How to Find Album Recordings of Your Irish Session Sets

The Set Transition Problem

Musicians playing traditional Irish music rarely play a tune in isolation. Tunes are arranged into sets of two, three, or four. When you assemble a new set, you face structural questions:

• Which tune order generates the best rhythmic momentum?
• How do players handle the key changes?
• Has anyone recorded this exact combination before?

Often, players rely on memory or hunt through individual album tracklists. The database at Trad Tune Explorer offers a faster way by indexing track metadata from thousands of commercial albums, showing exactly how recorded sets are constructed.

How the Recording Set Search Works

The Recording Set Search tool accepts multiple tune names or IDs and searches for tracks that contain those tunes. The tool offers four matching modes to narrow your search:

1. Exact Order

This mode matches tracks where the tunes are played in the exact sequence you specified. It is useful when you have settled on a layout and want to hear how other players manage the transition point.

2. Same Tunes, Any Order

This returns tracks that contain the exact set of tunes you entered, regardless of which tune comes first. It reveals alternative ordering decisions.

3. Contains All Searched Tunes

This matches sets that contain all your specified tunes, even if they include additional tunes in the track. For example, if you search for Tune A and Tune B, it will find tracks playing Tune A → Tune C → Tune B.

4. Partial Overlap

This returns tracks containing at least a minimum number of your searched tunes (for example, matching two out of three). This is helpful for finding related pairings.

Case Study: The Kesh, The Monaghan, and Morrison's

Let's look at how the search handles three popular jigs:

• The Kesh Jig (G Major)
• The Monaghan Jig (E Minor)
• Morrison's Jig (E Dorian)

If we search for these three jigs in the order Kesh → Morrison's → Monaghan using the Exact Order filter, the search returns no results, because no recorded artist plays them in that precise order. However, if we switch the matching mode to Same Tunes, Any Order — or if we search for the correct sequence of Kesh → Monaghan → Morrison's under Exact Order — the database returns a direct match:

Same Tunes, Different Orders

If we expand the search to **Same Tunes, Any Order** or **Contains All** using just *Morrison's* and *The Kesh*, we see how other musicians have rearranged the pairing on their albums:

These entries show a reverse sequence: starting with *Morrison's* (E Dorian) and transitioning up to *The Kesh* (G Major). This G major transition lifts the key center, raising the energy for the remainder of the set.

How to Run a Search

To search for recordings of your sets:

1. Go to the Recording Set Search page.
2. Type the name of your first tune in the Add tunes search box and select it from the autocomplete list. Repeat this for each tune in your set.
3. Choose your Match mode. If you are open to different tune orders, select *Same tunes, any order*.
4. Set the Minimum match threshold (usually 2 tunes).
5. Click Search recordings.

The results display matching tracks. For tracks with active streaming availability, badges appear for platforms like **Spotify**, **Apple Music**, or **Bandcamp** to let you listen to the transition directly. Hovering over any tune node also displays a two-bar ABC music notation incipit for a quick melody reference.

Frequently Asked Questions