There are many Irish tunes in the key of E minor, including the reel you’ll learn in this lesson: “The Man of the House.” But in Irish music, the key of E minor is usually a little different than the natural minor scale. It uses the D major scale again, like the other reels you’ve learned, but this time starting on the E note, the second step of the D scale, which creates the E Dorian scale. Marla shows you the E Dorian scale, which is usually just called E minor in traditional Irish music. In many E minor tunes you’ll need to play the E at the second fret of the D string and the B at the second fret of the A string with the same finger, your index finger. Marla shows you a technique for flattening (or barring) your index finger at an angle that will help you play many E minor tunes, including “The Man of the House.” She calls this the “E minor squeeze.” In this video, Marla walks you through the A part of “The Man of the House” phrase by phrase and then plays the whole A part slowly so you can play along with her.
