Originally Posted by
foldedpath
There is a loose category of music called "fiddle tunes" that covers a huge variety, many derived from very old sources in the UK and Europe, and then evolving as they made their way through Appalachia and other parts of the US. You'll hear them played in OldTime and Bluegrass jams, in Contra dances, and in Irish and Scottish trad pub sessions.
Almost all "fiddle tunes" are played in first position on mandolin, just like the fiddle. It's folk music, 'ya know. Aside from being easy to finger, it allows the use of double-stops on open strings, and ornamentation like cuts and rolls (specific to Irish/Scottish trad). So the typical keys for fiddle tunes are based around G, D, and related minor keys Am, Em, Bm. Sometimes Dm or F#m.
These keys also allow playing with other "folk" instruments like concertina, tin whistles, banjo, flutes, and pipes, some of which are diatonic and not fully chromatic to cover every key.
Some fiddle tunes are straightforward, like the ones typically in G major. Others are "modal," so you might actually be playing in D Mixolydian instead of D Major, or A Dorian instead of A Minor. Many of the tunes, especially in Irish/Scottish repertoire shift back and forth, like "Kid on the Mountain" that alternates between E Dorian to G Major. There are even tunes with gapped or hexatonic scales where it's hard to figure out if they're major or minor.
So don't get too hung up on key signatures if you start exploring fiddle tunes. You need to keep your ears open for those changes, regardless of a key signature you might see in sheet music, or the key someone else yells across the group in a jam. But you'll still probably be in first position, and still probably somewhere in the neighborhood of G, D, Am, Em, Bm.
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