Seth Austen

by  Seth Austen

Welcome to this issue of Mandolin Sessions®. Since it’s now in the winter months, we’ll play Winter Apples, an Irish reel. I first learned this tune on guitar and recorded a fingerstyle arrangement of  it on my 1984 album, Christmas Day In The Morning. I originally found this tune in O’Neill’s Music of Ireland, number 1513. I recently heard the same tune with a different title, Galway Reel, on a 78 by  Frank Neylon with Paddy Cronin.

Pay careful attention to pick direction when playing Winter Apples. This tune has a number of passages that switch back and forth between  triplets and eighth notes. When playing successive eighth notes I generally use alternate picking for each pair, DU DU (down up, down  up). For a group of triplets I play DUD (down up down). For quarter  notes I play a down pick. Let’s look at the rhythm of measure 8:  triplet, two eighths, quarter, two eighths. This same rhythm is repeated in measures 9 through 12. I would play this passage DUD DU D  DU for each measure. Similarly, in measure 4 we have a triplet followed by eighth notes, I’d play this measure DUD DU DU DU.

Let’s also look at measures 13-14. Here I break the usual rule of playing a quarter note with a down pick, because the quarter note  falls on the “and” of the first beat. The rhythm of this measure is syncopated; eighth, quarter, eighth, quarter, two eighths. I’d play this DU-U D DU.

A technique often used by Irish fiddlers is to slur across the down beat. We can replicate this on mandolin by playing hammer-ons or pull- offs. This is an effective way to create subtle variations in the melody, and also to reduce monotony of having a down pick on every down beat. There are a few examples of this in the A part. In all of these instances, the next note after the slurred note would be played with an up pick as it falls on the “and”. Once you’ve played these variations as written, try the same idea in other phrases of the tune.

In traditional Irish music it’s important to not play the exact same variations or ornamentation each time through a tune. For example, play measure 1 without an ornament, and then on the repeat of that  melodic phrase in measure 5 play the ornament as written.

Have fun playing Winter Apples! See you next time.

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