New Fiddle Tunes

[Jim Garber]

Despite the spread of the Internet and Youtube, I believe tunes travel by direct contact with other players at festivals, jams sessions and music parties. Of course, the addition of the digital viral path does help a lot. Those tunes that Timmando ascribes that we learn from Mel Bay pubs and the like were around and popular way before Me Bay himself was born. Also, some of us who have been playing for decades don't look at those educational materials any more.

There are tunes out there, at least in the old time world, altho composed relatively recently, have gotten into the repertoire by virtue of the fact that they are wonderful pieces of music. I think of tunes like Nail that Catfish to a Tree by Steve Rosen, Boys the Buzzards are Flying and Red Prairie Dawn by Garry Harrison to mention a few.

I think the need for composer anonymity is relegated more to the old time community. Bluegrass seems to welcome newly composed tunes as long as they sound like they belong. Obviously, Bill Monroe started that tradition.

[Timbofood]

I know a blues guy who learned an old skip James tune from a record with a skip in it and he just played it that way with a verbal disclaimer. We play a musical style with strong oral tradition, that's how it spread, now with you tube, and the whole mass media chiming in on what we listen to and how it is shared, much of the person to person delicacy of learning has become mechanically enhanced. How many times do we see someone asking for tablature on this site? True it is a good way to get a new tune under your belt. I have never been fond of tab, I found it to be very frustrating. I use the old fashioned way, get the tune in your head and tell your fingers how to play it.
I am happy to find up and coming pickers who see the value in learning some of the "old guard" bluegrass and old timey musicians as well as the hot slick newer bands. We can all be happy that Charlie Waller stressed clear vocal power, you know what he's singing, some others not so much but it's abut style too. The McReynolds vocals are bell clear too, Ralph Stanley, gravelly now with age but in his hey day, look out. Musical talent is the same, you learn new tunes from other people, share new tunes, either that you have written or they have, it's the way this music has, mostly, always been shared. Go share a tune with someone, it's good for you!
A little off track but, some, days are clearer than others.
Jim, you are right about how Bill would take all this in.

[OldSausage]

I wonder if part of the anonymity thing isn't related to copyright in another way. I believe two of the primary ways these tunes get spread, and have been spread since the days of Bill Monroe, is by recordings and radio play of those recordings. If a tune is in the public domain, you can include it on your CD without having to pay anyone else - not significant for many musicians perhaps, but given the small or non-existent margins enjoyed by Bluegrass and Old Time players that could be quite a big deal.

[JeffD]

much of the person to person delicacy of learning has become mechanically enhanced. How many times do we see someone asking for tablature on this site? True it is a good way to get a new tune under your belt. I have never been fond of tab, I found it to be very frustrating. I use the old fashioned way, get the tune in your head and tell your fingers how to play it. .

There is something terribly exciting about digging out tunes not presently being played and not available on recordings. Tunes not in circulation, but trapped in old tune books like vampires gone to ground, awaiting a musician to bring them back to life. But there again you have to get it in your head. I find a tune I think I will like, sight read it from the page, just enough to figure out how it sounds, if I like it I play it several times to "fix" it in my head and then I sing/him/whistle/mumble the tune for days, without the instrument. Next time I get out the mandolin, that tune is mine. Next jam I give that tune to the world, (or back to the world).

[Mike Black]

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!

Glad you liked it and the "lagniappe".

[Paul Kotapish]

At some point all of the "traditional" tunes were freshly made. It's an ever-evolving tradition, and most of the fiddlers (as well as mandolinists, banjo pickers, accordionists) I know have crafted at least a few tunes of their own and play them as part of the mix.

Irish fiddle wizard Frankie Gavin is well known for creating new tunes and slipping them into the tradition anonymously, and Kevin Burke has been recording originals for the last couple of decades, too.

At the extreme end of the creative spectrum, my friend Mark Simos is perpetually making up songs and tunes. I've seen him make up two or three hoedowns in the course of a long session, even. Dozens of these have been recorded by himself and many others (Alison Kraus, Del McCoury, Laurie Lewis, Jodie Stecher, et al), but he upwards of 2,000 more originals waiting to go--with lots of goods ones in there.