Appalachian Music Resources: Tune Books/Instruction

Jean Ritchie is the best known and most respected singer of traditional ballads in the United States. The youngest daughter of one of the most famous American ballad-singing families, the Ritchie family of Perry County, Kentucky, Jean carries on her family's legacy as a singer of folk songs and traditional ballads. The music found here tells the story of the ""Singing Ritchie Family."" Built upon a foundation of balladry inherited from old-world Scotland, the family's repertoire was certainly eclectic but not haphazard. The Child ballads, lyric folksongs, play party or frolic songs, Old Regular Baptist lined hymns, Native American ballads, "hant" songs, and carols brought together in this collection were assembled by family members who actively sought out fragments of tunes and completed them by adding or embellishing verses and melodies. This new edition has faithfully retained all seventy-seven line scores of the songs and added four new ones, Loving Hannah, Lovin' Henry, Her Mantle So Green, and The Reckless and Rambling Boy. The original headnotes and photographs tell the history of the song as well as how it became a part of the family's life. Chords are indicated for accompainment, and a new audiography and videography have been added to this edition.

Gathered by famed songcatchers Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil J. Sharp, this 1917 book documents English folk songs that survived for centuries in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Campbell and Sharp recorded 122 songs and ballads and 323 tunes from the lips of mountain folk singers. In some cases, songs that were no longer sung in England were still popular among the folk singers of Appalachia. This book is an invaluable reference on the old-time music of the Southern Appalachians.

(Music Sales America). This book has become the industry standard for fiddlers due to its comprehensive amount of instruction and great songs that it packs into one convenient collection. Contains nearly 500 jigs, reels, rags, and hornpipes from all the major fiddling traditions. It also includes extensive information on regional styles, bowing, ornamentation, and even record companies that specialize in folk and fiddle music. It also includes an exhaustive discography as well as a standard song index along with an index of "alternate titles" that some of the songs may be recognized as. The enormous wealth of material in the Fiddler's Fakebook makes it more than a reference book to be left on the shelf. You will find it helpful in any playing situation from a square dance to an informal gathering of friends. Songs include: Another Jig Will Do * Apple Blossom * Arkansas Traveler * Bill Cheatham * Bitter Creek * Bonnie Kate * Cotton-Eyed Joe * Cripple Creek * Fiddler's Dream * Fisher's Hornpipe * Flop-Eared Mule * Flowers of Edinburgh * The Girl That Broke My Heart * The Irish Washerwoman * Magpie * Old Joe Clark * Stoney Creek * Woodchopper's Reel * and more.

" For years fiddlers and folklorists have prized the old-time fiddle tunes from Kentucky. Many of the most outstanding country music artists hail from the state, including Bill Monroe, widely regarded as the founder of bluegrass music. Even Aaron Copland lifted, note-for-note, a Kentucky fiddler's performance of "Bonaparte's Retreat" for the "Hoedown" section of his ballet Rodeo. That tune and nearly 200 others are transcribed here, most for the first time. They are taken from recordings of Kentucky fiddlers, many of whom were born before 1900, practitioners of a style of playing now extremely rare. Jeff Todd Titon places the tunes in their historical context, provides biographical sketches of the performers, and offers suggestions for contemporary fiddlers who want to use the book for performance. A compact disc of recordings is also included.

Fiddle music is a firm part of the American folk tradition, yet little has been available in formal notation. This collection, based on recordings and notes made by R. P. Christeson over three decades, offers reliable scores for 245 traditional fiddle tunes as played by artists in the Midlands and the Southwest.             In this volume Christeson presents the scores for traditional tunes as played by thirty-three different fiddlers from nine states. Many of the tunes, divided into categories of breakdowns, waltzes, quadrilles, and "pieces," have never been published nor appeared on commercial recordings. 

(Music Sales America). 40 tunes for the flat-picker with notes on playing back-up and special effects. Standard notation and tablature. Discography and bibliography. Includes: The Girl I Left Behind * The Eighth of January * Salt River * Liberty * Red Haired Boy * and more.