Your favorite Tab tune books?

I recently picked up Aidan Crossey's new book of 100 ITM tunes, printed it out, and had it spiral bound at my local UPS store. It's been an absolute joy picking through the arrangements on this lazy weekend afternoon.

I have quite a few other tune books, many of them an equal pleasure to play, but I'd love to hear what the Cafe member's current favorite tune books are. Tune book Acquisition Syndrome is much more affordable than MAS, so I'm excited to have some new suggestions.

I prefer to read tab, as my sight reading is lethargic at best, but if you have a standard notation tune book you absolutely adore, I'd love to hear about it.

You might have a look for the books published by Taigh na Teud Publishing, based on the Isle of Skye here is Scotland. They publish loads of books of Scottish tunes, in standard notation and with chords, mainly aimed at fiddle players but very accessible for mandolin playing as well.

http://www.scotlandsmusic.com will get you to their website.

Look too at http://www.nigelgatherer.com for lots more trad tunes, not only Scottish. Nigel is a very well-respected teacher here in Scotland and his books have standard notation, TAB and even whistle notation. Downloadable from his site.

These are not tab books, but in standard notation. The list is a little dated, as it was a response I gave to this same question in 2011. All editorial comments are my own opinion only, and here ten years later I might change a few, add a few. I don't know if anything comes off this list. Some added things at the bottom:



OK, the must haves (essential). These three are the core of any collection, IMO. They will provide you with a solid foundation of the fiddle tune repertoire. .

General tune books

Fiddlers Fakebook
Portland Collection (volumes 1).
The Waltz Book (volume 1) editor Bill Matthiesen

Bluegrass Picker's Tune Book editor Richard Matteson Jr. (Other more hardcore bluegrassers might have a better recommendation than this book.)

Whatever local collection of tunes your musical community has compiled. They used to be xeroxxed sheets, but now they may be PDF files on the web. This is a key thing to try and find.




Important to have, this will complete your collection, and would be most of everything you probably would ever really need:

General tune books

Portland Collection (volume 2)
The Phillips Collection of Traditional American Fiddle Tunes (volumes 1 and 2)
Ryan's Mammoth Collection (editor Patrick Sky)
Waltz Book (volume 2 and 3)
Traditional Dance music of Britain and Ireland The Fiddler's Tune-Book (editor Pete Kennedy) (volume 1tan colored)

Irish tunes

Irish Traditional Fiddle Music (editors Miller and Perron)
O'Neills Music of Ireland

New England fiddle tunes

The Fiddler's Throne (editor Randy Miller)
New England Fiddler's Repertoire (also Randy Miller)

Canadian

The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island (editor Ken Perlman)
The Cape Breton Fiddlers Collection (editor Paul Cranford)





Nice to have, these are non-essential but fantastic tune collections to amuse an delight you for hours:

General

Traditional Dance music of Britain and Ireland The Fiddler's Tune-Book (editor Pete Kennedy) (volume 2through 5, orange, blue, green. and pink)


Irish tune books

Irish Session Tunes (Ceolta Seisiuin na hEireann) (orange book and blue book)
Fionn Seissiun (volumes 1, 2, & 3)

Scottish fiddle tunes

The Fiddle Music of the Scottish Highlands Ceol Na Fidhle (volumes 1 though 6)
William Marshall's Scottish Melodies (edited by Randy Miller)


Added - Portland Collection Volume 3, Waltz book volume 4.

TAB books/collections that I've amassed over the years, many o.o.p/unavailable:

Joe Carr

- Merlin's Magical Mandolin Method
- Texas Fiddle Tune Favorites
- His solos on Jazz Grass LP (Ridge Runner RRR0009)
- Super Charged mandolin solos

Ray Legere

- Common Denominator mandolin solos
- Back Against The Wind mandolin solos

Niles Hokkanen

- Hot Mandolin Solos
- asstd. Galactic Crossroads exercise/tunes (most every issue)
- TAB books of recorded solos - Gaudreau/Lawson/Skaggs

David Grisman

- 10 Tunes in 9 Keys
- Recorded Bluegrass Mandolin Solos
- Homespun Tapes book
- FRETS Magazine workshop articles

Acutab/John Lawless

- Alan Bibey book
- Herschel Sizemore book
- Wayne Benson book

Katsuyuki Miyazaki

- Mandolin TAB book accompanying his Man-O-Mandolin album (Red Clay Records)

...plus a ton more...

Here's an excellent review of a less well-known TAB book https://www.voyagerrecords.com/RVMPP.htm

This might be exactly the sort of book you're looking for - page after page of great old fiddle tunes in standard music notation and mandolin tablature. Out-of-print at the moment, you might place a classified ad at the Cafe to locate a used copy.

MikeyG

I have several of Allan's books/CDs for Medieval and Renaissance music. Has others across genres.

Jamie

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Originally Posted by JEStanek

I have several of Allan's books/CDs for Medieval and Renaissance music. Has others across genres.

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Yes. Very good books.

Red Raven Tune Book ~ Traditional Irish Tunes in Standard Notation and Mandolin Tablature.
2014

I think I got this when I bought a mandolin about 7 years ago. A great resource that has become a standard for me. More jigs, reels, waltzes, polkas, hornpipes, slides ... than I could ever learn. Definitely worth the download.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Denman John

Red Raven Tune Book ~ Traditional Irish Tunes in Standard Notation and Mandolin Tablature.
2014

I think I got this when I bought a mandolin about 7 years ago. A great resource that has become a standard for me. More jigs, reels, waltzes, polkas, hornpipes, slides ... than I could ever learn. Definitely worth the download.

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I’ve been informed that this book/collection is no longer available.


With that said, here are a few other books that I frequently use...

Mel Bay’s School of Mandolin ~ Irish Mandolin
By Joe Carr & Michael Gregory
I really like this book as it has a great collection of Irish tunes and provides pick direction. This has been really helpful when learning jigs and figuring out the picking patterns.

The Complete Mandolinist by Marilynn Mair
Great for learning to read music and countless exercises.

Exploring Classical Mandolin by August Watters
Another wonderful method book with more than Ill ever learn

Telemann for Mandolin by John Goodin
An excellent selection of Telemann pieces for solo mandolin. I think John Goodin has another Telemann book for 2 mandolins as well?

Simon Mayer ~ I have a few of his books and really enjoyed the tunes I learned.

J.S. Bach ~ The Cello Suites for Mandolin by Daniel Sellman

Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for violin Arranged for Mandolin by Andrew Driscoll

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MikeyG

Here's an excellent review of a less well-known TAB book https://www.voyagerrecords.com/RVMPP.htm

This might be exactly the sort of book you're looking for - page after page of great old fiddle tunes in standard music notation and mandolin tablature. Out-of-print at the moment, you might place a classified ad at the Cafe to locate a used copy.

MikeyG

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Thanks for all the great suggestions guys. After reading this I actually shot off an email to Voyager records asking if they had any intention of ever reprinting this book( they don't) but, as luck would have it, they were able to find an old used copy laying around and sold it to me. Looking forward to getting it sometime next week or so.