolving Tradition, so you can have as much fun with it as you like. You just have to keep in mind that the melody comes first in the Tradition, so depending on the Irish session that you sit in on, just be respectful to the melody player and be away of their style, try to compliment it rather than overpower it. Hope that helps. If you've any questions, just let me know. Enjoy the process! 🎸👍😀

[@VeryPenguinz]

@@aodancoynemusic Thanks so much, having a blast 🥳

[@DenisSanacore]

Great !

[@aodancoynemusic]

Cheers Denis! 👍🎸

[@johanpeeters7769]

Great playing!

[@aodancoynemusic]

Cheers Johan! 👍🎸

[@danydhondt4677]

great video as always Aodan, thanks. But how on earth do you prevent the pick from turning between your fingers? You put a lot of pressure, no? I'd like to have your right hand technique :)

[@aodancoynemusic]

Thanks Dany! The little finger can take time to build up strength. In an ideal world you'd try and keep your wrist and hand loose and easy when fretting chords. It can be tricky and it's something I have to work on myself. I'll send you a more detailed email about it now 👍

[@BillypilgrimII]

fantastic this one!

[@seankinsella4564]

Hi Aodan. Great job on your vids well done and thank you. Im an experienced guitar player from a Blues/Rock/Fingerpicking background. I thought, what better way to refresh my dedication to guitar than to dive into the music of my ancestors. The one issue im having is the timing of the fills and note placement between chords, it seems a little off to me. Is there a particular tip or video to help me better understand the timing of the chord changes? I can play everything your playing, and i can strum the way your strumming, but its 'when' to do it thats catching me out.

[@aodancoynemusic]

Hi Sean, cheers for the question, it's a actually a really good one that I'm finding hard to explain over text. But I don't want to dismiss it so I'll give it a go.. If I was teaching a lesson there are two approaches. It could be very methodical and go through each phrase of the tune slowly to figure out what moving lines fits with the melody exactly. Or I could go the other direction and encourage the students to try and follow the tune themselves. The first approach would teach how to back this particular tune like I do with this particular melody player exactly, but the second approach gets into the real musical nuances which have to do with the feel of a tune and personal interpretation and melding with whatever melody player you end up sitting with in a session. In this video I'm backing Shane Hayes the accordion player, and my chord changes and timing for this tune are my attempt to link up with his particular bounce and style. My approach could be very different if I was backing a different melody player, like his brother on the fiddle who has a different emphasis and phrasing to his playing. So my suggestion for the stage that you seem to be at would be to start finding your own style and feel, It sounds like you're well ahead of the pack. I wouldn't get too stuck into the nitty gritty, it's more important to try and sit in on as many Irish sessions as you can. Learn the melody of each tune so your ears knows where the tune is going before it gets there, and listen to lots of different melody players playing the same tune to develop a feel and style of your own. But if you do want to go deeper on the topic just send me an email and I'll try help out. It's [e-mail]. I hope that wasn't too much of a rant. Cheers

[@seankinsella4564]

@@aodancoynemusic Aodan that's a great help and I really appreciate the advice. I understand the difficulty of the question and how hard it is to explain something you have improvised. You like to flow in the song like me and give it what it needs at that moment, and that may not be the same every time. This style and timing is quite different to what I'm used to. I suppose it's like I'm learning a new language, i know all the words and their meanings already, but I need the guidance to start forming sentences before I can truly speak.

[@KayLee19920707]

Hi Aodan, I have listened one of your Irish songs(Not English)from a Chinese radio program. I thought it was beautiful and it healed me a lot. Sadly I didn’t get the name which can’t be found on your Sound Cloud. It will be grateful if you could give me some hints. 😊

[@aodancoynemusic]

Wow, I didn't know my music was being played on Chinese radio! Good to know. I believe the song you are referring to is called "Tá Mé Mo Shuí". It's on my first album. I don't have it on Spotify or Soundcloud unfortunately. The full album is for sale here bit.ly/IfWeOnlyKnew It was also recorded on RTE Radio, here is the link, the track is played at 25.04: www.rte.ie/radio/rnag/sinead-ar-maidin/programmes/2015/0205/678022-sinad-ar-maidin-dardaoin-5-feabhra-2015/ I hope that's the correct song and helps you.

[@KayLee19920707]

@@aodancoynemusic That’s the song! Thanks a lot for the link! 😃✌️I’m glad to find it and listen it again.Please accept my sincere wishes for the New Year. I hope you will continue to enjoy good life and good music as well.

[@aodancoynemusic]

Thanks Kay, I'm glad it was the correct song. Cheers for the support and listening 😁👍

[@s.duchesne7154]

Hello, I really enjoyed the lesson though I"m beginning and not at such a good level, it gives a good energy. Really enjoyed too the sound of the instrument and got curiosity, could you tell me which guitar you play on tais reel ? Thank you a lot for your work on youtube.

[@aodancoynemusic]

Glad you enjoyed it! Yes, I'm playing a AJ30C McIlroy guitar. It's a great custom made jumbo size guitar. You can find more about them at mcilroyguitars.co.uk/ 👍🎸

[@s.duchesne7154]

@@aodancoynemusic ok, I'll check that, thank you for the link !

[@kevd2908]

Class

[@aodancoynemusic]

Cheers Kev! 😀

[@leeworrell9928]

Sexy guitar! 😉❤️👍 and great playing lads!

[@aodancoynemusic]

Thanks Lee 😊🎸

[@MrJetplanemusic]

Sounds a little like The Sailor's Return. (I know it's not, though)

[@aodancoynemusic]

Good ear! It does have a similar vibe.

[@ianenglish123]

XLNT

[@aodancoynemusic]

Cheers 👍

[@George1Johnson-i1l]

Landen Ports

[@baz7593]

Man I absolutely love yr channel it's amazing,I'm a novice guitar player but love dadgad and I've Improved so much thanks to yr channel, brilliant stuff. I am going to put in a request if I could I love to be able to figure out kzbin.info/www/bejne/mmamg5yDr76Jl7c Such a beautiful song and simple would be perfect haha Thanks again man

[@aodancoynemusic]

Thanks very much Baz! I'm very glad to hear you're finding the tutorials helpful. Thanks for the kind comment! And what a song choice! It's fantastic, one of my favs. It's usually called "Now Westlin Winds". I hadn't heard that version by Old Blind Dog before. Have you heard Dick Gaughan sing it? Here's the link - kzbin.info/www/bejne/rIuaoIx5rZuneNk I actually haven't learned it myself yet. I will get around to it though. It's now on the to do list 👍 Cheers