New Fiddle Tunes

[JeffD]

I know personally I have never learned a tune off a sheet of paper, except for Chris Thile's Jessamyn Reel, and even that I had heard first and half learned by ear. Every tune I've learned was because a band I liked played it, or friends of mine pick it a lot at a jam....?

I guess I am the polar opposite. Well over half the tunes I know I first learned from a printed sheet. I especially love tunes that are not being played anywhere (that I know of). I feel like a re-animator bringing them to life.

For me the ratio has been slowly changing however. When I started I learned mostly from tunebooks and collections, and informed by hours of listening to the genre, I could play them fairly convincingly. Since then I have transitioned to picking up more tunes from jam sessions and folks one on one introducing me to new tunes. These days that's where I get most of them.

I don't listen to many contemporary bands, of any kind, and I rarely get a tune from a recorded mandolin. These days I listen to a lot of old timey, and pick up tunes from the fiddle playing mostly.

I really like the one from the first video. Some interesting stuff in it.

[JeffD]

I know of a few friends of mine who composed tunes but never admitted that they did so they would end up in the repertoire.

This seems to be the way it happens. I rarely hear anyone introduce a tune saying 'here is something I wrote'.

[Jim Nollman]

Our band's repertoire includes 3 "new" fiddle tunes by Jay Unger: "Ashokan", "Around the Horn", and "Lovers Waltz". Oren Starr, a member of the Cafe has recently composed a truly inspired jig we perform regularly, named "The Partners". We also do "Josephin's Waltz", a gorgeous piece by a Swedish musician I first heard at Wintergrass. We do 2 tunes by JP Fraley.

Our fiddle player is constantly bringing recently-composed reels and jigs to our rehearsals, because she has worked with so many of the composers over the years.

[Jim Garber]

Our band's repertoire includes 3 "new" fiddle tunes by Jay Unger: "Ashokan", "Around the Horn", and "Lovers Waltz". Oren Starr, a member of the Cafe has recently composed a truly inspired jig we perform regularly, named "The Partners". We also do "Josephin's Waltz", a gorgeous piece by a Swedish musician I first heard at Wintergrass. We do 2 tunes by JP Fraley.

Of course, Jay is one of the most well-known of fiddlistic composers, even outside the fiddle tune community.

I always love JP Fraley and always wondered if some or many of his tunes were his own compositions but am not so sure about that. I don't recall him being credited on the recordings I have tho I should actually look.

[JeffD]

Josephins is a great waltz. Its in the Waltz Book III, both in F and in G. It was first pointed out to me by a friend during one of our Waltz Books tours.

[Mike Bunting]

It is hard to write a simple melody, and as someone once said, "Any damn fool can make things complicated." I recall an interview where Richard Greene made this point referring to the simple melody of Sally Good'n and then saying how hard it was to come up with a tune as good as that as simples as it is.

[Eddie Sheehy]

There are a lot of 'modern' jigs, reels, hornpipes in the Portland Collection - book and CD. There's a quaint Hornpipe by Jay Ungar called Round The Horn in it...

[Randi Gormley]

So, does the name Liz Carroll not mean anything to you guys? Not only is she writing fiddle tunes (being a stellar fiddle player) but her stuff is played all over the world and she just put out (last year or the year before, I can't remember) her first book of fiddle tunes. I know her from ITM but her stuff is pretty universal. It sounds like it's been around forever, which is a mark of a really good composer, I think.

[mandolirius]

Ginny Gin - Cumberland Mtn..mp3

It is hard to write a simple melody, and as someone once said, "Any damn fool can make things complicated." I recall an interview where Richard Greene made this point referring to the simple melody of Sally Good'n and then saying how hard it was to come up with a tune as good as that as simples as it is.

I can attest. I've written close to 100 tunes. Some of them are, or could be considered fiddle tunes but a couple of years back I set out to write some simple old-time melodies and it's true - it's not easy to be simple. Anyway, the first one in this medley was probably my best effort at "keeping all them other notes out of there".

[Tom Coletti]

Does anyone else have the problem of having an A part but you can't think up a fitting B part, or vice versa? Because I've been messing around with an A part in D mixolydian and a B part in B dorian and I can't seem to find ways to complete the two half-tunes. I tried combining them and they didn't fit...

--Tom

[mandolirius]

Does anyone else have the problem of having an A part but you can't think up a fitting B part, or vice versa? Because I've been messing around with an A part in D mixolydian and a B part in B dorian and I can't seem to find ways to complete the two half-tunes. I tried combining them and they didn't fit...

--Tom

Sometimes I'll file a part and hope something that fits will eventually arrive. I try not to force it.

[M.Marmot]

This seems to be the way it happens. I rarely hear anyone introduce a tune saying 'here is something I wrote'.

I had a friend who, when in debate or argument, would often ascribe his own opinion to an author or some such third-party. Very often that was all it took to get a point across - erasing the direct subjectivity - maybe it more easily allows for someone to entertain a thought when it's in the public domain?

[M.Marmot]

Ginny Gin - Cumberland Mtn..mp3



I can attest. I've written close to 100 tunes. Some of them are, or could be considered fiddle tunes but a couple of years back I set out to write some simple old-time melodies and it's true - it's not easy to be simple. Anyway, the first one in this medley was probably my best effort at "keeping all them other notes out of there".

There is a documentary somewhere, on Irish music, where some pretty decent players are discussing this issue - one of the most persuasive complaints against some of the newer compositions were, exactly as you highlight here, that they are too notey and complex.

It makes a certain sense when you think of it - most of older tunes have had there ornament worn away over time, until all that is passed on is the very kernel of the tune, the essentials. Only the essentials can endure time and distance.

[Jim Nollman]

From a band mate who knew JP Fraley personally, both Anadeenes' Waltz and Wild Rose of the Mountain are, indeed, Fraley compositions. Anadeene was his wife. Wild Rose was his cat. No, just kidding.

Those are the only two fiddle tunes I know by him. If you learn to play both tunes, you will realize that they share some common phrasing, with vast leaps from note to note. They are great fun for improvising, especially when treated as chromatic. Anadeene's is chromatic, while Wild Rose takes a bit of creative license to get there. Wild Rose is one of the great crooked tunes of the entire old-time canon.

[Justus True Waldron]

I've been messing around with an A part in D mixolydian and a B part in B dorian and I can't seem to find ways to complete the two half-tunes.

Hmm... Either come up with a middle part, or split them out into two songs. Or just slam them together like that and call it old time!

But seriously... I think the best thing you can do is wait, and it will eventually come to you.

[chuck3]

This is the most recent one I wrote, but that's more than 3 years old. I hope I'll get to do a bit more of this soon. I don't know if it counts as a fiddle tune, but I'd like to hear someone play it on a fiddle.

Nice!

Although I guess it begs the question of what's a fiddle tune. It could be one that the fiddle (or mando) just plays by itself without any other instruments. But I'm kind of grappling with that myself.

[Tom Coletti]

Nice!

Although I guess it begs the question of what's a fiddle tune. It could be one that the fiddle (or mando) just plays by itself without any other instruments. But I'm kind of grappling with that myself.

I'm pretty sure that it can qualify as a fiddle tune. It has an A & B part, a melody that certainly sounds as if it could be bowed, and someone could easily split it up in to breaks on various instruments and improvise over the melody (I'd love to hear it on a Dobro).

--Tom

[Tom Coletti]

But seriously... I think the best thing you can do is wait, and it will eventually come to you.

Good call. I fiddled around with it a bit more (pun intended) and I think I have something for the one in D...

--Tom

[Jim Garber]

A fiddle tune is something played on a fiddle. A mandolin tune is... you guessed it... they are not always interchangeable but mostly. Why would you define it as a tune played by itself. That happens but rarely. Mostly fiddle and mandolin players play with others.

[Don Grieser]

I've written a few tunes. See link below.

[JeffD]

Very often that was all it took to get a point across - erasing the direct subjectivity - maybe it more easily allows for someone to entertain a thought when it's in the public domain?

Yea I think that is the idea. That, and to get some subjectivity. What would people think if this tune had proper provenance.

[padawan]

My wife and I have written at least 37 new fiddle tunes. Several are played by others and at festival jams. http://threebeansalad.net/threebeansaladmusic.html

So, yes.

After Mike posted the link above I ordered one of his CDs and I've just truly enjoyed my first listen through of it. And, even better, I'm now starting in on the second disk (He tossed in a little lagniappe with my order).
Really good music and a genuinely good fellow. Kudos Mike!

[mandolirius]

10 Track 10.mp3

Here's a new one from "The Snake Sessions". It's called "Going Down To Chapman's House".

[Timbofood]

The thing about "fiddle tunes" is they have been around long enough for fiddle players from different regions to all have learned, a new fiddle tune will take years to gain that status, it's not so much a new, local, tune. It's about the amazing way in which these old tunes have been shared. Using new available media, the fiddle tune per se has become nomenclature as regards "old" tunes.
There are tons of new tunes which are shared through modern media, which has generated quite a few "new fiddle tunes."
I am not saying that you should not write new music at all, my banjo player has written some new tunes in the old style which he is sharing at jams around Michigan. Write, play, share, do as much of it as you can.

[Timmando]

I agree with a previous post by Justus where he says "there are plenty of tunes out there, it's just a matter of how well they spread around." The tunes that we currently jam on, that are in the populace consciousness, were placed there by publications from Mel Bay type learning books and recordings (ie. commercials and childrens cartoons). For the new ones that exist, they would need to follow a similar route into our minds, via learning tools. Today that means utube hits, links to websites and free downloads. It also would help if someone would travel the mountains and gather all the tunes, publish them (and make a million), and copyright them, as was done in the past by A.P. Carter, who went into the mountains and harvested the gold.

[For those unfamiliar with this history, here is a quote from Wikipedia; "They received $50 for each song they recorded, plus half a cent royalty on every copy sold of each song for which they had registered a copyright", and "Realizing that he would benefit financially with each new song he collected and copyrighted, A.P. Carter traveled around the southwestern Virginia area in search of new songs; he also composed new songs. In the early 1930s, he befriended Lesley "Esley" Riddle, a black guitar player from Kingsport, Tennessee. Lesley accompanied A.P. on his song-collecting trips."]

I also find it interesting, amusing, and wonder why, the old-timey musicians continue to play fiddle tunes the same way that an old fiddler recorded it about 100 years ago after getting a snoot-ful. To this day, those tunes are played with all the mistakes of the original recording, because "thats the way HE played it".