What's your new fiddle tune?

[Mike Black]

Mike, IM me your e-mail address and I'll send an MP3 of the Rising Fawn Reel.

[Rob Fowler]

Golden Eagle Hornpipe and John Brown's March. One's pretty easy and the other one isn't!

[sgarrity]

I know which one ain't easy!

[Loretta Callahan]

St. Anne's Reel ... sorta obsessed with it. Ooops ... wrong forum.

[Mando Smash]

Growling Old Man, Grumbling Old Woman. I really want to learn Chicken in the snowbank but I cant find the notes or tabs anywhere.

[Tripp Johnson]

I know which one ain't easy!

[woodwizard]

Jenny on the Railroad... pretty easy but it sure does drive good.
Also Valley Forge and Bunch of Keys are good ones I'm working on.

[JeffD]

Salyer's Jenny Get Around.

Is that the same as the tune Jenny Get Around?




If thats the one, it is a great tune.

[JeffD]

We play Pays de Haute. The B part is all arpeggios which serves as a nice frame for counterpoint tinkering over the fiddles.

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If you like those kinds of B parts, check out La Bastringue, another four square French Canadian tune. I envision these tunes as wearing hard hats. They go in, do their job and leave, not being unnecessarily frilly or using overly expensive or fancy tools. Get 'er done.

[woodwizard]

[QUOTE=JeffD;831874]Is that the same as the tune Jenny Get Around?

Here's some cool info on this tune.

JENNY GET AROUND. Old-Time, Song and Breakdown. USA, Kentucky. A Major. AEae tuning. AABB. Jeff Titon (2001) says the tune is related to one of the “Liza Jane” melody types, and points out similarities between the ‘A’ part of “Jenny Get Around” and the ‘B’ part of Clyde Davenport’s “Liza Jane.” Mark Wilson points out relationships between “Jenny…” and the “Sugar Hill” tune family. Titon calls it a regional eastern Kentucky tunes and finds it listed twice on the Berea, Kentucky, tune lists of 1915. It is often sung, with banjo accompaniment and was collected as a song by John and Alan Lomax, appearing in their book Our Singing Country (1941, pgs. 63-65). Source for notated version: John M. Salyer (Salyersville, Magoffin County, Ky., 1941) [Titon]. Titon (Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Music), 2001; No. 74, pg. 103

It is a great tune!

[woodwizard]

Shenandoah Valley Breakdown! What a great tune!

[Ed Goist]

Novice here...I'm working on Tottle's arrangement of Cripple Creek and I love it! (though all of the fiddle tunes in this section of Tottle are great). But I especially enjoy Cripple Creek It seems to have more of a Rock vibe than the others (which I like).

[Tripp Johnson]

Jeff -

Sorry, I somehow missed this 'til now...yes, that's the same Jenny Get Around.

Slightly crooked tune, although some square it off.

I learned this tune from a fiddler here in Richmond who turned me onto Salyer several monthes back... went to Clifftop last month and this tune was Everywhere!

It is indeed a fine tune.

La Bastringue is another one, that tune has rotated back into heavy play for me as of late.

[JeffD]

Isn't it great how tunes can hybernate for a while, and then come roaring back into circulation as if they were brand new. You say "rotated back" but to me its more like roaring back. All of a sudden its just everywhere.

[Tripp Johnson]

Ha! Well said!!! After that hybernation spell they DO come 'roaring back'! I like that...

[Jim Nollman]

Winder Slide.

Very addictive tune. Gorgeous melody with pumping fills. Haven't played it enough yet to figure out if it sounds better at contra dance speed, (give or take 115 bpm) or as a slow lament. Could do it either way. Even thinking about adding lyrics. Anyone here know if it already has lyrics?

[woodwizard]

Billy Wilson ... great tune!, seen a Clifftop youtube of that one and had to learn it.
And these 3 have really nice melodies...
Possum Up a Gum Stump
Needle Case
Fat meat and Dumplings

[fatt-dad]

I'm working on the Ashland Breakdown - maybe more of a bluegrass tune, but the way Compton and Long play it makes me think of a fiddle tune (don't really know the history of it other than Bill Monroe played it too).

It's really stuck in my head and I'm making progress.

f-d

p.s., I work in Ashland, Virginia

[Jim Nollman]

You must be an empath, Jeff. We occasionally play La Bastringue and Pays de Haut as a matched pair. And you are correct, of course. On both tunes, I play melody on mandolin on the A part, and arpeggios on the B part.

We don't often play either tune in performance with an audience sitting in chairs. Both sound a bit too one-dimensional (or as you call it, hardhat). A contra dance is another thing entirely. We almost always play La Bastringue near the start of a dance. When we play the two tunes as a pair, we always begin with La Bastringue, and then play Pays de Haut which kicks the rhythm up a notch.

All these French/American tunes have something very distinctive about them, although I can't quite describe it in musical terms. I'd almost call the melodies "in your face". The most "in your face" tune for our own band, is Reel St Antoine, which starts off with that very big A-major double-stop banged out a few times in succession. St Antoine is much more challenging to play cleanly at speed then the other two. Gotta love it.

[JeffD]

All these French/American tunes have something very distinctive about them, although I can't quite describe it in musical terms. I'd almost call the melodies "in your face". The most "in your face" tune for our own band, is Reel St Antoine, which starts off with that very big A-major double-stop banged out a few times in succession. St Antoine is much more challenging to play cleanly at speed then the other two. Gotta love it.

We do Reel St. Antoine with Reel St. Joseph http://www.fiddlestudio.com/2010/07/...ephs-reel.html which is another ripsnorter of a tune.

[M.Marmot]

Lets see, at the moment i'm messing around with John Doherty's mazurka, recently having jogged through Sonny Brogan's mazurka, and next week i'm moving on to rigodons, theys old time mountain music but theys from the old continent.

[woodwizard]

Catlettsburg ... Ed Haley version... Great Tune!
Thanks to Dan Levenson for helping me figure that one out.

[Ivan Kelsall]

Not very often that i get hooked on non-bluegrass stuff,but this tune is awesome. Bright,lively & fun to play "Half Past Four".
Here's a great version by Bruce Molsky, Aly Bain & the Transatlantic session folks,
Ivan
PS - I tried to embed it,but which part of all the code to copy is beyond me. It used to work with all of it ,but not any more it seems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3FDWvX0CIM

[Tripp Johnson]

Great video, thanks for posting Ivan! One of my favs to play as well.

[JeffD]

Jenny on the Railroad... pretty easy but it sure does drive good.
Also Valley Forge and Bunch of Keys are good ones I'm working on.

Valley Forge is a tune that seems to be taking over the world right now. What a great one.