| Traditional Gaelic music | |
|---|---|
| Cultural origins | Gaelic Culture |
| Typical instruments | Accordion – Acoustic guitar – Bagpipes – Banjo – Bodhrán – Fiddle – Flute – Harp – Tin whistle |
| Subgenres | |
| Cape Breton Traditional Gaelic music Irish Traditional music Manx Traditional music Scottish Traditional music |
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The traditional music of Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man,[1] with the reel and jig synonymous with these traditions. The emigration of Gaels to Cape Breton has also resulted in a unique strain of Gaelic music evolving there.[2][3]
The six Celtic nationalities are divided into two musical groups, Gaelic and Brythonic,[4] which according to Alan Stivell differentiate "mostly by the extended range (sometimes more than two octaves) of Irish and Scottish melodies and the closed range of Breton and Welsh melodies (often reduced to a half-octave), and by the frequent use of the pure pentatonic scale in Gaelic music".[5]
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The session, from the Gaelic word seisiún, is a common setting for Gaelic music, where musicians from a given locality gather to play music in a public setting. Gaelic music is also commonly heard at folk festivals, by pipe bands and at competitions such as mods and the Fleadh Cheoil.
In Traditional Gaelic music, the Ionian, Dorian, Mixolydian and Aeolian modes dominate,[6][7] with the keys of D Ionian, G Ionian, A Dorian and E Dorian among those popular with session musicians.[8]
Unlike Classical and Jazz music, Gaelic trad avoids diminished chords, as seen below for the seventh scale degree of the major scale.[9] Seventh chords are generally limited to the II and the V positions of the chord scale.
| Roman numeral | I | ii | iii | IV | V | vi | V6(first inversion) |
| Scale degree | tonic | supertonic | mediant | subdominant | dominant | submediant | subtonic |