Actually Peggy, most tunes are better when played at a slower tempo! It allows you to be more expressive and the quality of the tune (melody) pops out. The caveat is that it forces you to pay attention to intonation and to phrasing and bowing. And this is a good thing!!

When I am playing by myself, I will typically play a bit slower around 100bpm as opposed to the typical 120bpm needed for a dance. It helps me get the notes "right" and figure out the bowing.

What is a little frustrating is that old time jams, particularly at festivals, tempos tend to ramp up to warp speed. This is also true for Celtic sessions. Bluegrass sessions tend to vary, but many of those are at a mighty quick tempo.

Just pick a tune. It's almost always better at a lower tempo.

Wink the Other Eye
California Blues
Florida Blues (though many play this fast)
Julia Ann Johnson (Philadelphia Mummers strutting tempo)
Little Rose
Maysville
Sullivan's Hollow
Little Brown Hand
Moon Behind the Hill
British Field March
Elk River Blues
Texas

Old Grimes :)

Anything that's called a march is better slower and hornpipes too. I'll second "Julianne Johnson" and add most of Emmett Lundy's tunes are better at a relaxed pace, even though I'm sure he could rip 'em up in his younger years

2nd for Florida Blues... love draggin' that one out, long and bluesy.

Camp Meeting on the 4th of July

All tunes, in my opinion. There are tunes that I feel need to be played slow and some I enjoy playing fast, but frankly I now think that different speed on a tune gives it a different nature and it's fun to discover that. This is something I had to learn. I was apologizing for a playing a tune at a slow pace in a local jam and one of the younger persons made the comment that a good tune is a good tune no matter what speed it's played at and it brings out different things to play the tune at different speeds. They are right.

Had a great time at a jam awhile back where they played Melvin Wine's Moon Behind the Hill at an absolute breakneck pace, which would never ever have occurred to me, and frankly it was pretty cool. However, I still play it at a fairly sedate speed myself. Haha

Though it wasn't my idea, we always played Bonapart's Crossing the Rhine, at a slow, leisurely pace. Now it seems strange sped up.

Hot Corn, Cold Corn

Steve, I love Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine slow...just seems right done slow, doesn't it?

The more I think about playing tempo...the more I think I was hugely inspired by Hank Williams...lol...all, or most of his stuff was done at an easy-going walking pace.

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Originally posted by groundhogpeggy

The more I think about playing tempo...the more I think I was hugely inspired by Hank Williams...lol...all, or most of his stuff was done at an easy-going walking pace.

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Now, that's right up my alley..."You Win Again"

I've been doing Over the Rainbow.

Our friend who lives in Hawaii is always posting rainbows, double rainbows...I can see how everybody in Hawaii must go around humming that tune!  I should ask him if he plays it on his banjo...lol.

I feel like most people I know play Red Haired Boy too fast. I like it somewhat slower, with some bounce. Yeah, sometimes I play it faster than that, too.

fiddlehangout.com/myhangout/mu...?id=1496#

I knew I put Bonapart's Crossing the Rhine in media. Reminds me of my dear flat picking friend. He suffers from dementia now. So sad.
(Can't correctly link on a tablet)

Booth Shot Lincoln

I know I'm swimming against the tide here, but Marcus Martin called this tune simply "Booth." Its unclear just where it came from, but here's how he played it: fieldrecorder.bandcamp.com/track/booth

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Originally posted by East Texas Fiddle

Booth Shot Lincoln

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One of my favorites!

Father Kelly’s reel - This slow tempo version as played here get to me. Every Irish fiddler I see plays it so fast the beauty of the tune is lost. You can get lost in the melody thinking about what the author of the tune was trying to express when the tune is played like this.

It could be used for a wedding procession when played like these two play it.

https://youtu.be/iiLUINd1y4c

I like Booth (shot Lincoln) at a slower pace too. I figured people call it "Booth" to try to avoid getting into any sort of political thing goin, ya know, 'bout whether or not the Civil War was fair or unfair or really won or really lost or all that political stuff...lol. Booth, alone, don't mean much of anything. But Lincoln...omg, that can easily escalate into a hot topic that goes out of control... a lot of people still don't like him...lol.  You'd think sooner or later they would.

Peggy, as I said, Marcus Martin just called this tune "Booth," and there are no words to rile anyone up. I think its unclear where he learned it.
However, in 1949 Bascom Lamar Lunsford recorded a ballad titled "Booth Killed Lincoln" for the Library of Congress, which was included on LP L29 as track B4, followed by a fiddle tune called "Booth." Supposedly he had heard his father hum the tune and "sing a few verses" and learned some more from neighbors. However, to me the song has quite a literary feel and its possible Mr. Lunsford may have written at least some of it himself. Its also not clear whether he learned the tune from Marcus Martin, or the other way round. I think there's another ballad about this incident too, but its been a long time since I looked into this.
Its a real shame that the LOC has let these old records go out of print, and that really so little of their holdings is available to us. However, if you poke around on the Folklife Center website at the LOC you can download the booklet that went with the LP. Hopefully this will take you there - just click the link for "liner notes." loc.gov/folklife/folkcat.html#AFSL29

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Originally posted by groundhogpeggy

I like Booth (shot Lincoln) at a slower pace too. I figured people call it "Booth" to try to avoid getting into any sort of political thing goin, ya know, 'bout whether or not the Civil War was fair or unfair or really won or really lost or all that political stuff...lol. Booth, alone, don't mean much of anything. But Lincoln...omg, that can easily escalate into a hot topic that goes out of control... a lot of people still don't like him...lol.  You'd think sooner or later they would.

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This is not intended to start a conflict. So, please don't take it this way. I am only pointing out a couple interesting tidbits related to the whole "Booth" thing and how sensitive it can be for some people.

There's speculation that Mr. J.W. Booth made it to Texas and died and is buried in Grandbury in Hood County, southwest of Fort Worth. (Yup, the county was named after Gen. Hood.) Some folks in the community continue to strongly believe this and perpetuate the myth. 

There's a huge aftermarket for car branding items. Lots of folks I know will buy a Lincoln (already tells you something about their financial status!) then pry off the "Lincoln" branding tag. This is replaced with one that says "Jeff Davis." It has the tab spacing identical to the Lincoln so that it just pops in. Yes, it is a thing. Hang around Civil War re-enactors and you will see these in the suttlery / souvenir tents. For those not up on Civil War history, Jeff Davis was president of the Confederacy.

Oh, and also there is a county in West Texas near Big Bend called Jeff Davis County. The county seat is Fort Davis. At the county line, there is a pull-off and platforms around the highway marker for taking photos with the sign.

Hold on folks - while an attempt is made to direct the discussion back to the topic of whether we should play tunes at slower tempos...

Absolutely, everyone should feel comfortable playing tunes they like at any tempo they want to - in order to please themselves. What could possibly be considered a reasonable argument against that?

But I think there are other things that need to be considered when we are playing with others. Tempo can be (should be) sometimes adjusted based on how familiar the tune is, the skill levels of the other participants, or what might be considered a traditional tempo. Unless we are calling and starting a tune, it really is not our place to determine what the tempo is going to be. The one starting the tune has the responsibility of setting the tempo, we should follow.

At our weekly session - I will sometimes intentionally play a tune at a slower tempo, if we have never played the tune before. And after a few rounds - I'll call last time. Then I'll say that the recorded version I learned is played at a quicker tempo, and ask if we want to play a few more rounds at tempo. Any interest in playing a few more rounds at tempo is a good indication that I should include it in future sessions.

We will sometimes discuss the tempos of tunes - and it's not uncommon to have it come up a few times during the night. Interestingly enough, most of the time, our collective preference is to play at tunes at tempo, not slower.

...and I will usually say something about how Camp Meeting on the 4th of July (imo) should be played at a slower tempo than what most recordings are played at. "It's my understanding that the tune was written as a processional." The faster tempo does not lend itself to that.

...and I was called out once for playing John Brown's March too fast - for the same reason. My defense was that I learned it from a recording by Alan Jabbour (Hollow Rock Sting Band). I didn't know - and to me - it sounds fine at the faster tempo, but it is a march - and it does sound better at the slower tempo. And that is where everyone else wanted to play it. So - - - I changed the way I play it.          And we still play Camp Meeting too fast...     (I'm flexible) 

In general - I prefer playing tunes at tempo, and - I think the "public" responds better to old time tunes when they are played at tempo or better - not slower.  That has been my experience.

I sometimes had archive-duty at the academic library, and when I did, one of my duties was to sort of interpret old letters on rotting paper in walnut ink with swoopy handwriting...lol...try to read them and input the info into a big database. Well anyhow...it was really amazing to read the letters in this area about events of the Civil War, Lincoln, Davis, Washington, Richmond, the death of Lincoln, etc. It was always like a lightning bolt...this area here, well Kentucky itself, was not a part of the Confederacy, but a hot seat of both sides of the whole dang thing and believe me...it was even more brother against brother, families in conflict, than what we've got going on right now in this country.

I'm sorry I caused this thread drift!! The gist is that tune names frequently have a deeper meaning and that we might get an unexpected response from someone. (I have experienced this!)

So back to tempo --- for me, comfortable tempos make the melodies stand out. Too fast, and nuances of the melody are lost. Too slow, and the tune drags. Like Goldilocks - there's that tempo that is "just right."

I heard a very nice interpretation of Swing Low Sweet Chariot that was done at a very slow, syncopated tempo. I was an incredibly moving arrangement!! Same with "Come By Here". A slower tempo that allowed the emotions to pour through. An African American woman led us in these songs, and many were very familiar from the protest era of the 60s and 70s, such as "Kum by-ya" or "Come By Here". I sang them at a faster tempo. We all did! It was fun and energizing, but I missed out on the emotions - what the songs really meant.

Likewise, I am finding that playing tunes at the slower pace - and not draggy! - allows for more expressiveness. I can explore different voices, harmonies, expressions, or emphasis that conveys the emotion that I am feeling at that moment.

Now I like to turn on the afterburners occasionally!! I can take a tune to 140 -160 bpm easily! ... and I can sustain that tempo for a clogging set and longer. It is fun! It's like blowing out the carburetor. It feels good to stretch! And, yes, I do feel sorry for new folks who step into a hot jam like this and just can't keep up.

There's a time and a place for everything.