Miscellaneous Tunebooks

A Fiddle Player's Guide to Jamming $14.95 with CD

Carl Yaffey and John Sherman

A really excellent book on the topic indicated by the title. It includes everything you need to know about playing with other people. Chapters include anatomy of a jam session, chords and keys, perdcussive vamping, melodic fills, harmony lines, taking a solo, double stopping, and most imoprtant jam session etiquette and rules! Also included are words and chords for several of the most popular songs and a CD for learning to play along! This is an incredible book- not too big but full of really important content for the beginning aspiring bluegrass, old-timey or folk musician.

American Tunes for Solo and Ensemble (three books) $9.95 each

Craig Duncan

There are three books in this series: The first is for violin 1 and 2 with piano accompaniment, the second for viola and violin 3 with ensemble score and the third for cello and bass with piano accompaniment. Each book has the same tunes and any part can be played with any other part, or they can all be played together. Separate score-sheets are also included for each part. Tunes include American standard traditionals including Cripple Creek, Cotton-Eyed Joe, Red Wing, Eighth of January, Jolie Blonde, Mississippi Sawyer and others. A great idea, especially for string teachers who have lots of kids who want to play together-there ain't much out there along these lines! And this is a real nice set-easy to read with great tunes!

Blues Violin for the Young Beginner $14.95 with CD

Marty Laster

This book is meant to go with the Suzuki and other "serious" books of violin studies. It is meant to compliment those studies in a way that is fun, challenging, and introduces the student to the blues style. Designed for children who have been playing for about two years as well as adults who want to "ease into" these bluesy techniques. Works on slides, using tunes written by Laster and a few familiar chestnuts.

Favorite American Polkas and Jigs for Fiddle $12.95

Stacy Phillips

Commonly played tunes; all these versions are taken directly from the playing of well established fiddlers. The fiddler whose version is transcribed herein is indicated next to the title. Chords are included; type is clear and easy to read. There aren't many collections that include polkas, so this is a welcome source. Includes loads of the wonderful Old-Fart polkas like Jennie Lind, Clarinet, and Beer Barrel!

Fiddling Christmas $14.95

Craig Duncan

Our favorite Christmas fiddle book. The standard American/English carols with several seasonal fiddle tunes such as the Snowflake hornpipe. This book has harmony parts for each song so could be used for two fiddles or fiddle and flute or someother treble instrument and there is also a pull out piano accompaniment section. Chords as well- a great little collection.

French Tangos for Violin $14.95

Martin Norgaard

Gospel Violin $19.95 with CD

Bill Guest

Includes CD.

Greek Fiddle $22.50

Edward Huws Jones

Greek music is an amaglam of styles from Macedonian in the north to North Africa in the south to Turkey in the east. This collection features these and other musical idioms. Extensive notes and a separate accompaniment book make this a fine and valuable collection- the only one of Greek music that I have come across so far. Chords are included in the piano section and this pull out part features not only piano but a duet second violin part as well as an easy violin part so this collection can be used for solo, duet or even larger ensembles. So to recap- 3separate violin arrangements plus piano plus chords for guitar!

Joe Venuti "Never Before…Never Again" $19.95 with CD

Trans. Aidan Massey, Ed. Romano

Finally, transcriptions of Joe Venuti fiddle tunes. Each tune is lovingly and throughly described both musically and historically, and before each transcription are practice passages breaking down some of the technically or rhythmically challenging sections of the tune. The CD, taken from the "Never Before...Never Again recording on Just a Memory Records, contains all seven tunes played by Joe and backed up on guitar by the author's father Tony Romano. For advanced players to be sure!

The Violinist's Guide to Fiddling $14.95

Mark Weeg

This book is meant for classical violinists and advanced fiddlers. It includes "difficult" tunes or more complicated versions of standard tunes, notated from real life performances. Traditional bowing and chord patterns commonly used by fiddlers are explored for the benefit of the classical player. Chords are included. Solo variations and or back-up harmonies are included for many of the tunes. Traditions cover the gamut, from Irish to Cape Breton to Bluegrass to Old-Timey. Partucilarly challenging for the average fiddler (like me) would be Parazotti's E flat tune, "The Banks". A popular tune in the Scottish and Cape Breton repetoire, I would recommend it as a particularly exciting and delightful piece!