You don’t need to play an instrument to appreciate Irish traditional music. But knowing what you’re hearing — which instrument is carrying the melody, which is driving the rhythm, which is adding that shimmering accompaniment underneath — transforms the way you listen. Suddenly a session isn’t just a wall of sound. It’s a conversation between instruments, each with its own voice and personality.
This guide covers every instrument you’re likely to hear in Irish trad, from the ones that have been in the tradition for centuries to those that arrived within living memory. We’re not selling instruments here — we’re a radio station. What we can offer is the perspective of people who listen to these instruments every day across thousands of recordings spanning nearly a century, from 1930s 78rpm discs to albums released this year. For each instrument, we’ll tell you what it sounds like, where it sits in the tradition, and who to listen to if you want to hear it at its best.
The Fiddle
The fiddle is the most widely played instrument in Irish traditional music and has been a fixture of the tradition since at least the 17th century. It’s physically identical to a classical violin — same instrument, same four strings, same basic construction. The difference is entirely in how it’s played.
Irish fiddlers hold the instrument in various ways. Some tuck it under the chin in the classical manner; others rest it lower, against the chest or even in the crook of the arm. The bowing is different too — shorter, more rhythmic, and often closer to the frog of the bow than a classical player would use. And the ornamentation — the cuts, rolls, slides and triplets that give Irish fiddle playing its characteristic sound — is a world away from classical technique.
What makes the fiddle central to trad is its extraordinary versatility and its responsiveness to regional style. The same instrument, the same tunes — but the way they’re played changes dramatically from one part of Ireland to another.
Regional Fiddle Styles
Sligo: Flowing, highly ornamented, virtuosic. This is the style most associated with Irish fiddle playing worldwide, thanks to the recordings of Michael Coleman in 1920s New York. Coleman’s 78rpm records electrified musicians on both sides of the Atlantic and essentially created the template for what many people think of as “Irish fiddle music.” James Morrison, another Sligo emigrant in New York, was equally influential. The Sligo style emphasises long bowing, elaborate rolls and triplets, and a sense of rhythmic freedom that makes the tunes seem to float.
Donegal: Rhythmically fierce, with aggressive bowing and a driving energy that reflects strong Scottish influences. Donegal fiddlers also play tune types — highlands, mazurkas — that are rare elsewhere in Ireland. Tommy Peoples and Mairead Ní Mhaonaigh of Altan are among the best-known Donegal fiddlers.
Clare: Spare, precise, deeply rooted in the dance. Less ornamentation than Sligo, more emphasis on rhythm and the natural shape of the tune. This is the style you’re most likely to hear in a modern session.
Sliabh Luachra (Kerry/Cork): Rhythmic, percussive, tied to the dance tradition of polkas and slides. The playing of Pádraig O’Keeffe, Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford defines this sound — raw, driving and endlessly propulsive.
East Clare/Martin Hayes: Hayes deserves his own category. The East Clare fiddler plays with a slow, meditative intensity that strips the music back to its emotional core. His playing is deeply rooted in the tradition but sounds like nothing else. If you listen to one fiddle player to understand what the instrument can do at its most expressive, make it Martin Hayes.
Who to listen to
Michael Coleman, James Morrison, Martin Hayes, Tommy Peoples, Mairead Ní Mhaonaigh, Kevin Burke, Paddy Glackin, Liz Carroll, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Matt Cranitch.
The Uilleann Pipes
If the fiddle is the most popular instrument in Irish trad, the uilleann pipes are the most distinctive. Nothing else in music sounds quite like them. They’re Ireland’s national bagpipe, and they’re far more complex and nuanced than most people expect a bagpipe to be.
The name comes from the Irish word “uilleann,” meaning elbow. Unlike Scottish Highland bagpipes, which are blown by mouth, uilleann pipes are powered by a bellows held under one arm and pumped with the elbow. The player sits down, rests the chanter (the melody pipe) on their knee, and uses the other elbow to squeeze the leather bag that distributes air to the chanter, three drones and three regulators.
That bellows system is what makes uilleann pipes so different from their Scottish cousins. Because the air is dry (not moistened by the player’s breath), the reeds can be thinner and more responsive. The sound is softer, sweeter, and capable of far greater nuance. Highland pipes are built for battlefields and open air. Uilleann pipes are built for kitchens and concert halls.
The anatomy of a full set
- Chanter: The melody pipe. It has eight finger holes and a double reed (like an oboe). It plays a full two chromatic octaves — far more than most bagpipes can manage. When the piper rests the chanter on their knee, the bottom hole is sealed, allowing them to create staccato effects by closing and opening tone holes. Lift the chanter off the knee and the bottom “bell note” sounds, adding volume and a different tonal quality.
- Drones: Three pipes (bass, baritone and tenor) that produce a constant background harmony. They can be switched on and off with a brass lever.
- Regulators: Three additional pipes with sprung keys that the piper operates with their wrist while playing the melody on the chanter. Each key sounds a different note, and pressing several keys simultaneously produces chords. This is unique to the uilleann pipes — no other bagpipe can play chords.
- Bellows and bag: The bellows pump dry air into the leather bag, which the piper squeezes to push air through the chanter, drones and regulators.
A full set of uilleann pipes has seven reeds and more moving parts than most people can track. Beginners typically start with a practice set (chanter only, no drones or regulators) and add components as they develop. The old saying is that it takes seven years to learn, seven years to practise and seven years to play — and while that’s an exaggeration, nobody pretends the pipes are easy.
Who to listen to
Séamus Ennis, Willie Clancy, Liam O’Flynn, Paddy Keenan, Paddy Moloney (The Chieftains), Davy Spillane, John McSherry, Mick O’Brien. For a contemporary sound, try Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh’s collaborations with pipers, or the trio of pipers featured in Dónal Dineen’s performance piece “The Pipes, The Pipes.”
Read more about the uilleann pipes in our dedicated guide
The Tin Whistle
The tin whistle — also called the penny whistle — is the most accessible instrument in Irish music and the one most people learn first. It’s cheap (you can buy a decent Clarke or Feadóg whistle for a few euros), small enough to fit in a jacket pocket, and the basics can be learned in an afternoon. Irish schoolchildren are routinely taught the tin whistle in primary school, making it the instrument that introduces more people to the tradition than any other.
But don’t mistake accessibility for simplicity. The tin whistle is a six-hole, end-blown fipple flute, typically in the key of D. It has a bright, clear, slightly shrill tone that cuts through a session. In the hands of a master, it’s capable of astonishing speed, delicate ornamentation and real emotional depth. Mary Bergin’s classic 1970s recording Feadóga Stáin is often credited with revolutionising the whistle’s place in the tradition, proving it was far more than a “beginner’s flute.”
The low whistle — a larger, deeper-pitched relative — has its own distinct character. Popularised by Davy Spillane and others from the 1970s onward, the low whistle has a haunting, breathy quality well suited to slow airs. It’s less agile than the standard D whistle for session playing, but its sound is unmistakable.
Who to listen to
Mary Bergin, Paddy Moloney, Joanie Madden, Brian Finnegan, Seán Potts. For low whistle: Davy Spillane, Cormac Breatnach, Michael McGoldrick.
The Wooden Flute
The Irish flute is not the silver Boehm-system instrument you see in an orchestra. It’s a simple-system, conical-bore wooden flute — the kind that classical musicians abandoned in the mid-1800s when the modern metal flute was developed. When concert flautists moved to the new design, their old wooden instruments became available cheaply on the second-hand market. Irish musicians snapped them up and never looked back.
The wooden flute has a warm, breathy, earthy tone that the metal concert flute simply doesn’t match for Irish music. Its six finger holes (plus a few keys on some models) suit the ornamentation and phrasing of trad perfectly. The slightly imprecise, organic quality of the sound is part of its charm — it breathes in a way that a precision-engineered concert flute doesn’t.
Today, many flute players use instruments built specifically for Irish music by specialist makers, though old 19th-century Rudall & Rose and Pratten flutes are still prized. A few players, like Joanie Madden, use the modern concert flute, but the wooden simple-system instrument remains the strong preference.
Who to listen to
Matt Molloy (The Chieftains), Kevin Crawford (Lúnasa), Michael McGoldrick, Catherine McEvoy, Conal Ó Gráda, Steph Geremia. For a historical perspective, listen to John McKenna’s 1920s recordings.
The Bodhrán
The bodhrán (pronounced roughly “bow-rawn”) is a frame drum: a shallow wooden hoop with goatskin (or sometimes synthetic material) stretched across one side. It’s played upright on the knee with a small double-ended wooden stick called a tipper (or beater), while the player’s other hand presses the back of the skin from inside the frame to control pitch, tone and dampening.
The bodhrán’s role in Irish music is simple in principle and fiendishly difficult in practice: provide rhythmic drive without overwhelming the melody instruments. A good bodhrán player locks in with the pulse of the tune and supports the session from underneath. A bad bodhrán player drowns out everything and makes musicians wince. The instrument has historically had a mixed reputation in trad circles — there’s an old joke that the best thing you can do with a bodhrán is use it to carry the turf home in — but in the hands of a skilled player, it’s a genuinely thrilling instrument.
The bodhrán’s current style of playing is relatively modern. While the drum itself is ancient, its role as a standard session instrument only really developed in the latter half of the 20th century, partly through the influence of Séan Ó Riada and Ceoltóirí Chualann in the 1960s. Modern players like John Joe Kelly, Colm Murphy and Rónán Ó Snodaigh have pushed the instrument’s technique far beyond what early players imagined.
Who to listen to
John Joe Kelly, Colm Murphy (De Dannan), Rónán Ó Snodaigh (Kíla), Tommy Hayes, Junior Davey, Eamon Murray (Beoga). For a masterclass in taste and restraint, listen to how Colm Murphy plays with De Dannan — he never overpowers, always serves the tune.
The Concertina
The concertina is a small, hexagonal, bellows-driven free-reed instrument with buttons on both ends. It arrived in Ireland in the late 19th century (it was invented in England and Germany) and found its spiritual home in County Clare, where it became the dominant melody instrument in many local sessions.
The type most commonly played in Irish music is the Anglo concertina, which is “bisonoric” — meaning each button produces a different note depending on whether the bellows are being pushed or pulled. This gives the instrument a natural rhythmic pulse that suits Irish dance music beautifully. The sound is crisp, bright and penetrating — a concertina can hold its own against fiddles and flutes without amplification.
The concertina’s association with Clare is deep. Mrs Crotty, who recorded in the 1950s, is considered the mother of the Clare concertina style. Noel Hill, widely regarded as the greatest Irish concertina player, has been the defining influence on the instrument since the 1980s. Today, players like Cormac Begley, Cáitlín Nic Gabhann and Jack Talty continue to push the instrument forward.
Who to listen to
Noel Hill, Mrs Crotty, Cormac Begley, Cáitlín Nic Gabhann, Jack Talty, Mícheál Ó Rachallaigh, Niall Vallely.
The Button Accordion
The button accordion spread to Ireland in the late 19th century and quickly became a staple of the tradition. The most common types in Irish music are the B/C and C#/D two-row button accordions. Each row of buttons is tuned to a different key, and the layout allows the instrument to be played chromatically — meaning the melody can be played in any key, not just the two the rows are tuned to.
The accordion has a bigger, richer sound than the concertina — it fills a room. It’s a popular session instrument and is particularly prominent in céilí bands. The B/C system suits a flowing, legato style of playing, while the C#/D model is better suited to the punchy, rhythmic playing of Kerry polkas.
Sharon Shannon, from Corofin in County Clare, is probably the best-known accordion player in Irish music. Her debut album in 1991 became one of the best-selling traditional music records in Irish history, and her joyful, energetic playing — combined with a willingness to experiment with reggae, Cajun and other genres — won the accordion a whole new audience.
Who to listen to
Sharon Shannon, Joe Burke, Bobby Gardiner, James Keane, Dermot Byrne (Altan), Martin O’Connor, Derek Hickey.
The Tenor Banjo
The four-string tenor banjo came to Ireland from America in the 1920s. In its original context — American dance halls and early jazz — it was a rhythm instrument, strummed for chords. Irish musicians had other ideas. They adapted it for melody playing, tuning it in fifths (GDAE, an octave below the fiddle) and picking out jigs and reels on it with a plectrum.
The banjo has a bright, percussive, cutting sound that sits well in a session. It’s particularly effective on reels, where its rhythmic attack drives the music forward. Barney McKenna of The Dubliners was hugely influential in establishing the banjo in Irish music, but it wasn’t until the folk revival of the 1960s and 70s that the instrument gained widespread acceptance.
Who to listen to
Barney McKenna, Gerry O’Connor, Kieran Hanrahan, Angelina Carberry, Enda Scahill, John Carty (who also plays fiddle and flute to an equally high standard).
The Irish Bouzouki
The bouzouki is the most recent major addition to the Irish trad ensemble, and its story is one of the most colourful in the tradition. Johnny Moynihan of the folk group Sweeney’s Men introduced a Greek bouzouki into Irish music in the mid-1960s, retuning it to suit Irish tunes. Andy Irvine then gave a Greek bouzouki to Dónal Lunny, who had a luthier build one specifically designed for Irish music, with unison strings on the lower courses for a deeper, richer sound.
The Irish bouzouki looks like a large mandolin with a long neck. It’s played with a plectrum and is primarily an accompaniment instrument, providing chordal and rhythmic backing to melody players. In GDAD tuning, it offers a distinctive, ringing sound with open drone strings that complement the modal tonality of Irish tunes. It’s not a melody instrument in the trad context — you won’t hear someone playing jigs on a bouzouki at a session. Its job is to support, to fill out the sound, to create a harmonic bed for the melody to sit on.
The bouzouki wasn’t part of the tradition even fifty years ago. The fact that it’s now a standard session instrument shows how the tradition absorbs and adapts. What works, stays.
Who to listen to
Dónal Lunny, Andy Irvine, Alec Finn (De Dannan), Daoiri Farrell, Manus Lunny, Niamh Dunne.
The Guitar
The guitar is not a traditional Irish instrument in the historical sense, but it’s been part of the trad world since at least the 1930s. In Irish music, the guitar’s role is almost exclusively accompaniment — chordal and rhythmic backing for the melody instruments. It’s not a lead instrument.
Many Irish guitarists use DADGAD tuning rather than standard tuning. DADGAD creates open, droning chord voicings that suit the modal character of Irish tunes far better than standard major/minor chords. The tuning was popularised in the 1960s by Dáithí Sproule and others, and it’s now almost standard for Irish accompaniment.
A good guitar accompanist in a session is invisible in the best sense: you feel the support without being conscious of it. A bad one clashes with the modal melodies and stamps major/minor tonality all over music that doesn’t want it. The art is in knowing what not to play.
Who to listen to
Dáithí Sproule, Dennis Cahill (Martin Hayes’s long-time collaborator), Steve Cooney, Arty McGlynn, John Doyle, Seamie O’Dowd.
The Harp
The harp is Ireland’s national symbol — it’s on the coins, the passport and the Guinness logo. But its role in traditional music today is more complex than that status might suggest.
The Irish harp (cláirseach) has an ancient history stretching back over a thousand years. Harpers were prestigious figures in Gaelic society, employed by chieftains and aristocrats. The tradition produced Turlough O’Carolan (1670–1738), the blind harper and composer whose tunes blend Irish and Baroque traditions and are still played today. But the decline of the Gaelic order and the upheavals of the 17th and 18th centuries largely killed the wire-strung harping tradition.
The modern Irish harp, strung with gut or nylon rather than wire, was revived from the 1970s onward. It’s now played by a growing number of musicians, though it’s still less common in sessions than fiddles or flutes. The harp works beautifully as a solo or small-ensemble instrument, and its sound — bright, clear, with natural sustain — suits slow airs and song accompaniment particularly well.
Who to listen to
Máire Ní Chathasaigh (a pioneer of the modern trad harp), Michelle Mulcahy, Laoise Kelly, Michael Rooney, Gráinne Hambly. For the older wire-strung tradition, look for recordings by Patrick Byrne and the albums of Siobhán Armstrong.
Other Instruments in the Tradition
Piano accordion: Larger than the button accordion, with a keyboard on one side. Popular in céilí bands and for old-time dance music. Karen Tweed and Josephine Keegan are notable players.
Mandolin: A small, eight-stringed instrument tuned like a fiddle (GDAE). Used for both melody and accompaniment. Andy Irvine plays a distinctive mandolin alongside his bouzouki.
Harmonica: Less common but with its own tradition. Mick Kinsella, Rick Epping, Brendan Power and the Murphy family from Wexford are the key names.
Piano: A session rarity but important historically. Piano accompaniment featured on many classic 78rpm recordings from the 1920s and 30s. Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and Brian McGrath are notable players.
Bones and spoons: Percussive instruments held between the fingers and clicked together rhythmically. Simple in concept, surprisingly difficult to play well. You’ll still hear them at sessions and festivals.
A Living Tradition
One of the remarkable things about Irish traditional music is how the instrument roster keeps evolving. The button accordion and concertina only arrived in the 19th century. The tenor banjo came from America in the 1920s. The bouzouki showed up from Greece in the 1960s. Each time, the tradition absorbed the new arrival, adapted it, and made it Irish.
This isn’t a museum. It’s a living art form. The instruments serve the music, and the music is always being renewed by the people who play it. Tune into Radio Siamsa on any given day and you’ll hear instruments that have been in the tradition for centuries alongside ones that your grandparents wouldn’t have recognised — all of them playing the same tunes, all of them sounding unmistakably, beautifully Irish.
Hear all of these instruments on Radio Siamsa — see our guide to how to listen
Read our complete guide to Irish traditional music
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main instruments in Irish traditional music?
The core melody instruments are the fiddle, tin whistle, wooden flute, uilleann pipes, concertina and button accordion. The bodhrán provides percussion. Accompaniment instruments include the guitar (often in DADGAD tuning), bouzouki and piano. The harp, Ireland’s national symbol, has a rich tradition of its own.
What is the difference between a fiddle and a violin?
Nothing, physically. A fiddle and a violin are the same instrument. The difference is in the playing style. Irish fiddle playing uses different bowing techniques, ornamentation (cuts, rolls, slides, triplets) and regional approaches to phrasing and rhythm that are entirely distinct from classical violin technique.
What is a bodhrán and how do you pronounce it?
A bodhrán (pronounced roughly “bowrawn”) is an Irish frame drum made of a wooden hoop with goatskin stretched across one side. It’s played with a small wooden stick called a tipper, while the other hand presses the back of the skin to control pitch and tone.
Are uilleann pipes the same as Scottish bagpipes?
No. While both are bagpipes, uilleann pipes are bellows-blown (using the elbow), played seated, softer in tone, and far more complex. They have a two-octave range, can play staccato, and uniquely feature regulators that allow the piper to play chords. Scottish Highland pipes are mouth-blown, louder, and played standing.
What is the easiest Irish instrument to learn?
The tin whistle. It’s inexpensive, portable, and the basics can be learned quickly. It’s the instrument most Irish schoolchildren start on, and it provides an excellent foundation for later moving to the flute, pipes or another instrument.
What is DADGAD tuning?
DADGAD is an alternative guitar tuning where the six strings are tuned to D-A-D-G-A-D instead of the standard E-A-D-G-B-E. It creates open, droning chord voicings that suit the modal character of Irish tunes far better than standard tuning. It’s now almost standard for guitar accompaniment in Irish trad.
Is the harp commonly played in sessions?
The harp is less common in pub sessions than fiddles, flutes or concertinas, partly because of its size and volume. But it’s a beautiful solo and small-ensemble instrument with a growing number of skilled players, and it has a rich historical tradition in Ireland stretching back over a thousand years.
When did the bouzouki become part of Irish music?
The bouzouki was introduced from Greece in the mid-1960s by Johnny Moynihan of Sweeney’s Men. Dónal Lunny then had a luthier build one specifically designed for Irish music in the early 1970s. Despite being the newest major instrument in the tradition, it’s now a standard accompaniment instrument at sessions.
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