The age of the computer hasn't really drastically altered the world as I know it, although occasionally it does present new ways for me that I find very interesting. One has been the dissemination of Irish traditional music through the Internet both in terms of leisure and learning. In time honoured tradition the fiddle student would learn at the knee of the master player, learning a little week by week. Then the books and videos came out in the eighties. Recently this process has been exported with tutors travelling abroad for weeks at a time teaching at classes and festivals. Now, in what must be considered a revolutionary step, the CD-rom tutor has arrived and one of the companies at the forefront of this trend is Mad for Trad. Based out of Cork City in Ireland it is the brainchild of a couple of ex-Nomos members who have pooled resources with some of the best names in the business and come up with a winner as far as I can see. Why is it revolutionary ? Simply for the amount of material available on each product, it far exceeds that of a standard video tape or instructional cassette and on a cost per lesson basis it is good value for money indeed coming in at around 39 Euro per CD.

There are around a dozen tutors available each by an acknowledged leader in their field. The classes range from absolute beginner through to masterclass and are laid out in a very user friendly and easy to follow format. Only a basic understanding of computer skills is needed. The tunes are presented visually through video, written and played. All the notes are consistent with the variations played and are presented in a matter of fact manner building the tunes up and fleshing them out as one progresses through the series of classes. This is not for the person interested in learning ten new tunes a day. Rather it is for the beginner and the committed amateur although even an advanced player would find a lot of use here.

If anything the videos are compressed somewhat making for a jerky experience which can be off-putting when trying to observe close finger work. Not so much of a problem with the piping CD which has linear fingering, but it was with the accordion CD with crossed row fingering; however, this is difficult enough to express clearly in real-time anyway.

All up these CD-Roms are clearly good value for money and suitable for players of all skill levels. The lads have good website at where one can peruse their products as well as catch up with what's on in the world of trad. They also have samples to download, tunes and a forum for all you tradheads out there.