Welcome to GreyLarsen.com

 

Welcome to
Grey Larsen's
Irish Tune Bank

There are no locks on the doors.
Everyone is welcome, anytime.

 

Our Motto: "Contentment Is Wealth"

- Open Since November 2003 -

 

Already an experienced Irish Tune Banker?

Click here to proceed directly to the Vault.

 

What is the Irish Tune Bank?

It's Grey Larsen's online repository of traditional Irish Tune Packets.

 

What is a Tune Packet?

Three downloads, neatly wrapped together in virtual brown paper (actually an easy-to-download ZIP file):

  1. Grey's musical transcription of a traditional Irish tune (as a PDF file), with suggested ornamentation, variations, and breathing spots for flute and whistle players.
  2. A recording (an MP3 soundfile) of Grey playing that tune, exactly as transcribed.
  3. Grey's written commentary (as a PDF file) on the tune, including its background, and insights on how to play it well.

 

Enter the Vault now to:

  • View and download three free Tune Packets
  • Get some more free stuff
  • Purchase additional Tune Packets for only $2.49 per packet (prices subject to change)

 

What's in it for you? You get to:

  • Expand your traditional Irish repertoire with tunes hand-picked by Grey. These tunes are not just for flute and whistle players. Fiddlers, accordionists, pipers, all of you - check it out.
  • Improve your playing style and increase your fluency in the language of traditional Irish music.
  • View and download three free tune packets. See and hear what it's all about.
  • Get four free informational articles, too.
  • Sign up for the New Arrivals at the Irish Tune Bank newsletter to be notified by email (brief and to-the-point) each time a new tune packet is gingerly tucked into to the Vault. Each New Arrivals email also contains an interesting Fact from Irish Music History.
  • Join the ITB community. Contribute your ideas for future tune packets and offer your feedback on the ITB.
  • Hang out and browse in the Vault anytime, where all Tune Packets are archived. Buy any Tune Packet at any time. There are no locks, keys, alarms, or security cameras.

 

Earn Interest at the Irish Tune Bank (like at any halfway decent bank)

  • We'll keep track of your ITB purchases, and you'll "earn interest" by getting a free Grey Larsen CD each time your spending at the bank reaches $40 (or $80, or $120...).
  • We can send this CD to you, or we can send it as a gift to a friend, on your behalf.

Always available for free download

These three free sample Tune Packets:

  • The Steam Packet. - Single Reel. What better packet than The Steam Packet, a great single reel. This setting is based on the playing of Willie Clancy (1918-1973), the beloved uilleann piper from Milltown Malbay, Co. Clare.
  • The Bank of Ireland. - Single Reel. A well-loved reel, a must for a tune bank of course, and a popular session tune.
  • Contentment Is Wealth. - Double Jig. The Irish Tune Bank's motto, and a great jig. This version is based on fiddler Hugh Gillespie's (1906-1986) 78-rpm recording from 1939.

And, these four informational articles by Grey Larsen:

 

File Formats for Downloads

The Transcriptions and The Commentaries are Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) files. You will need Adobe's free Acrobat Reader to open and save these files.

Get Acrobat Reader Don't have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader?
Click here to get it.

The recordings of Grey playing the tunes, exactly as transcribed, are available in MP3 format.

Need help playing the soundfiles? Grey uses and highly recommends The Amazing Slow Downer (Windows and Mac). For only $39.95, it plays MP3, WAV, or AIFF soundfiles (and regular audio CDs). Plus you can change the speed and/or pitch in real time - very useful for learning purposes. It has a graphic EQ, left-right balance, stereo or mono playback, locate points (so you can isolate and loop challenging sections) and other useful features.

Click here for more information on The Amazing Slow Downer, to purchase it, or to download a free trial version.

Note: There is no postal mail option at this time. If there is enough demand for this, it may become available in the future, but at a significantly higher cost than downloading.

 

The Irish Tune Bank does not and will not:

  • Offer credit cards
  • Close on holidays or at night
  • Make you wait in line
  • Send out bank statements
  • Appear on any stock exchanges
  • Sponsor local parades or fish fries
  • Have safe deposit boxes

However, we do encourage:

  • Buying pints (or other treats) for your local musicians
  • Supporting live traditional music any way you can

And we ask:

  • That you encourage others, if they can afford to, to buy their own tune packets from the bank, instead of copying yours. Hopefully our prices are low enough to make it affordable to almost everyone. Our dedicated staff (of one) will appreciate your support of their (his) work.
  • For your feedback, suggestions, and ideas for tune packets you would like to see appear in the Vault.

To play the soundflies, and alter their speed and/or pitch

Grey uses The Amazing Slow Downer and find it to be an extremely useful piece of software.

At $39.95, it is very reasonably priced. Not only that, you can get a 30-day free trial period. ASD works like a software CD player. I give it five stars.

ASD slows down the speed of the music - between -50% and +400% time-stretching - without changing the pitch. Wrong key? Change the pitch in semi-tones - at full or lower speed. Out of tune? Adjust the pitch in cents (100ths of a semi-tone) to suit your instrument. It does all this in real-time - just insert a CD and press the play button! It also slows down MP3, AIFF and .WAV files on your computer in real-time. And it lets you set up loops, so you can identify a certain passage of music and have it automatically repeat. The sound quality is excellent.

Grey finds that The Amazing Slow Downer is extremely useful in learning music by ear and in transcribing music. Slowing down the music can be a great help, as well as isolating a challenging passage. It is also great for practicing, for playing along with recorded music at your own pace, tuned to your instrument. Tech support has been very excellent and prompt, often coming from Rolf Nilsson himself, the author of the software.

Follow the links below to try out and order ASD through my website. If you like it and buy it through these links, I will get a sales commission and you will be supporting my continued creative work. Thank you!

Download the Amazing Slow Downer below: