Galway Girl – Sample Lesson

Home learning with Harp Academy
Much of what we teach at School is supported by fun learning pages here on our website. They’re ideal for practising between lessons and include wider topics to build musical knowledge. You’ll need our ‘backstage’ password to view these particular items; it’s inside your Music Diary. But here’s a little taster from our Folk selection for the Autumn Term. Enjoy!

Galway Girl
Galway Girl was written by American Steve Earle. He recorded it in 2000 with Irish musician Sharon Shannon. It was an instant hit and became one of the highest selling songs in Irish chart history. It also featured in the hit movie P.S. I Love You.

Galway lies on Ireland’s West Coast. The picturesque Bay of Galway and the City itself feature in many traditional Irish songs. Their names are synonymous with a romantic vision of all things that are special about Ireland.

To learn the melody on the harmonica, we will need to get a feel for the joy of Celtic Folk music, it’s particular phrasing and also it’s timing. This means lots of practise before everything sticks, but once you have it memorised, you’ll have endless fun with it.

Structure
The melody for Galway Girl takes a simple AB form. To add a Celtic flavour however, it is important to add passing notes and decoration in the form of quick trills. You can find out more about trills on our dedicated Key Skills page.

Of a day-I-ay-I-ay
Time to learn our Celtic folk melody on the harmonica. If you haven’t heard the tune before, try to find it on the internet and listen through a few times. Purple tab is for 4 hole harmonicas, while orange tab is for 10 hole harmonicas. The numbers tell you which holes to play. D means draw (breathe in) and B means blow (breathe out). Let’s hear the whole piece on the harmonica first, then break everything down into easy to learn chunks.

And I ask you, friend, what’s a fella to do
It’s important to start slowly and start to memorise the patterns first. Perhaps leave out the trills to begin with. In time you can speed up and add these in. Try to play lightly and with a slight lilt. You Harp Academy teacher will explain this term.

A form

1B    1D    2B    1D    1B        1B    1D    2B    1D    2B    1D    1B
4B   4D    5B    4D   4B       4B    4D   5B    4D   5B    4D   4B

3D    3B    3D    4D    4B    4D    3D~tr  3B    2B
6D    6B    6D    7D    7B    7D    6D~tr  6B    5B

3B    3D    3D    3B        2B    2D    2B    1D    1B    2B
6B    6D    6D   6B        5B    5D    5B    4D   4B    5B

1D    1B    1D    2B    2D    2B    1D~tr  1B    1B
4D   4B   4D    5B    5D    5B    4D~tr 4B   4B

Cause her hair was black and her eyes were blue
Well done, you’re half way there. Keep playing through until the whole sequence becomes automatic. This styles of playing will come in handy for lots more folk tunes. Now let’s finish the job

B form

3B    3D    3B    3D    3B    3D    4D    4B
6B    6D   6B    6D    6B    6D    7D    7B

3D    3B    3D    3B    2D    2B    1D
6D    6B   6D    6B    5D    5B    1D

3B    3D    4B    3D    3B        2B    2D    2B    1D    1B    2B
6B    6D    7B    6D    6B       5B    5D    5B    4D    4B    5B

1D    1B    1D    2B    2D    2B    1D~tr  1B    1B
4D   4B   4D    5B    5D    5B    4D~tr 4B   4B

And I lost my heart to a Galway girl
Now it’s time to think about playing to the backing track and perhaps arranging how you’d like to perform the piece. It be worthwhile picking somebody to play the verses from the song as a solo part, while the rest of the group play the pattern above over the choruses.

Key Skills

• Celtic Folk
• Decoration
• Passing notes
• Trills
• Lilt and expression