The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #65731   Message #1119665
Posted By: GUEST,Ely
19-Feb-04 - 08:50 PM
Thread Name: good fiddle tunes
Subject: RE: good fiddle tunes
I'm also trying to learn fiddle (got the bow for Christmas!!). I don't have the money/schedule to take lessons right now so I'm picking out things by ear and hoping I don't develop too many bad bowing habits.

"Riding on a Load of Hay" (Em) is surprisingly easy. Other than that, I'm working on "Dixie" (C), "Off To California"/"Whiskey Hornpipe" [G], "Colored Aristocracy" [A], "Booth Shot Lincoln" [A], "West Fork Girls" [D], "Amelia's" [D, by John McQuillan], "Where the White Lilies Grow" [D, a two-step], "Rosin the Bow" [D], "Banks of Inverness" [A], "Cluck, Old Hen" [Am], "Whiskey Before Breakfast" [D], and a few others. D and A are easy keys for me so I'm trying to learn some G and C tunes so I get a better feel for those scales (I'm also playing just scales to learn where notes are, since I tend to be a muscle-memory person). "Princess Royal" (the faster one in G, not the minor one) is giving me fits. I know a lot of tunes in my head so I have a lot to practice with, I just have to get them to the strings.

I'm American, by the way, so if you're looking mostly for British/British Isles tunes, sorry.