Fiddle Tunes in Tab Julie & Julia Start a Fiddle Blog Directory of Tunes

E Tenn Blues, Texas Crapshooter, Beaumont Rag

By on Saturday, April 24th, 2010 | No Comments

Earlier this year a student came back from a summer fiddle camp. She was a little beside herself. The class was on average more advanced than she was, in her opinion.

Furthermore, she wanted to play E Tennessee Blues and the fingering was a high speed bump. She seemed resistant to the idea of using a slightly simplified fingering. Eventually, she accepted it.

Now here’s the payoff. I use the more advanced version and the simplified version in the recent album track my band created in pursuit of our album.

Here’s the link from Fiddle Hangout. You can listen for the easy or advanced lick.

The medley goes on to Texas Crapshooter, a tune I first heard from the Bobby Hicks album of the same name. I don’t use hokum in this one like he does.

Finally, on to Beaumont Rag, played in the ole time key of F. My band, the Crystal Beach String Band, likes this tune.

Directory of Tunes

By on Monday, April 12th, 2010 | No Comments
  1. 8th of January, 8th of January Redone
  2. Ashokan Farewell
  3. The Butterfly
  4. Connaughtman’s Ramble
  5. Dancing Tables
  6. Down Yonder
  7. Dutchman’s Pipe
  8. Ebeneezer
  9. Flop-eared Mule
  10. Gold Rush
  11. Great Speckled Bird
  12. Hunter’s Purse
  13. Indian Point
  14. Irish Washer Woman
  15. Jackie Tar
  16. Jambalaya
  17. Jingle Bells
  18. Julia Delaney
  19. Kilfenora’s Jig
  20. Kitchen Girl
  21. Lamp Lighter’s Hornpipe
  22. Liberty
  23. Little Beggar Dog
  24. Let Me Out
  25. Margaret’s Waltz
  26. Minor Swing
  27. Morpeth Rant
  28. Moscow Duck
  29. New Five Cents
  30. O Holy Night
  31. Off She Goes
  32. O’Keefe’s Slide
  33. Old Joe Clark
  34. Out on the Ocean
  35. Quick Fix
  36. Red River Valley
  37. Road to Lisdoonvarna
  38. Rose of San Antone
  39. St. Anne’s Reel
  40. Shave and a Haircut
  41. Smash the Windows
  42. Swallowtail Jig, Swallowtail Jig Revised
  43. Ten Penny Bit
  44. Whiskey Before Breakfast

Ten Penny Bit Rhythm Trick

By on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 | No Comments

There is a favorite trick fiddlers do in jigs. We change the accented rhythm to imply a time of 3-4 instead of the normal 6-8 jig rhythm.

This lasts for only a few beats. Rock players and jazz cats do this to. So did classical music composers. It’s a good trick.

In the video performance of Ten Penny Bit you will hear the trick done two times in the A part of the tune, the second time it is played.

Ten Penny Bit Rhythm Trick from Elan Chalford on Vimeo.

Julie & Julia Start a Fiddle Blog

By on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 | 4 Comments

If you saw the movie, Julie & Julia, and I recommend it, you saw the story of two inspiring motivations for success.

I have two inspirational hits from this film. One is the inspiration of Julia Childs. She was unfocused until she enrolled in Cordon Bleu to learn to cook French cuisine. That was the pivotal action of her life.

We all need some pivot to turn from just plugging along to really making a song out of our life. (Or a fiddle tune.) You’ve heard of “find your passion.” Julia Childs found hers. Everything followed from that.

The second inspiration is Julie Powell’s goal-intention-project of preparing all the recipes in Julia’s book in one year’s time and blogging about it. The ambitious, but doable project and the one year time constraint act as a wonderful motivational goad.

I did this a few years ago when I set out to play one hundred different tunes one hundred times each. To devote this much time to a tune about twice a week was a stretch, but not completely crazy. It raised my level of playing.

I’m choosing a similar project for the coming year. The winning idea is,  Publish 100 fiddle tunes from my repertory online. Do this over the next year.

I’m off to a slow start while I learn to use Sibelius. I need to average two a week. Once I get rolling that will be doable. I expect to get caught up no later than March. [Update 8-17, I'm doing the tunes in fiddle tab. I'm not caught up. I may not get done until the middle of 2011. That's okay with me, I hope it's okay with you, too.]

My first one, 10 Penny Bit, is an Irish jig in fiddle tab to start with.Most will be in this format. They are as close to my actual performance version as possible.

Since I am an improvising fiddler, the published version can only be a temporary snapshot.

[update] Allow me to share a comment that was music to my ears:

This is great!  I decided around Thanksgiving that I would like to learn to fiddle.  I was lucky enough to have a friend who lent me their violin (as it was sitting in their closet collecting dust).  And now, thanks to your post, I have played my second song ever! :)

I love your tab style, it is very easy to read.  I was wondering if you could tell me which of your songs might be easier for a beginner to pick up?  I have already picked out Red River Valley and Amazing Grace because I know their tunes quite well.

Thanks so much.  Good luck completing your goal!  Nate

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