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So I'm really getting into Irish jigs and I can't seem to find consistency in sheet music. ABCnotation never seems to match up with other sheet music and finding sheet music of any type seems to be a hard as everyone has their own versions of each jig. If anyone has a seemingly accurate source that they use I'd love to know. I want to learn Ten Penny Bit but I've already found 4 different versions of the second part of the song and none of them sound right.
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well its not in the fake book. The Sesson.org has this http://thesession.org/tunes/109 you can listen to the midi and print sheet music if you find one you like. You may have to learn a version thats not quite it and tweak it by ear. Good luck, post a vid once you find it and figure it out!
"Please play some wrong notes, so that we know that you are human" - said to Jascha Heifetz.
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I've been told that fiddle music in general and celtic folk tunes in particular have almost always been learned and passed down by ear, not by sheet music. Most people who play them might never play them the same way twice. The sheet music you find will almost always just be someone's attempt to transcribe what they heard or played one time.
So, there is no "correct" version of the Kesh Jig for example.
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@Picklefish Cool, I'll take a look at it. I need to get a camera and stuff, but I'll eventually post something. 
@JoeP That is what is both awkward and fascinating about the internet, it has the ability to pass on traditions in an untraditional way. You are absolutely correct in what you said about sheet music. The types of tunes I want to play are the kind that are passed on by ear to each generation. Since I don't have access to those people the internet is the modern day tool of keeping in touch. A lot of awesome versions are on youtube of reels I want to play, but the only way to learn them is to mimic them. For me that is very hard. I'll eventually put together a version of Ten Penny bit that I like and try and post it!
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BTW, there's a great book called The Irish Fiddle Book by Matt Cranitch which talks about the irish fiddle and folk music traditions.
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Hman said
A lot of awesome versions are on youtube of reels I want to play, but the only way to learn them is to mimic them. For me that is very hard.
The first thing to do, if you haven't done it, is to build some basic ear-playing skills. The best way I know to do that is to mimic a lot of easy tunes. You may be surprised how easy it becomes. Would you believe that you would be able to play an easy tune correctly the first time without notes? You have to enjoy building the skill, not just learning some particular tune. You start out identifying one note at a time. You have to build up to the hard stuff.
There are software tools for slowing down a recording while preserving the pitch, so that you can figure out the tune that way.
Also consider that you can use some combination of ear playing and reading sheet.
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