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Irish Music Guitar Primer Video Lecture - Guitar Become a Pro (English)
Text Transcript from Video
if you're holding an acoustic guitar and
trying to channel the depths of your
Irish heritage there is a solid chance
that alcohol may be involved so now is
as good a time as any to kind of go over
some of the cornerstones of Irish music
and how you can play them now the an
entire culture is worth of music is
impossible to go over in one video but I
just wanted to do maybe a couple simple
things that you can do
strumming wise rhythm is like a really
important part of Irish music so
strumming wise maybe like a little lead
thing and then an alternate tuning at
the end that we can try so the first
thing to sound or to make something
sound Irish is to play it in 6/8 time
right so all that means is you just
count to 6 for every bar right so
instead of 1 2 3 4 we're going to count
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 and this is
different than counting 2 3 twice when
you count to three one two three one two
three one two three that downbeat is
always going to be on the one so for
example like 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
we're going to do what's called a jig
and now a jig is commonly in this 6/8
timing and if you've ever tried to dance
a jig right and I know that you've tried
to dance a jig is it's all about going
back and forth right so if we cap 6 and
you think of like a to move thing like
the elbow is accented on the 1 and the
punch is on the 4 would be like 1 2 3 4
5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
guitar strumming wise is really the same
principle except instead of using your
arm we're going to use the direction of
your pick or however if you're using
your thumb just here you're down in your
upstrokes right so we're just going to
do a G major chord because a lot of
Irish music is in G or the key of D but
we're going to do a G right here so
instead of going 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
that's a really steady beat there aren't
any accents we're going to add accents
to make it more lively and make it seem
more Irish so we're going to accent the
one and the four one two three four five
six one two three four five six and all
I'm doing is I'm adding a dynamic on the
one in the four right so the one is the
first down stroke and the four is going
to be an upstroke one two three six one
six so you're really kind of hearing the
back and forth movement of that rhythm
now to make it even more dynamic I don't
want to strum the entire chord I want to
start out with the lower part of it and
this is just dynamic strumming in
general you can do this for any type of
music and then I'm gonna focus on the
top part of this of the chord now when I
say the low part of the chord I'm kind
of focusing on the bottom three strings
right so like one two one two
alright down up down I'm not getting the
whole thing I'm just giving you all part
down up down and then for the four five
six I'm gonna get up down up so down up
down
down down down
and eventually your muscle-memory is
going to start to feel that switch
that's swinging in the hand and you can
do it a lot faster if you want to palm
mute it a little bit it can sound really
good too and then you can change for
it's just like a g2 Adi
be minor
okay so if you start playing things in
6/8 they'll kind of give it a little bit
of an Irish feel a lot of Irish music is
in that time signature as it's called
now I want to do something where we put
a little bit of lead on top of it and
we're just gonna use a really simple
scale just to see how it coordinates
with the beats that we're using right so
we're going to start on the twelfth fret
of the g string and which is also a g
and we're just going to play the first
four notes in the key of G which is a G
and a a B and a C okay so G is going to
be here a is going to be the tenth fret
on the B string B is going to be the
twelfth fret on the B string and C is
going to be the thirteenth fret all
right
so we're going to play them in order one
two three four we're just going to use
these four notes we're going to keep
really simple now again we're counting
it to six one two three four five six
one two three four five six so if we
assign every beat one of these notes one
two three right we're going to start
right there and have that be the first
three of the first three notes and then
we're going to have the next three the
four five six starting on the 2nd note
of this four note series ok so we have a
G a B now we're going to back off and go
a b c g a b a b c this is also a great
way to practice your alternate picking
so instead of going down down down down
down down I'm going down up down up down
up so every change of direction on every
single beat ok so all together we're
going to have the first six notes then
so again we're just kind of going
backwards through this scale there's our
next group of three which is a B a G a B
a I guess we have to six note parts one
two three four five six one two three
four five six
okay and we can kind of switch them
around any way you want but for this
example I'm just gonna have kind of like
an alternating part so the first one is
I'm ending on the second note all right
and then the second time I do it I'm
going to end on the G note which I'm
resolving the phrase because I'm ending
energy so that's why the first time when
I end it I'm going to end on a okay so
one two three four five six I'm ending
on the a so there's no resolution yet
the second time I do it
I'm just ending on the G that's why it
sounds like that phrase is closed right
so now if we do that over a dynamically
strum
it'll sound like this so I've just got
this like really simple loop prepared
which is just a G major chord over and
over again right and then you can kind
of start playing around with the G major
scale or whatever scale you want
and really just go back and forth like
that and what I'm doing is I'm matching
beats with the guitar one two three four
five six one two three four five six and
then after if you keep doing that
forever it'll never ever seem to stop
that's why if you notice is one two
three four five six one two three four
five six one two three four five six one
two three four five six
I'm kind of letting that one note take
three beats in a row and that's giving
some space and that's something that
traditionally uh in Irish music maybe
like a flute or a violin or something
else to play this but you can easily do
it on an acoustic guitar
another thing synonymous with Irish
music is the use of an alternate tuning
called dadgad now I personally have very
complicated relationship with alternate
tunings because I am so lazy when it
comes to down tuning and my guitar in
any way I've even like bought guitars
specifically to keep in another tuning
to help to keep myself from keeping in
anything but standard tuning but then
eventually those guitars just get tuned
to standard anyways and I never do it
anyways
but this is my Irish heritage so we're
actually going to take the effort to
tune down to dadgad it's not that hard
it seems like it's a monumental task but
it takes you two seconds right so we're
going to take the low E string tune that
down to a D the next three strings are
the same the B string is going to be do
tuned down to an A and the high E string
is also going to be to down to a D so
it'll sound like this now it's a very
open tuning and you can really do some
beautiful things with this not just in
Irish music but in anything and we're
going to go through a couple different
chords and make a chord progression that
we can play in 6/8 in like a jig time to
make something that doesn't sound quite
like a jig but something that's more
just kind of Irish traditional so like I
said before the key of D major is a
really popular one in Irish music and
that's what's great about this dadgad
tuning because euro way you can drone a
D right by just hitting the D string
let's just you can you just play it open
and is creating a suspended sound a
suspended chord right so we're gonna
make a D major type chord by putting our
pinky on the fifth fret of the a string
and then our pointer finger on the
second fret of the g string and now if
we play all six
we're getting a d-major for it right so
we can drone this for doing the same
thing dynamic playing by hitting the
root note like that
same thing one two three four five six
one two three four five six and another
thing that you can do to maybe improve
your strumming a little bit is on that
down stroke right there I'm kind of
raking the string
I'm not hitting them all individually
I'm just letting my pick fall down the
strings and you can get a sound like
so I'm kind of replacing the
one-two-three with a
one two three one two three one two
three four five six however you want to
counter right
notice how I'm really a hammering that
deal
now we're going to go to another chord
so in this tuning an a major chord would
be right here all right a lot of the a
major is the same because we only
changed three strings so open A to D and
to G is going to be the same but I'm
going to try to bar all of the bottom
four strings and then put my pinky here
on the fourth fret of the B string
even those tuned to a I'm still going to
call the B string right so this is like
an a major chord right so the
progression we have so far is this D to
an A and the next one we're gonna do is
a regular B minor which is pointer
finger to a ring finger four D pinky
four G and if we keep the bottom open
the alternate tuning is leaving us like
a B minor 7
and I'm going to open up the root node
to get another a right so far we have D
a B minor seven with the open roof and
then we're gonna go to a G and this is
one of my favorite ones in dead
it's kind of like a G major 7 voicing
right so your middle finger is on the
low string your ring finger is right
behind it on the fifth fret your pointer
finger is grabbing that F sharp which is
the 4th fret of the D string and then
your pinky is going to be the fifth fret
of the B string you're good and you're
gonna get all right so here are chords
we've got the deed
- an A - Abby - seven with the open room
the G major 7
so now if we put them all together as a
progression in 6/8 with a little bit of
that breaking on the down stroke we can
get something that sounds like this
you
and really just kind of experiment with
the shooting alternate tunings are great
to just kind of maybe take existing
chord shapes and see how they sound but
if you kind of apply some of these
principles the 6/8 timing the jig
technique and dadgad you can create some
really cool Irish sounding music
trying to channel the depths of your
Irish heritage there is a solid chance
that alcohol may be involved so now is
as good a time as any to kind of go over
some of the cornerstones of Irish music
and how you can play them now the an
entire culture is worth of music is
impossible to go over in one video but I
just wanted to do maybe a couple simple
things that you can do
strumming wise rhythm is like a really
important part of Irish music so
strumming wise maybe like a little lead
thing and then an alternate tuning at
the end that we can try so the first
thing to sound or to make something
sound Irish is to play it in 6/8 time
right so all that means is you just
count to 6 for every bar right so
instead of 1 2 3 4 we're going to count
1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 and this is
different than counting 2 3 twice when
you count to three one two three one two
three one two three that downbeat is
always going to be on the one so for
example like 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
we're going to do what's called a jig
and now a jig is commonly in this 6/8
timing and if you've ever tried to dance
a jig right and I know that you've tried
to dance a jig is it's all about going
back and forth right so if we cap 6 and
you think of like a to move thing like
the elbow is accented on the 1 and the
punch is on the 4 would be like 1 2 3 4
5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
guitar strumming wise is really the same
principle except instead of using your
arm we're going to use the direction of
your pick or however if you're using
your thumb just here you're down in your
upstrokes right so we're just going to
do a G major chord because a lot of
Irish music is in G or the key of D but
we're going to do a G right here so
instead of going 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
that's a really steady beat there aren't
any accents we're going to add accents
to make it more lively and make it seem
more Irish so we're going to accent the
one and the four one two three four five
six one two three four five six and all
I'm doing is I'm adding a dynamic on the
one in the four right so the one is the
first down stroke and the four is going
to be an upstroke one two three six one
six so you're really kind of hearing the
back and forth movement of that rhythm
now to make it even more dynamic I don't
want to strum the entire chord I want to
start out with the lower part of it and
this is just dynamic strumming in
general you can do this for any type of
music and then I'm gonna focus on the
top part of this of the chord now when I
say the low part of the chord I'm kind
of focusing on the bottom three strings
right so like one two one two
alright down up down I'm not getting the
whole thing I'm just giving you all part
down up down and then for the four five
six I'm gonna get up down up so down up
down
down down down
and eventually your muscle-memory is
going to start to feel that switch
that's swinging in the hand and you can
do it a lot faster if you want to palm
mute it a little bit it can sound really
good too and then you can change for
it's just like a g2 Adi
be minor
okay so if you start playing things in
6/8 they'll kind of give it a little bit
of an Irish feel a lot of Irish music is
in that time signature as it's called
now I want to do something where we put
a little bit of lead on top of it and
we're just gonna use a really simple
scale just to see how it coordinates
with the beats that we're using right so
we're going to start on the twelfth fret
of the g string and which is also a g
and we're just going to play the first
four notes in the key of G which is a G
and a a B and a C okay so G is going to
be here a is going to be the tenth fret
on the B string B is going to be the
twelfth fret on the B string and C is
going to be the thirteenth fret all
right
so we're going to play them in order one
two three four we're just going to use
these four notes we're going to keep
really simple now again we're counting
it to six one two three four five six
one two three four five six so if we
assign every beat one of these notes one
two three right we're going to start
right there and have that be the first
three of the first three notes and then
we're going to have the next three the
four five six starting on the 2nd note
of this four note series ok so we have a
G a B now we're going to back off and go
a b c g a b a b c this is also a great
way to practice your alternate picking
so instead of going down down down down
down down I'm going down up down up down
up so every change of direction on every
single beat ok so all together we're
going to have the first six notes then
so again we're just kind of going
backwards through this scale there's our
next group of three which is a B a G a B
a I guess we have to six note parts one
two three four five six one two three
four five six
okay and we can kind of switch them
around any way you want but for this
example I'm just gonna have kind of like
an alternating part so the first one is
I'm ending on the second note all right
and then the second time I do it I'm
going to end on the G note which I'm
resolving the phrase because I'm ending
energy so that's why the first time when
I end it I'm going to end on a okay so
one two three four five six I'm ending
on the a so there's no resolution yet
the second time I do it
I'm just ending on the G that's why it
sounds like that phrase is closed right
so now if we do that over a dynamically
strum
it'll sound like this so I've just got
this like really simple loop prepared
which is just a G major chord over and
over again right and then you can kind
of start playing around with the G major
scale or whatever scale you want
and really just go back and forth like
that and what I'm doing is I'm matching
beats with the guitar one two three four
five six one two three four five six and
then after if you keep doing that
forever it'll never ever seem to stop
that's why if you notice is one two
three four five six one two three four
five six one two three four five six one
two three four five six
I'm kind of letting that one note take
three beats in a row and that's giving
some space and that's something that
traditionally uh in Irish music maybe
like a flute or a violin or something
else to play this but you can easily do
it on an acoustic guitar
another thing synonymous with Irish
music is the use of an alternate tuning
called dadgad now I personally have very
complicated relationship with alternate
tunings because I am so lazy when it
comes to down tuning and my guitar in
any way I've even like bought guitars
specifically to keep in another tuning
to help to keep myself from keeping in
anything but standard tuning but then
eventually those guitars just get tuned
to standard anyways and I never do it
anyways
but this is my Irish heritage so we're
actually going to take the effort to
tune down to dadgad it's not that hard
it seems like it's a monumental task but
it takes you two seconds right so we're
going to take the low E string tune that
down to a D the next three strings are
the same the B string is going to be do
tuned down to an A and the high E string
is also going to be to down to a D so
it'll sound like this now it's a very
open tuning and you can really do some
beautiful things with this not just in
Irish music but in anything and we're
going to go through a couple different
chords and make a chord progression that
we can play in 6/8 in like a jig time to
make something that doesn't sound quite
like a jig but something that's more
just kind of Irish traditional so like I
said before the key of D major is a
really popular one in Irish music and
that's what's great about this dadgad
tuning because euro way you can drone a
D right by just hitting the D string
let's just you can you just play it open
and is creating a suspended sound a
suspended chord right so we're gonna
make a D major type chord by putting our
pinky on the fifth fret of the a string
and then our pointer finger on the
second fret of the g string and now if
we play all six
we're getting a d-major for it right so
we can drone this for doing the same
thing dynamic playing by hitting the
root note like that
same thing one two three four five six
one two three four five six and another
thing that you can do to maybe improve
your strumming a little bit is on that
down stroke right there I'm kind of
raking the string
I'm not hitting them all individually
I'm just letting my pick fall down the
strings and you can get a sound like
so I'm kind of replacing the
one-two-three with a
one two three one two three one two
three four five six however you want to
counter right
notice how I'm really a hammering that
deal
now we're going to go to another chord
so in this tuning an a major chord would
be right here all right a lot of the a
major is the same because we only
changed three strings so open A to D and
to G is going to be the same but I'm
going to try to bar all of the bottom
four strings and then put my pinky here
on the fourth fret of the B string
even those tuned to a I'm still going to
call the B string right so this is like
an a major chord right so the
progression we have so far is this D to
an A and the next one we're gonna do is
a regular B minor which is pointer
finger to a ring finger four D pinky
four G and if we keep the bottom open
the alternate tuning is leaving us like
a B minor 7
and I'm going to open up the root node
to get another a right so far we have D
a B minor seven with the open roof and
then we're gonna go to a G and this is
one of my favorite ones in dead
it's kind of like a G major 7 voicing
right so your middle finger is on the
low string your ring finger is right
behind it on the fifth fret your pointer
finger is grabbing that F sharp which is
the 4th fret of the D string and then
your pinky is going to be the fifth fret
of the B string you're good and you're
gonna get all right so here are chords
we've got the deed
- an A - Abby - seven with the open room
the G major 7
so now if we put them all together as a
progression in 6/8 with a little bit of
that breaking on the down stroke we can
get something that sounds like this
you
and really just kind of experiment with
the shooting alternate tunings are great
to just kind of maybe take existing
chord shapes and see how they sound but
if you kind of apply some of these
principles the 6/8 timing the jig
technique and dadgad you can create some
really cool Irish sounding music
About this Video
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Apr 21, 2026 Last updated
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