Traditional music, often synonomous with 'Irish traditional music' comprises two broad categories; instrumental music, which is mostly dance music (reels, jigs, hornpipes, polkas and the like), and the song tradition, which is mostly unaccompanied solo singing.

In Ireland, a distinction is made between 'traditional' and 'folk' music, 'folk' music having a wider and sometimes pejorative interpretation; it can refer to 'contemporary' songs with guitar accompaniment, for example. Since traditional musicians call the music traditional music, we might as well call it that too. To define, below are some pointers:
Music written in the past and is about a place, a person, a time, an event or a feeling. Music that was not necessarily written down in the beginning but passed by musicians playing. Music that sometimes tell a story like "Jack Was Every Inch a Sailor". Music that might have been composed to help with work, often played by the fiddles, the accordion, the guitar, the tin whistle, bagpipes etc Music that doesn't have to have words passed from generation to generation