What is this and how did this start?

This blog follows me as I plow through every song in "O'Neill's Music of Ireland." Here's a little history: I saw the movie "Julie and Julia" which tells a tale of a woman who decides to cook up all the recipes in Julia Child's landmark book--she ends up with a book deal, movie rights and learns how to cook. I play the violin. Somewhat. Last weekend, I thought , hey, I should do with "O'Neill's Music of Ireland" what Julie Powell did with Julia Child's book, not with the goal of a book deal and movie rights, but maybe just a smidgen more talent that I began with in any of my fiddle incarnations. Skip the next paragraph to avoid reading about that.

I started playing fiddle back in grade school and stopped after we'd moved to Las Vegas, NV where my school had no string program. Twelve years later I picked up the same violin and took lessons from Bela Urban at UNLV for 2 years. He nursed me along enough to play a few tunes, like The Swan by Saint Saens and the Gavotte en Rondeau from the 3rd Partita by JS Bach. The violin finally decided that it wouldn't stay fixed after a peg reworking, losing string tension after less that 5 minutes of play--that and getting into grad school gave me the excuse not to play for awhile. I picked it up again three or four years ago. A nearby shop gave me a repair estimate multiple of >$500. I bought a new fiddle that stayed in tune, played it some, found that I hadn't lost everything and offered myself up for sacrifice at the local community orchestra. I found an inconspicuous spot near the back of the group. Twice yearly, we received new music, which I could barely play. I sight read terribly, am not confident about technique and sweat like a whore in church when the going gets rough. Nonetheless, even with my limited time for practice, I could play about 90-95% of the music by the time we reached the performance date.

"O'Neill's" boasts 1850 tunes over 349 pages. The O'Neill fiddle tune book I have is this one.

If you want to hear the tunes on a primitive midi player: click here, scroll down about halfway and click on one of the song categories. If I get set up with a mike and a recorder, I'll try an upload, but no promises.

I have played the first two pages now. At a page or more a day I can do it in a year. My approach includes sightreading, followed by playing the pieces enough to get the gist of them before moving on. I might leave pencil marks in the margins to indicate whether I find the tunes likable or cute or whatever. If I'm diligent, I'll leave notes here to the same effect. Maybe my playing will improve. Wish me luck.