Learn to play this fun, popular and easy jig - 'The Kesh'

This lecture describes the tune and the the course giving you the structure and how we are going to learnt.

The tune has an A part and a B part both of which are normally played twice and this is described as AABB.

There are six beats per bar in this tune but to simplify learning, and this is something I do when I'm learning a new tune very often, we will take just two notes per bar - the bones of the tune - for this course and fill in the gaps in 'The Kesh part 2' which is a separate course.

It all became too big as I was filming so I decided to split it up to make it easier for you to learn.

Any course in my INSTANT HARMONICA series needs only two things:

a harmonica (key of C, 10 holes, diatonic)

and the ability to play single notes

I'll show you how to do that now in this lecture

Make your mouth into the shape you might use if you whistle - it's known as the pucker, pursed lip or kiss shape. Allow your lower lip to drop and push the harmonica in a little; the further it goes in the better it will sound! Relax your lips to let the harmonica in and gradually try to get the shape that gives you a single note.

Some people use a pencil or straw to model the shape you need so try that as well.

I have a bigger course with five lectures on this subject if you want to go deeper - it's called 'INSTANT HARMONICA - how to get single notes in 5 easy steps' so dive in and take that one if you like

The more complicated way is called 'tongue blocking' but I will not go into it here except to say you use your tongue to block the holes to the left (or sometimes the right) side of the hole you want to play. Here's another of my courses that explores the use of the tongue in harmonica playing - 'Killer Harmonica sounds using the tongue and bending notes'

Starting the tune.

Here I will give you the first few notes.

Black arrow pointing up means breathe OUT

Red arrow pointing down means breathe IN

Get used to playing the first few notes before moving on please.

I've added an audio file of me playing the tune three times with a backing track. It's quite slow but may not seem like it when you first hear it! You can use it as you get used to playing the notes I show you.

If you would like a slower version message me and I'll make one.

This lecture describes how to play the top line of music.

Play along as I write the notes on the board please.

Remember right now it's best for you yo just play the bones and I will play the missing notes so you get the feel for the tune.

You will be able to play the entire tune with all the notes by the time you complete both parts of the Kesh course so allow yourself to work slowly in baby steps and don't get demoralised - take it easy!

This lecture describes how to play the second line of music.

This is good news because apart from the last two notes it's the same as the first line!

A lot of Irish music - celtic and folk in general has a lot of repetition so when you see something with loads of notes the truth is that you only need to learn half of it and the rest just duplicates.

This lecture describes how to play the top line of the B section.

Have a listen to the whole thing and let's pick the bones out of it.

It really becomes very easy when you pick out the bones. Hope you agree!

Pause when you need to anytime.

Gradually speed up where you can.

So let's play the whole third line and play it over and over.

You can see the repetition - the first two bars are repeated in the last line.

Get your starting note and let's play the whole thing as far as we've learnt.

This lecture describes how to play the last line of music. Nearly there!

The end of the tune goes up into a dramatic end.

Let's play the whole of the B section now.

And next let's play the whole thing with repeats AABB gradually picking up the pace.

At the end you can go up adding 8, 9, 10 breathing out, or go down using 6, 5, 4.

Let's leave it there as far as learning the notes is concerned however the next lectures give you the chance to practise what you know and also to learn a new tune - the scale of C.

Time to play!

Have a play along with me but just the bones as you have learn.

We will learn all the rest in the Kesh part 2

This lecture explains what all the notes are and where they are

Here you will learn the scale of C which is a very useful tune for playing tunes

If you aldeady know this stuff you can skim or skip it