{"id":148076,"date":"2025-06-27T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/?p=148076"},"modified":"2025-06-26T13:55:27","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T20:55:27","slug":"learn-a-slack-key-tinged-fingerstyle-arrangement-of-lady-athenry-a-traditional-irish-jig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/learn-a-slack-key-tinged-fingerstyle-arrangement-of-lady-athenry-a-traditional-irish-jig\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn a Slack-Key-Tinged Fingerstyle Arrangement of \u201cLady Athenry,\u201d a Traditional Irish Jig"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Learn a Slack-Key Tinged Fingerstyle Arrangement of \u201cLady Athenry,\u201d a Traditional Irish Jig\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HjfL27y2mco?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/celtic-songs-for-fingerstyle-guitar\">This arrangement originally appeared in<em> Celtic Songs for Fingerstyle Guitar.<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s another great tune by Turlough O\u2019Carolan, the 17th-century Irish harper who wrote some great pieces that work really beautifully on guitar. I picked up \u201cLady Athenry\u201d from traditional harpists, and it seemed like a good fit for the \u201cCelto-Hawaiian\u201d tuning (C G D G B D) I also use on \u201cJock Stuart.\u201d Although this is a dyed-in-the-wool old Irish melody, you\u2019ll notice a bit of a slack-key influence; at times my arrangement sounds more Hawaiian than Celtic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A lot of fretting-hand movement is involved in this tune, so take things slowly, making sure that everything rings clearly and in time\u2014and most important, that the melody really sings. As usual, if you find it too challenging to play the ornaments, like the 16th-note triplets in bar 8, feel free to leave them out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While I play much of the piece in low positions, I sometimes venture up the neck, like for those double-stops in bar 48. I really like how the guitar sounds warmer and darker in those quarters, and it\u2019s always good to add a little tonal contrast to the arrangement. Meanwhile back down the neck, in bar 10, there\u2019s a somewhat awkward stretch\u2014you\u2019ll need to grab the sixth-fret F# with your fourth finger and the first-fret A with your index finger. But the reach is worth it, as it sounds lovely to have the D chord\u2019s third, that F#, in the bass there. If at first you can\u2019t quite handle the stretch, just do a little pinky yoga every day, and you should be able to manage it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-medium\"><a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/celtic-songs-for-fingerstyle-guitar\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/celtic-songs-fingerstyle-guitar-cover_37104d7d-cf03-4469-a244-3392e2f2bf0b_720x.jpg?resize=225%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-122037\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/celtic-songs-fingerstyle-guitar-cover_37104d7d-cf03-4469-a244-3392e2f2bf0b_720x.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/celtic-songs-fingerstyle-guitar-cover_37104d7d-cf03-4469-a244-3392e2f2bf0b_720x.jpg?resize=450%2C600&amp;ssl=1 450w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/celtic-songs-fingerstyle-guitar-cover_37104d7d-cf03-4469-a244-3392e2f2bf0b_720x.jpg?w=648&amp;ssl=1 648w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>About <em><a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/celtic-songs-for-fingerstyle-guitar\">Celtic Songs For Fingerstyle Guitar<\/a><\/em>:<\/strong> Immerse yourself in Celtic music in a range of alternate tunings while learning melodies and ornamentation techniques from folk traditions. In this collection, modern fingerstyle great Steve Baughman teaches his gorgeous interpretations of 17 songs, meticulously arranged for solo guitar. In addition to video demonstrations performed by Baughman, each piece is presented in standard notation and tablature and includes historical context and performance tips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">LADY ATHENRY<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"1324\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/lady-athenry-1.jpg?resize=900%2C1324&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-148077\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/lady-athenry-1.jpg?w=900&amp;ssl=1 900w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/lady-athenry-1.jpg?resize=340%2C500&amp;ssl=1 340w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/lady-athenry-1.jpg?resize=696%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 696w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/lady-athenry-1.jpg?resize=768%2C1130&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/lady-athenry-1.jpg?resize=204%2C300&amp;ssl=1 204w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"1011\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry2.jpg?resize=900%2C1011&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-148078\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry2.jpg?w=900&amp;ssl=1 900w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry2.jpg?resize=445%2C500&amp;ssl=1 445w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry2.jpg?resize=768%2C863&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry2.jpg?resize=267%2C300&amp;ssl=1 267w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry3.jpg?resize=900%2C1000&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-148079\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry3.jpg?w=900&amp;ssl=1 900w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry3.jpg?resize=450%2C500&amp;ssl=1 450w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry3.jpg?resize=768%2C853&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry3.jpg?resize=270%2C300&amp;ssl=1 270w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"1014\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry4.jpg?resize=900%2C1014&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-148080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry4.jpg?w=900&amp;ssl=1 900w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry4.jpg?resize=444%2C500&amp;ssl=1 444w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry4.jpg?resize=768%2C865&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry4.jpg?resize=266%2C300&amp;ssl=1 266w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"1011\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry5.jpg?resize=900%2C1011&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-148081\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry5.jpg?w=900&amp;ssl=1 900w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry5.jpg?resize=445%2C500&amp;ssl=1 445w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry5.jpg?resize=768%2C863&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ladyathenry5.jpg?resize=267%2C300&amp;ssl=1 267w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"New Acoustic Guitar Songbook - &quot;Celtic Songs For Fingerstyle Guitar&quot; with Steve Baughman\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IPYSrleMRx0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although this is a dyed-in-the-wool old Irish melody, you\u2019ll notice a bit of a slack-key influence; at times the arrangement sounds more Hawaiian than Celtic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":148084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"Although this is a dyed-in-the-wool old Irish melody, you\u2019ll notice a bit of a slack-key influence; at times the arrangement sounds more Hawaiian than Celtic.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1151],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[1598],"class_list":["post-148076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-instrumentals"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/baughman-lady-athenry.jpg?fit=900%2C506&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":1598,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"steve-baughman","display_name":"Steve Baughman","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/IMG_0024.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/IMG_0024.jpg"},"author_category":"","user_url":"http:\/\/www.celticguitar.com\/","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":"Fingerstyle guitarist and clawhammer banjoist Steve Baughman is the author of <i><a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/gospel-songs-for-fingerstyle-guitar\">Gospel Songs for Fingerstyle Guitar<\/a><\/i> and <i><a href=\"https:\/\/store.acousticguitar.com\/products\/celtic-songs-for-fingerstyle-guitar\">Celtic Songs for Fingerstyle Guitar<\/a><\/i>."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148076"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148107,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148076\/revisions\/148107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148076"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acousticguitar.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=148076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}