How do you memorize tunes?

[Jess L.]

It's a great resource for Mandolin Kickers... as is Auto Spellcheck...

Lol. For those who don't know... presumably Fiddler's Fakebook, available from the usual sources such as Amazon and Elderly, etc.

Never did quite know why melody-and-chord books are referred to as "fake" books, seems like melody and chords pretty much includes the essential stuff, nothing fake about that, if one can play the actual melody (especially with fiddle tunes) and the correct chords, what else is needed? Suppose it would be different for piano players or choirs or orchestras or something though, no complex scores included, maybe that's where the term "fake" comes from... dunno... wait a sec, huh, this is interesting: StackExchange says:

"The first "fake books" were in fact sold and distributed illegally, but that is not why they were called Fake Books. Each piece of sheet music in a Fake Book is merely a "lead sheet" of just the melody and the chord progression. It is not a full arrangement with parts written out for each musician. Consequently, musicians look at a Fake Book lead sheet and they have to "fake" their parts, or make them up as they go along. This is essential to jazz, but it was not that way originally. ..."

So, melody and chord progression, that oughta cover it for fiddle tunes eh? Er maybe no, let's see there are other things that can't be easily put onto paper in a limited number of pages... the multitude of variations including different bowing options, alternate endings, etc... huh. Guess the answer is more complicated than I'd thought.

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Edited to add:
Anyway, historical stuff aside, the Amazon link currently features the "Look Inside" option where you can view a limited number of sample pages of the book to see what's in it. Useful. I actually bought this book (from a regular brick-and-mortar music store) a few years ago, didn't find it quite as nifty as I'd been hoping because a lot of the tunes I already knew and/or didn't like all that much, but it's still a good resource and I was able to learn some stuff from it. In my case, the first thing I did with the book was trim off the glued binding, and wire-bind it instead (I have a twin-loop wire-binding machine) so that the pages would lay flat when I was trying to read it. Then later I digitized just the few tunes that I still wanted written copies of (mostly for the chords), and put them on my Android tablet (app MobileSheetsPro) and discarded the paper book, I dislike things that take up too much storage space. (recovered packrat here lol)

P.S.: Looks like Amazon now has a Kindle version as well, that might be good although I haven't got around to trying any Kindle stuff, no idea how that works.

[JeffD]

The Fiddler's Fakebook is a fantastic resource of tunes, with a discography for each tune. It was "all the rage" before the Portland tune books became "all the rage".

Speaking of which, I have held Portland tunebook jams at my house, called Portland Tours. Lots of fun and a great way to get to know what is in those books. The third volume has recently been published and I need to have a Portland Tour for it.

[Jim Garber]

I have probably the original edition of the Fiddler's Fakebook. Actually I believe that it originally was spiral bound — mine is. The good part is that it has multiple genres of fiddle tunes. My main books I refer to are the Milliner-Koken book, the two Old Time Fiddler's Repertory (Missouri tunes), Dear Old Illinois (tunes from Illinois - hopefully to be back in print some day), Harry Bolick's Mississippi book, the Portland Collection (primarily contra dance tunes) and the 4 volumes of the Waltz Books.

I have used the Fiddler's Fakebook but many of the tunes are transcribed almost too accurately from a particular recorded version and may not be the version that my fellow fiddlers are playing. More than often I just learn from recordings.

[Eddie Sheehy]

Thank goodness it wasn't Bolick's book I misspelt. Any relation?