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that’s immediately followed by the pull-off
from B to A. This mix of slides, pull-offs, and
open strings is essential to emulating the harplike flow found in many Celtic tunes.
“The Cup of Tea” is a three-part tune with
three 8-measure sections. Here’s where those
pesky triplets come into play: In the first section shown in Fig. 3, the triplets appear in
the example’s first, third, and fifth measures.
I can’t stress enough how important it is to
understand the triplet in Celtic music. They
simply have to be played cleanly and evenly.
To my way of thinking, if you don’t play parts
like this cleanly, then why play at all? If a guitarist doesn’t care enough about the notes to
make them all be heard, I just lose interest.
The passage shown in Fig. 4 is probably the most difficult to play in the entire
medley. So many of the elements we’ve used
up to now occur here. The picking-hand
thumb plays all the way down on the 2nd
string—this is important for the strength
of the melody. We have ascending and
descending slides in the example’s first two
measures, a triplet in the second measure,
and a pull-off in the sixth measure.
The last section of this tune—measures
57-64 in the arrangement—provides a
nice way to wind down for both you and
your listeners. It emphasizes chords, so
the extended flurry of single-note playing
finally resolves.
In Celtic music, so much is communicated in the ways that players approach a given
set of notes. A fiddler will include slides,
hammers, and pulls, and an Irish whistle
player (whose instrument is also known as a
penny whistle or tin whistle) will bend notes
or finger a repeated pitch differently to create tonal variety. As guitar players, we should
learn from them and do the same. We have
so many options: We can bend up to a note,
or pre-bend a note, strike it, and then release
the bend. We can slide up or down. We
can add hammer-ons and pull-offs. Keep
all these things in mind as you play not just
Celtic music, but all music. I think you’ll be
amazed at what you can come up with.
Fig. 3
4
4 &##
mpmpm i pip
3 oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe
3
oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe
31
0
7
0
9
0
7 777
˙
Fret-hand
fingering:
1
&
3 oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe
131
112
0
7
9
7
0
77
7
131
0
7
0
9
0
7 777
41
1
9
0
12
0
9
007
oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe oe oeoeoeoeoeoe oeoeoeoeoeoeoe
131
0
7
0
9
0
7 777
131
112
0
7
9
7
0
77
7
00
0
0
0
6
7
0
7
7
7
00
9
2
2
1
24
Fig. 4
4
4 &## oe
oeoeoeoeoeoe oe oeoeoeoeoeoeoe oe oeoeoeoeoeoe oeoeoeoeoeoeoe
p mi
pm i
mp
i pip 3
7
0
87
7
0
67
0
870
000
7
0
87
7
0
6
˙
1 Fret-hand
fingering:
7
0
7
2
1
1
21
1
2
1
1
24
0
9
00
&
oe
oeoeoeoeoeoe oeoeoeoeoe oeoe oeoeoeoeoeoeoeoe oeoeoeoeoeoeoe
p mi
pmi
mp
i pi
p imi pmi
7
0
87
7
0
6
1
2
1
1
7
7107 8
11
8
10
11
8
0
1412 41 341
0
7
0
7
6
7
0
7
00
9
12
