Irish traditional singing is an untrained art. It was and is a celebration of culture and the tradition of story-telling.

In this course, you will be encouraged to find your voice and interpret traditional ballads. It was the tradition at an Irish session that most people sang, whether they had a good voice or not. While they sang, the others listened or joined in, if it was that type of song. We seem to have lost a lot of that confidence and the patience to listen to each other. This course aims to help you find the confidence to learn and sing a song or if you can do that already, to explore an alternative genre.

You will also gain insights into the way of life in Old Ireland as some common themes and events are sung about in each ballad. Before each ballad is sung, I will explain background details of each song so you can gain a deeper understanding of it and therefore, learn how to best interpret the song.

 As well as breaking down the first verse of each song to learn the air, you will also get the chance to practice some techniques such as phrasing, variation and ornamentation. We also take a look at lilting and how the tempo of the song can affect techniques.

You will have the chance to practice each song along with me, as each video has captions and also to practice the techniques that are shown to you throughout,

Irish traditional singing is a rare art-form and has many unique characteristics. Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, the biggest promoter of Irish Traditional Music runs competitions each year, called Fleadh Cheoil, where musicians, singers and dancers can compete against each other in different age-categories, with a view to winning an All-Ireland title in their competition. I have won titles at this level and you may be interested in competing as Comhaltas has many branches internationally - so some of these songs might suit you for such competitions.

Maybe, you just want to set yourself a challenge to learn a song or to gain deeper understanding of this particular type of singing. You may also be interested in the historical details of the songs. Whatever your motivation is, this is a unique opportunity to learn something interesting and challenging.