"The" Fiddle Tune book - bluegrass & old-time

[Perry]

I'm always on the search for a comprehensive fiddle tune book. I've have loads of them but I've yet to see one that fits this description:

mostly bluegrass and old-time
standard notation only
basic versions of the melody (no ornamentation or personalized versions)

I guess a fake book of fiddle tunes is what I want. Seems there would be a good market for one. Maybe I'm being picky but Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook does not meet the above requirements. The versions are too ornamented; too busy. Also the bow markings are distracting.

Any suggestions? Maybe there is one I've overlooked.

Thanks
Perry

[Mike Black]

Do you have the Portland collections?

May not fit all your criteria, but this IS the ultimate Old-time fiddle tune book.

Milliner-Koken Collection of American Fiddle Tunes

[Adam Sweet]

The Portland Collections (there are 2 but the 1st one - blue - is the best). The Waltz Books (three of those, pink one is best) by Bill Matthiesen (sp?). But if you really want tunes with no ornamentation, use http://thesession.org and JC's ABC Tunefinder. Both are excellent choices for those hard to find tunes.

[Adam Sweet]

Mike I tried to open your facebook page and got a 404 error

[Perry]

The Portland Collections (there are 2 but the 1st one - blue - is the best). The Waltz Books (three of those, pink one is best) by Bill Matthiesen (sp?). But if you really want tunes with no ornamentation, use http://thesession.org and JC's ABC Tunefinder. Both are excellent choices for those hard to find tunes.

Thanks. I'm familiar with those collections.

Portland is good but lacks many of the bluegrass standards and has a lot of tunes that are not "standards" The Waltz Books are nicely done but do not have fiddle tunes per se just waltzes and many obscure.

M-K collection is great but lacks many bluegrass standards. It is also cumbersome to carry. Also it lacks bar lines which make it difficult to sight read IMHO.

A nice little cleanly notated fiddle tune book with all the top tunes is what I'm after.

Seems that there would be some demand for such a book?

Maybe I'm the only one that doesn't like the versions in Brody's book?

[Beanzy]

I know what you mean Perry The Fakebook are already interpreted in one players way.
In Irish music these are very common and there are loads of options out there ( like this series )
I've not seen anything properly pared down like that for Old-Time / Fiddle Tunes from the US.

[Jean Fugal]

http://elderly.com/books/items/262-14.htm
THE COMPLETE - FIDDLE TUNES I EITHER DID OR DID NOT LEARN AT THE TRACTOR TAVERN

This book is great for Oldtime for bluegrass about all you can do is listen, listen, listen and then play
It is hard to write "bluegrass" down and it changes every time the tune is played in different settings.

[Perry]

http://elderly.com/books/items/262-14.htm
THE COMPLETE - FIDDLE TUNES I EITHER DID OR DID NOT LEARN AT THE TRACTOR TAVERN

This book is great for Oldtime for bluegrass about all you can do is listen, listen, listen and then play
It is hard to write "bluegrass" down and it changes every time the tune is played in different settings.

I agree that bluegrass does and should morph. I like to start with the basic melody and then adapt my own variations or borrow from other books

BUT there is usually a pretty well accepted standard melody for many of the standards like Blackberry Blossom, Billy in the Lowground, Red Haired Boy, Bill Cheatum, Big Sciota, Arkansas Traveler, Forked Deer, etc.

[Perry]

I know what you mean Perry The Fakebook are already interpreted in one players way.
In Irish music these are very common and there are loads of options out there ( like this series )
I've not seen anything properly pared down like that for Old-Time / Fiddle Tunes from the US.

That looks good. The Foinn Session books are also nice and clean.

[JeffD]

I think you may need to do what I have done, which is with the help of a scanner and access to many and various tune books, cobble together your ultimate tunebook. Its actually kind of a fun exercise, and puts everything you really really want in one place. Mine is a combination of excerpts of my many tunebooks, (a six foot high bookshelf full) and alot of material others have compiled and put together in notebook form, and also my own transcriptions, as best I can, from CDs or learning enough of a tune from someone at a jam and writing it down just after.

Mine is a three ring binder and I am all the time re-arranging and adding and subtracting. Because it is excerpts, I know I have a copy of every tune somewhere else, so I cull the book based on what I need at the moment. Its really a tunebook of what I want to work on now.

Also, here is a great hint, punch holes in both long edges of your pages, so you can put a tune on either side of the binder when you make up sets for practice or performance or a jam.

[SincereCorgi]

Have you looked at the Bluegrass Real Book that Matt Flinner edited? It's not exactly what you asked for, but it's one of the few books that has a good selection of bluegrass standards and instrumentals instead of wall-to-wall fiddle tunes.

[Mike Bunting]

I think you may need to do what I have done, which is with the help of a scanner and access to many and various tune books, cobble together your ultimate tunebook. Its actually kind of a fun exercise, and puts everything you really really want in one place. Mine is a combination of excerpts of my many tunebooks, (a six foot high bookshelf full) and alot of material others have compiled and put together in notebook form, and also my own transcriptions, as best I can, from CDs or learning enough of a tune from someone at a jam and writing it down just after.

Mine is a three ring binder and I am all the time re-arranging and adding and subtracting. Because it is excerpts, I know I have a copy of every tune somewhere else, so I cull the book based on what I need at the moment. Its really a tunebook of what I want to work on now.

Also, here is a great hint, punch holes in both long edges of your pages, so you can put a tune on either side of the binder when you make up sets for practice or performance or a jam.

I do something like that except that they are gathered on my ipad with an app called Gigbook and another one called SetList. On Setlist I can have a metronome play and can call up the recording as well as the notation/tab. On both apps you can sort according to your requirements.

[DSDarr]

Let me put in a second plug for Matt Flinner's Bluegrass Real Book. Just melody (standard notation only) and chords in the Real Book style; but for bluegrass songs and instrumentals. Not highly ornamented (if at all)... just a pretty straight-forward version of the melody.

-David