Welcome!
For the past 25+ years I've been playing traditional Irish music on a variety of instruments including Uilleann pipes, tin whistle, wooden flute, Anglo concertina, and B/C-tuned button accordion. More recently, I started playing the 5-row C-system chromatic button accordion (CBA) for French and Russian music.
Since January 2000, I've co-hosted the weekly Tuesday night Irish session at The Ould Sod in San Diego, CA as well as being in the hosting rotation for the Sunday afternoon session at The Auld Dubliner in Long Beach, CA.
I've played Uilleann pipes and Tin Whistle on the soundtracks for two movies, working with composer Patrick Cassidy: "Kill the Irishman" and "Calvary". I've also done studio recording work for the local Southern California band "Sligo Rags" and others.
In my professional life, I've been a software developer for nearly 40 years.
Currently, I am a Senior Systems Architect Emeritus for SmartDraw, working on strategic Kubernetes and Azure DevOps-related projects.
At SmartDraw, I was the lead developer of SmartDraw and VisualScript add-ins for Atlassian Confluence and Jira, both Cloud and Server as well as a senior developer on the SmartDraw Cloud team.
Before coming to SmartDraw in 2012, from 1990 until 2012, I developed Windows video capture and Microsoft Broadcast Driver Architecture (BDA) kernel-mode device drivers for chipmaker Conexant Systems.
In additional to working as an software developer for other companies, I also have developed a whole family of traditional musical instrument mobile apps for iOS and Android under my AppCordions brand.
Demo Reel
My Resume
I'm always open to the possibility of working on interesting software projects.
Click here for my employment resume page:
Music Class Recordings, Videos, and Books For Sale
I have several tin whistle tune class recordings, instructional videos, and Irish
button accordion related products for sale
Click here for more information:
AppCordions Traditional Musical Instrument Apps
Since 2011, under my AppCordions brand,I've been developing a series of traditional musical instrument apps foraccordions, concertinas, Scottish and Uilleann bagpipes, and hammered dulcimers.
Click here for more information:
ABC Transcription Tools
ABC Transcription Tools is a free, web-based, open-source tool I built for
converting music in ABC format to standard notation and tablature.
It runs 100% client-side in your browser. You can even copy the source code
from the GitHub link below and run it locally on your computer. No server required.
This converter can generate standard music notation from ABC files,
show note names along with notation,
and also create tablature for mandolin, bouzouki, mandola,
standard guitar, DADGAD guitar, or whistle.
It can also transpose ABC up or down in semitone increments.
It can generate PDF tunebooks (Letter or A4 size) in tune-per-page ormultiple-tunes-per-page formats with many options for adding a title page,
table of contents, index, page numbers, headers and footers,
and even adding a QR code for sharing the set at the end.
Use it on your iPad!
Try it out here:
Check out the User Guide:
ABC Transcription Tools User Guide
You can also generate Share URLs and QR codes to open the
tool with tune sets and tool settings pre-loaded.
The full ABC for the tunes and tab settings along with the tool settingsare encoded in URL parameters on the Share URL links.
Example ABC Share URLs - Click the links below to immediately start using the tool:
Launch the tool with three sets of polkas from the group "Sliabh Notes" pre-loaded
Launch the tool with "Muireann's" jig (by Niall Vallely) for Anglo Concertina pre-loaded
I have a collection of QR codes for tune sets at:
Try scanning them on your mobile device to launch the
ABC Tool with the tune set embedded in the QR code.
Full project source may be found on:
The Ould Sod Pub Session
Starting in January 2000, fiddler George Rubsamen and I have been co-hosting theTuesday night open traditional Irish session at The Ould Sod Pub in San Diego.
The Ould Sod Virtual Session on Zoom
Since March 2020, I've been hosting an open session on Zoom,currently every Thursday night from 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Pacific. (9:00 PM - 11:00 PM Eastern)
Click here for the Zoom meeting link and more information:
Learning Tunes by Ear Using Transcribe
Here's my detailed process for learning tunes by ear:
Creating PDF Tune Transcriptions Using Transcribe
Here's my detailed process for creating notation transcriptions of tunes:
Learning to Play the Basses on Irish B/C Button Accordion
One of my recent projects has been writing up tune transcriptions for B/C boxcomplete with bass and chord indications for players learning to play the bass side.
Click here for more information:
iPad-based Zoom Audio Processor
Being on Zoom all the time, I really wanted the best possible sound quality for both
voice and instruments, so I put together a flexible iPad-based audio processor:
Click here for more information:
Zoombuttons
I put together as a "text board" to allow me to quickly copy and paste text
into the chat on Zoom meetings by just clicking buttons on a web page
It's very easy to customize the source code to create your own Zoombuttons board
John Whelan's "Taking Time" Sessions
I've been assisting John Whelan with his weekly "Taking Time" events on Zoom.
Click here for more information, including set lists and session recordings:
Riggy Rackin - "Jews in Irish Music"
In September 2021, I had the honor of being included in Riggy Rackin's "Jews in Irish Music" project
Riggy Rackin's "Jews in Irish Music" project:
My page is here, has the whole crazy story of how I got into playing traditional Irish music:
Tip Jars
If you find my workshops or handouts useful, please consider buying me a beer bytossing a few bucks into one of my virtual tip jars:
PayPalhttps://paypal.me/MichaelEskin
Venmo@MichaelEskin
Contact Me
Unsolicited Testimonials
"Thank you for hosting the Whistle Workshop earlier this week on Monday evening. It was a delight!
The educator in me wants to over-analyze everything you did that set us up for success together, and provide feedback. I really appreciated how smoothly you led the group and facilitated great thinking for each of us and all of us at the same time. Thank you for taking the (important) time to let us get to know each other a bit in the beginning, that helped remove a lot of the pressure or nerves for participating in an online forum.
You lead us through a great balance of playing/listening, as well as philosophical conversations regarding playing, sessions, etc. And, you honored the journey that each of us is on, while also acknowledging none of us is ever at the end—modeling a humble and healthy growth mindset. As I mentioned, I trained classically at a Conservatory, and the politics of that environment is in such stark contrast to my experiences so far in the folk music community—and a welcome and warm contrast! The conversational nature of your workshop felt appropriate as a coming together of minds to celebrate and enjoy Irish trad music and whistle techniques. I am grateful for the experience, and would be interested in attending a future event.
Cheers!"
-Jake Edward
"Thank you so much for the masterclass!
I really enjoyed it and find your humility refreshing. I learned a lot.
Would love to do some lessons with you if you have availability. I'm planning to join the session tomorrow night as well.
Thank you!!"
- David Renfro