Welcome to the Kansas City School of Irish Music!  Our current classes are listed below. Please contact us if you have any questions no addressed below.

Current Classes:

We have a lot of fun in our classes, and they a valuable stepping stone toward playing in a real session, either here in Kansas City, Missouri, or elsewhere. The session (seisiún in Irish) is the place to find the true spirit of Irish music. This is community music, and needs to be played with others. Every time you play music with others you give it roots in your community.  So, get involved in sessions as soon as possible, and find out what this music is all about!  As Eileen Ivers has written, “The core of it all is the seisiún and the infectious joy on the players’ faces as they share in the music and maybe even pass on a new tune to a student of the tradition.”  For information about our local sessions on the web go to the KC session page, to Slowplayers.org, or to the Lawrence session page; or on Facebook go to KC Irish Sessions or to Lawrence Irish Sessions. Come out & enjoy the music!

Tune-Learning Class

In this class you will place to learn tunes from Ireland, Scotland, the Shetland Islands, Galacia, Brittany, Cape Breton, and beyond.  The class is for all ages and all instruments. We will work on tunes phrase by phrase. Students should have a basic facility with their instruments (advanced-beginner level) as we  will focus on aural learning.  In 2019, our second six-week group class of the KC School of Irish Music will be held on Monday evenings, April 8 – May 27.  This tune-learning class is from 6:30 – 7:30pm, at the KC Irish Center, 19 W. Linwood Blvd., KCMO  64111 (816-474-3848). Please be sure to use the Linwood entrance, as the main hall entrance will not be open.
Tuition is $120 for a six week class.  A 10% discount will be given to anyone paying tuition prior to March 18th.  An additional discount of 10% will be applied for anyone who is (or becomes) a member of the Kansas City Irish Center. 

Contact: Eddie Edwards to register.

Beginning Bodhrán

Do you own a bodhrán, but are not sure how to play it? Do you need some basic instruction on how to get started accompanying the various tune-types played in sessions: Reels, Jigs, Hornpipes, Slip Jigs, Polkas, and others? This class will introduce you to playing your bodhrán, and to playing well with others. The bodhrán requires some maintenance and preparation to get the best tone. We will walk you through setting up your drum to get the best tone, and preparing it for performance. We will then introduce you to the basic rhythms for accompanying the types of tunes usually heard in sessions. In 2019, our first six-week group class of the relaunched KC School of Irish Music will be held on Monday evenings, April 8 – May 27.  This beginning bodhrán class is from 7:30 – 8:30pm, at the KC Irish Center, 19 W. Linwood Blvd., KCMO  64111 (816-474-3848). Please be sure to use the Linwood entrance, as the main hall entrance will not be open.
Tuition is $120 for a six week class, or $20 per class.  A discount of 10% will be applied for anyone who is a member of the Kansas City Irish Center. 

Contact: Eddie Edwards to register.

Past Classes

2019 January 28 – February 25

Our first tune-learning class of 2019 at the Kansas City School of Irish Music was fun and productive. We had eleven people enrolled, but as the winter weather was pretty rough this year not all could make every meeting. In the six weeks we covered the following tunes:

  • Reels: Silver Spear, Humours of Tulla (set)
  • Jigs: Swallow’s Tail, Lilting Banshee (set)
  • Hornpipes: An Comhra Donn, Boys of Bluehill (set)
  • Waltz: Planxty Fanny Power

7 Replies to “Classes”

  1. John Bryan here. I would like to learn to play my bodhran either in the class or thru private lessons. I am excited to learn. If I sign up for the class I will have to miss the 2nd Monday in February as I will be out of town that week.

  2. I appreciate your notifying me about the relaunch of the KC school of Irish Music. I am very happy to hear that. Please continue to keep me posted. I am particularly interested in future classes involving the guitar which is the instrument I play. I don’t know if the 6 week group class starting on January 21st would be something I would want to take because I am not sure how much emphasis there is on the guitar. If you get a chance, please let me know if it would be worth enrolling in, and if so, if there are still any openings. Thanks and regards.

  3. I saw this on Facebook where it will be lost. Can I (let me get real. I dont know how to send from Facebook to email.
    I really mean can YOU do it?) send it to my email where I can always find it as long as I can remember the date? I might like to take one of these classes.

  4. I am very interested( I do want to attend) in the music lessons. I play Hammered Dulcimer (int-adv). I cannot make 2 sessions, but will gladly pay the fee.. I learn quickly, jam with WJAB -Scott.. Do we pay at the site?? Can’t make 4.29 (out of town) . 3.25 is maybe , have a conflict to resolve.

  5. Hi there, so Monday’s for a variety of reasons are really difficult right now, but will clear up over the summer. Any chance of a summer tune learning class. Just saying I really could use one for the sake of like all the other players, lol! 🙂

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