ProCathedral, SInging Workshop for Kids!

Summer Fun in Dublin for Young Singers at the ProCathedral Singing Workshop for kids aged 8-15 years. From Monday 15 August to Friday 19th August/Saturday 20th August Blánaid Murphy, director of the Palestrina Choir and St Mary's Pro-Cathedral Girls' Choir will be running this excellent workshop for aspiring young singers. Also participating will be course assistant Darren Magee, organ scholar at the Pro-Cathedral.

The course promises to help young singers improve their voice, sing in groups and small ensembles, explore the world of song, develop a good choral technique, have fun singing with others and experience a variety of styles including Gospel, spiritual and traditional.

The workshop costs €100 with family rates available. Applications must be received on or before Monday August 8th 2011. Because there are limited places available early application is advised. Further details are available from 01-8745441 *



* This is an information blog only, Charles Byrne Musik Ins is not associated with the course in any way.

Dublin Soul Festival 26th –29th May ! #dublin #music

Dublin Soul Festival Thursday 26th – Sunday 29th May



The vast majority of the events are free for you, your family and friends to enjoy including a two day Soul Picnic in the beautiful surroundings of Merrion Square Park starring a very exciting line up of talented musicians of all styles! There are so many great events and it's so family friendly!


check out http://www.dublincitysoulfestival.com/


PLEASE pass the word on for this great event - because it's voluntary and mainly free there's no advertising budget so please link to it, pass it on, fb it, twitter it and go to it :)


Last year over 42,000 people took part in Soul Festival events generating in excess of €1 million for the Irish economy, not bad going for a festival with "no paid staff" - the entire festival is built for you to enjoy and for the benefit of our wonderful City by a dedicated team of supporters and volunteers.

Happy New Year (belated)

Well an exciting start to the New Year - we had almost a week off because of the snow (how long ago does that seem? hard to believe it was only a couple of weeks ago I was looking out at three feet of snow and chanting "snow day!") and then since getting back in we have had a busy couple of weeks. Including one memorable day where the lights all went out and we sat in the dark and froze for 2 hours til it got fixed. Then it blew again and we sat for another two hours, in the dark, and it finally got properly fixed. Very exciting stuff.

So what have we in store for 2010? well hopefully lots of news on concerts and mucisal events. Starting with an excellent Classical Music concert!

Sunday 31st January - National Gallery of Ireland
Moya O'Grady Cello
David O'Doherty Violin
Catherine Lemoni Piano
Geraldine O'Doherty Harp
plus guests.

Customers who have bought the excellent Fugato CD by the same performers will not want to miss this. ADM €10 (conc €7)

Hope you are all having an excellent new year so far. With a bit of luck we'll see signs of Sping soon, considering February 1st is just a few days away - til then, have a great weekend and check out the concert above!

Chopin Bags - Practical and Pretty!

Another Christmas Special for your delectation...Sturdy Lightweight shopping bags bearing the legend "The Chopin Bag" - practical and pretty and only €6.95

Only limited stock at the moment

These are the perfect size for shopping with strong handles - ideal as a gift for teachers, friends, musicians.

Christmas Specials - Novelties all in!

It's really looking like Christmas now; we have our christmas Musical gifts novelties in! And what's more we have fabulous prices on old favourites and some great new gifts.









Firstly we're delighted the be able to offer our fabulous Christmas Crackers at very special prices. Last year the original crackers, 8 per box with 8 whistles and songsheet, and conductor's set were €19.95 - this year we have them at the unbelievable price of €11.95!

The newly introduced Handbell sets of crackers - 8 crackers, each with a handbell plus hat, and a conductor's songsheet - were €29.95 . This year we have them at €21.95 - making a musical xmas dinner all the sweeter...



Other novelties in today include men's ties - in really excellent new designs including guitars, trumpets, brass, notes and treble clef and more - are now available from only €8.95 (down from €13.95)


Stocking-fillers are coming in fast and furious and we have great offers -

• NoteCracker books (small and very useful) covering Guitar Chords, Music Theory, Music Jokes & Quotes and Music Trivia each only €3.25


• Dye-cast collectable Parers - Violin, Harp, Grand Piano, Sax and Electric Guitar only €5.95


• Treble Clef shaped Drinking Straws in bright colours only €1


• Treble Clef shaped Pencils in vibrant metallic colours only €1.95


• Playing Cards in Music Designs (treble clef and sheet music) only €2.95
• Cufflinks (unboxed) in treble clef and piano keyboard only €8.95

And that's not all......watch this space!

Come look in our window! (Douglas Hyde Galley Exhib.)

The lovely piece by Kate Maher for the Douglas Hyde Gallery exhibition The Preponderance of the Small is now officially installed in our window.

You can find us Here ; or download a map to all exhibits Here


The good camera will come out to play tomorrow and hopefully we'll get some better shots of it - the iphone camera doesn't do it justice but we're excited and can't wait to show it off :)

Preponderance of The Small Exhibition (Douglas Hyde Gallery)

Sneak Preview!


This month we're excited to be part of the Preponderance of The Small Exhibition (Douglas Hyde Gallery)
The exhibition is described as :
Preponderance of The Small, an off-site project which forms part of The Douglas Hyde Gallery's ongoing Gallery 3 initiative, features works by twenty-one younger artists working in Ireland.Each artist is exhibiting at one of twenty-one locations in and around Trinity College, creating a trail of artworks.

This is intended to give the viewer the opportunity to look anew at more familiar locations, while also highlighting spaces that are often overlooked.The title, which derives from a hexagram in the Chinese I-Ching, or Book of Changes, points to the great power and value of small things. In a rapidly changing culture, at a time when many of yesterday's monumental gestures have proved to be empty, grandiose artistic statements seem superfluous. This exhibition is intended to question how we attribute value in today's culture, and to suggest that it is in small things that we may find our way forward.

Our piece, an unititled mixed media installation by Kate Maher, is in the larger of our two windows; please feel free to come and look, and pick up a map to the other exhibits.



The exhibition has an online presence in the form of a blog which will be updated during the course of the exhibition; it can be visited at: preponderanceofthesmall.blogspot.com


Maps to the exhibits can be downloaded at http://www.douglashydegallery.com/pdf/downloadable-map.pdf

Best Value in Classical Covers!

We've managed to get some absolutely great bargains for classical guitar, both basic and padded covers at great prices.

For 1/2 3/4 and 4/4 we have covers starting at €10 - unpadded but strong. Ideal for students. We also have some 1/4 and 1/2 from Winter of Germany at €12.95.

for 4/4 we have padded covers (black) at €15.50 and fabulous black and red heavily padded covers at only €19.95. There's also a limited number of red and wine coloured velvet lined padded covers available now at only €25.

Whether you're studying guitar or just looking for a great xmas present for someone, pop in and have a look. WE do recommend that you bring the guitar to make sure of the fit but they will usually fit most standard spanish guitars.

Special! Teddy Bear recorders.....

The cutest item to come in in months!!

Only €9.95 we predict these will be the most popular stockingfiller ever! A real instrument, soprano (standard) recorder in a lovely teddybear case. Every budding musician will want one!

Anyone for a House Party?

Last night we went to see the Irish house Party at the Lansdowne Hotel ; we've had many tourists mention it and recommend it so we decided to check it out for ourselves - and a fabulous night was had by all!
The house party is hosted by real musicians and it's the answer to the plastic-paddy, tiddlyeye nonsense that so many venues seem to think is what tourists want. However as we at Charlie Byrne's get asked every day for "real" and "authentic" traditional music I think there's very much a need for a proper Irish music night. The Irish House Party is the perfect answer, lots of fun but with real music.

There are several different options; you can go for dinner and the show from 7pm (a very nice dinner and we got to know some of our fellow guests over it, so if you want the full experience definitely opt for this!) or you can simply go for the show itself from 8.30pm. If you're a guest of the hotel you get a discount and they also cater for large groups.

The dinner was lovely, everyone was very pleased with themselves and we got to chat to some New Zealanders. Then the show - there are around 11 musicians connected to the Irish House Party , all of whom are top notch. We were blessed last night with uillean pipes, fiddle, tin whistle and bouzouki/guitar (and I can tell you, it takes a lot to impress me but they managed it from the first reel!)
There's plenty of speil, plenty of audience participation, lots of fun and the presentation is very professional without ever seeming either jaded or perfunctory.
If I won the lotto tomorrow I'd hire them to play at my own damn house party :)

They have CDs on sale, I got one for myself and one for the father-in-law who would have loved it. We're planning on going back during the summer and taking the parents; it's over around 10.30 and that makes it ideal for all age gr0ups. The older more sedate visitor can get to bed on time and the younger ones can get out into the Dublin nightlife without missing anything.

All in all - massive thumbs up! We've linked them from the index page of Charlies Website so bookmark them and next time you need to impress the visitors...take them to a house party.

Xi'An Sí to play Irish Gigs

A recent excellent "find" (well, last year :)) has been the Chinese group Xi'an Sí (pronounced Shi-an Shee) who specialise in playing Irish music (traditional, folk, O'Carrolan etc) on ancient Chinese instruments. Their CD The Xi'An Sessions is superb and one of the most popular independent CDs we've ever stockedread about them, how they came to irish music and their instruments here http://www.geocities.com/charlesbyrnemusic/xiansthe.htm
Now....we have it on good authority...they're planning to come to Ireland this summer and will be playing a few dates!! One of the group is permanently based here and she's promised to keep us updated about the plans, and we'll announce dates as soon as they are confirmed.This will be a unique opportunity to see a wonderful group live, and I for one will be up front and centre, I'm not missing this :) Fingers crossed they avoid July 4th-19th (holidays)
Let you know as soon as it happens :)

Finding Charlie's Music Shop....

Now it's even easier to find us using Google Maps! We've updated our Location Page
to show Charlie's on a searchable, zoomable google map. Aren't Google maps the best thing ever? :) Love them. I have absolutely no sense of direction so a good map/sat nav system is a must for me, and I use google maps all the time to figure out where on earth I am, need to be, should have been before I got lost!

And of course if this still isn't enough just ring us and we'll talk you through it :) Of course you can always order over the phone and save yourself the trip! we take Visa, Mastercard, Laser etc


View Larger Map

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year From Charlie Byrne's

We're closing up at three pm and we'll be shut until January 6th; so to all our customers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and peaceful New Year. It was nice getting to say it in person to so many people today - although shocking that so many of you left your Christmas shopping to the last moment!! Hope you all have a very good holiday; and may 2009 bring all good things.

See you all Next Year!

Djembes - only a few left!

We have only a few left of our African handmade Djembes and this is the end of the stock guys! We probably won;t be renewing this line so if you want to snap up a bargain get into us - 20% discount on all Djembes, including conga djembes and also on our Kapunga sets (1 left in stock)

Last week of Sale

It's the final week of our march stock clearance sale: 10% off all bodhráns (Paul McAuley, Paraic McNeela, FIrst Island, Dublin Bodhráns, Michael Vignoles, Malachy Kearns) and 20% off Djembes plus look at our books, cds, dvds, videos (10% off) and other percussion offers (15% discount off Native American Drums handmade by Paul McAuley)

So have a look and take advantage of these offers, cos it will be too late in April!

AND BEST OF LUCK TO THE IRISH SOCCER TEAM ON SATURDAY!

How to Write an Irish Ballad

A customer asked me today what was a the "best" Irish ballad; we couldn't really help them, after all it's really a matter of opinion! but we did enjoy a productive half-hour of naming our favourites.
Some opted for the obscure (instant kudus in Irish traditional circles if you can name some little known piece only sung between two parishes in the Wesht and even then only on a Tuesday and if you see a brown bull) while some opted for the old classics

We came up with the following list:

Fields of Athenry (comes under the heading of Guilty Pleasure)
Kevin Barry (top of the Rebel Songs Category)
Boulavogue (next most popular)
A Nation once Again (third popular rebel song)
Gortnamorna (representing the Music Hall Ballad)
Streets of New York (Modern Irish Ballad)
I know my Love (Catchiest Ballad)
Connemara Cradle Song (Sweetest ballad)
A Bunch of Thyme (most coyly suggextive ballad)

Feel free to add your own!

Of course there is a certain sameness to Irish Ballds, particualrly those of a certain ilk. If you ever want to write the classic Irish folk song, remember the following rules

1. Bloody English (AKA the Auld Enemy, The Redcoats or the Yoemen) are to blame for starting it, whatever the aprticular "it" is this time
2. Mention a rotten Landlord preferably one that threw you out into the snow, barefoot and pregnant, with four starving childer and your dying mother.
3. Add in a hint of sex - either the landlord's son, a redcoat or the boy in the next parish. The former will ahve deserted the herione and the latter she regrets leaving behind.
4. rebel against something, traditionally some combination of the above
5. set it all to a lamenting air except the chorus which shoul be rousing and sound like you're exhorting your listener to murder!

have fun!

St Patricks Day....and ukuleles

We don't open on Paddy's Day frankly because the city centre is not the best place to be on a day like that! So the shop will be shut between Saturday the 17th and Tuesday the 20th: but the sale goes on....the bodhrán sale in particular is prooving very popular!

We've just got in new Ukuleles: handmade ones in beautiful wood, pink ukuleles for kids, ukulele banjos (truly a work of art!) and lots more, including pineapple shape hawaiian and electro-acoustic ones.

Ukuleles!

The History Of Charles Byrne Music

A lot of our history can be found on our website

Founded by the first CCHARLIE BYRNE in 1870,
ours is one of the oldest family-owned music shops in Europe.

The very building itself has seen many of the historical events,
which have shaped the Republic of Ireland.
Home Rule, The Easter Rising, The War of Independence, Civil War and more,
becoming itself a listed heritage building and a recognised local landmark for Dubliners

http://www.geocities.com/charlesbyrnemusic/his.htm