The Irish people are known all over the world for their music. The kind of music you'll hear in the pubs around Ireland will vary from pub to pub and city to city. Ireland is known for it's traditional music sessions and ballads. The sessions are still being played around the country with some open and some closed sessions. A  session is when a regular group of trad.. players preform on a regular basis in a pub or club. Sometimes they play for money and at times they play for drinks. At times the musicians won't mind another musician joining in, it's best to sit and listen for a while and see who is the ''Anchor Man'' and during a break ask him or her if it's okay to join in. I have yet to hear any session player saying no. 

Other music played in pubs include what's known as ''karaoke'' , this isn't the same karaoke you have heard before. No this is where a group of singers but mostly just two will sing to backing music from a keyboard. You might have one man on keyboard with mp3 music tapes built into the keyboard. The effect is like listening to a whole orchestra. It's easy to tell when this is not being played on real instruments as the sound will be a little too good, also you'll hear drums where there is no drummer, this is Karaoke Irish style, and if your wondering if they get paid ? yes they do, they pass themselves off as a real band, some even start to believe they are a real band.

There are also some live bands [no they are not all dead] some of which are very good some not worth listening to, when we say live bands in Ireland we are usually referring to a group of musicians playing pop or rock music on real instruments. As traditional music is always played live we have no need to separate this genre and place the ''Live Music Tag'' on it. The live bands will have their own set list for the night and usually stick to it. If you have a request hand it to the lead singer on the back of a ten euro note. [joke]

There are more musicians actually playing musical instruments in Ireland than any other country in the world per head of population. Ireland has had a love affair with music and singing going back many hundreds of years. The harpers and the bards told the stories in song of the peoples plight living under the British Empire.By far the most popular kind of music being played in Ireland is traditional Irish music with some folk songs thrown in to break a session up. Instruments used in traditional music include, fiddle, four string tenor banjo, tin whistle, accordion both button and piano accordion. Button accordion is more popular as it can be played much faster. Also included are guitar, mandolin and bodhran. The above video is an example of a folk song being sang in an Irish pub. The song in question is Danny Boy which is very well known

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