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Fiddle-Related Books

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

I'm not a big fan of notation. The thing about old-time musicians learning aurally doesn't bother me so much; I don't have a regular group of fiddlers to play with so I think I can't afford to be picky. However, I don't read music all that well, anyway, and I wholeheartedly agree that it's a very weak way to transmit tunes.

Which is why I have so few books.

I have no qualms about translating non-fiddle formats onto fiddle, either. I regularly use my own collection of dulcimer tab (arranged and tabbed by myself) to pick out tunes. I sort of like the dulcimer tab method. Dulcimer tab is usually pretty stripped-down (at least, it is when I write it) so there is less temptation to adhere to the arrangement as it is written.

Music books:

Hornbostel, Lois. Cajun Favorites for Mountain Dulcimer. Mel Bay, 2005. I wish this had more lyrics.

Krassen, Miles. Appalachian Fiddle. Oak Publications, 1995. Nice little book. I got "Rowe's Division" and "Creek Nation" out of here.

Phillips, Stacy. Mel Bay's Favorite American Rags & Blues for Fiddle, Mel Bay Publications, 2005.

Thompson, Linda Lowe. Tunes for Hammered Dulcimer. 1989. So it's for hammered dulcimer. Tunes are tunes, right?

Thompson, Linda Lowe. Hammered Dulcimer Notebook. 1993.

Reading books:

Ancelet, Barry Jean and Elemore Morgan, Jr. Cajun and Creole Music Makers [Musiciens cadiens et creoles], University of Missouri Press, 1999. Upress is the source of so many good things . . . 4 comments