Mel Bay books

[John Bertotti]

I'm eyeballing these two, are tehy worth having. In my quick browse it seems between 10 and 15 songs are repeated on each on has over 60 tunes the other around 120 tunes. Thanks for the input and any alternat suggestions. John http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

Fiddle Tunes & Irish Music for Mandolin http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store....20Music (http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_detail.html?sku=MB.93732BCD&cart=3314866888981719&searchtitle=Sheet%20Music)
Celtic Encyclopedia - Mandolin Edition http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store....20Music (http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_detail.html?sku=MB.98197&cart=3314866888981719&searchtitle=Sheet%20Music)

[Bob DeVellis]

John, it depends on what you're looking for. If what you want is a slew of tunes, you can get O'Neill's 1850 on line for free at

http://trillian.mit.edu/~jc/music/book/oneills/1850/

This requires getting your hands on ABC2WIN, but that's cheaper than most books. You can also go to the above link and find out how to order a hard copy. The Breathnach volumes of Ceol Rince nEirann (Dance Music of Ireland) are also classics and, in later volumes, are more likely to have more recent additions to the repertoire than O'Neill's is. This isn't to knock the Mel Bay books (they're a source for O'Neill's, in fact), but just to point out sources that yiled an aweful lot of tunes either for free (online) or relatively little cost per tune.

[s1m0n]

JC'c ABC tunefinder (http://jc.tzo.net:1742/~jc/music/abc/findtune.html) will find you nearly any celtic or irish tune you can think of, and will output in a number of formats including the std notation in a low-res .gif or high-res .pdf.

I now have a shelf full of tunebooks I rarely consult.

[John Bertotti]

I want to have a celtic vocabulary so to speak. I have none now. Something free is always ideal. I have several celtic cd's and some classical. My favorite is Celtic and Italian romance. Some Celtic is very spiritual to me and some is quite fun. I love fun! I'll check out the above links. I run on an Imac will the ABC@WIN have a mac counterpart? Thanks again John

I did a search for mac abc and found this skink (http://s92972807.onlinehome.us/skink.html)

[Martin Jonas]

If you read standard notation, you don't need any program to convert the ABC files: the ABC tunefiner web site does the conversion for you. There are various shareware programs that give you prettier output, but at a pinch, it'll do. If you want to have tabs as well as standard notation, TablEdit will happily import ABC and is available for Mac -- various other programs will do the same.

However, ABC Tunefinder is a search engine, not a tunebook, and the versions it returns are usually (but no always) very bare-bones. It's more suitable for expereinced players looking for specific tunes by name rather than someone who wants to build up a basic understanding of the genre. People may get fed up with me plugging it, but I find Nigel Gatherer (http://www.nigelgatherer.com/)'s site to be the best collection of Celtic tunes arranged for mandolin. Even if you don't use tablature, don't be put off by the fact that it says "Tunes in Mandolin Tablature": all of these tunes are in standard notation as well, and are very well typeset with annotations and decorations specifically for mandolin. In addition, once you've figured out how to display abc files, check out Nigel's abc collection (http://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/abc.html). These tunes are arranged to the same standard as those in the tablature collection and there are many more of them. Finally, an excellent source for tunes, and not very often mentioned aorund these parts, is Richard Robinson's Tunebook (http://www.leeds.ac.uk/music/Info/RRTuneBk/tunebook.html). All of Robinson's and Gatherer's abc files are of course also indexed at the ABC Tunefiner, but going to their web sites directly makes browsing much easier and leads you to many great tunes that you may not know by name.

Martin

[Mutiny]

also give thesession.org (http://www.thesession.org) a visit.

[John Bertotti]

Thanks everyone. i have booked mark all the sites and will go through shortly. They all look great. I believe you have saved me a few dollars. Thanks again John http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[s1m0n]

I believe the ABC gold standard for mac users is a program called BARFLY

[Dolamon]

Both the Mel Bay books you were looking at are nice introductions to celtic music but ... the listings given by other members above are a really great resource (Especially Nigel Gatherer's). For a few other listings which are Mac friendly you may want to look at The Old Music Project (http://www.oldmusicproject.com/oneils1.html)of Vince Brennan's. This is a complete listing of O'Neill's and a few dancing master classics. The Excel Index is worth the hassle of getting it to load.

Another source of original Irish material which is very Mandolin friendly is Pay the Reckoning (http://www.paythereckoning.com/) of Aidan Crossey. This is a collection of some very fun tunes which passed Aidan's fertile ken and he put them down on paper. I'm not sure how friendly they are for Mac's though.

[jmcgann]

John- for getting into the music I'd suggest 1% of your time with the reading- just to get the "bones" of the tune, which is all that will be in the notation anyway- and 99% with listening, to develop the feel, ornamentation and nuances that will give you the SOUND. Get a CD of a fiddler you like, listen to it a lot, and then use your slow downer to play along slowly, and work it up to speed.

If there was ever a style of playing for which notation was inadequate, it's this one...

[Spencer]

There is another Mel Bay book with lots of good tunes in it. #This is a quote from Elderly's website on it:

"RYAN'S MAMMOTH COLLECTION OF FIDDLE TUNES edited by Patrick Sky. # Facsimile reprint of mammoth 1883 American fiddle tune collection and antecedent to Cole's "1000 Fiddle Tunes." 1050 reels, jigs, hornpipes, clogs, contra dances and more with fiddle bowing and fingering marked. 175 pp. " #Mapleleaf Music says it is the same as Cole's.

I don't have this particular version, but have the Cole's 1000 fiddle tunes and there are lots of tunes in this, Irish, Scottish, and American. #Jigs, Reels, Hornpipes. #I have had it since 1970, and am still learning from it. #I guess I'm just a slow learner. #It is in standard notation, and is a neat way to improve you reading of standard notation.

Here's the link to Elderly. #

http://www.elderly.com/books/items/02-95359.htm

And to MapleLeaf Music.

http://www.mapleleafmusic.com/tunebooks.cfm?sub=20

Spencer

[Avi Ziv]

John - One thing to keep in mind is that a tune can have many versions and variations.

If you are playing by yourself, or even as a soloist with other backup instruments, then you'll have less to worry about, and to some degree more creative freedom. However, as I found out recently...learning a version from a book (even if played well) does not guarantee anything at a session. Case in point - I have the "Fiddle Tunes and Irish Music for Mandolin" (one of your choices) and learned The Rambling Pitchfork from there. I used it as the final tune in a set a few weeks ago, and noticed that the other musicians were listening and not joining in. Eventually (second time around) someone asked if it was The Rambling Pitchfork and I nodded as I was playing. Very embarrassing - especially to someone completely green in the Irish session world. I felt completely naked and unsupported. I understand why though. When I came home I went online to several ABC tune books, as well as the database at thesesion.org and found out that indeed the version in this book is different from the mainstream version. It's still the same tune, and more interesting to me in some ways, but still - different from what's being played at the sessions. This was a sign for me to pay attention to the source of the tunes. It could be that many books that are published by players show off creative variation and beautiful arrangements. Still - what's played at the session rules. Last night I went back to the session and played the same set again, this time with the "right" version of The Rambling Pitchfork and it worked MUCH better.


Have fun and listen a LOT to everything.

Avi