Zephinie - Posted - 05/13/2016:  09:14:16

Hey everybody,

I'm trying to break out of my comfort zone, and start playing a lot more fiddle tunes. I already play some of the ones that are more banjo friendly (Salt Creek, Blackberry Blossom, Devils Dream, etc.) but over this summer I'm looking to invest a lot of time in playing other popular fiddle tunes in single string and melodic style. So I'm trying to put together a list of 10-15 fiddle tunes to get the melodies and chords down. I'd love for you guys to share what fiddle tunes are popular in your circles!

doryman - Posted - 05/13/2016:  09:30:10

You probably already have these on your list but Cherokee Shuffle and Soldier's Joy would be fun ones.

teakinmn - Posted - 05/13/2016:  09:40:24

We have lots of fiddles and mandos that show up at our jam, and their preference is to play fiddle tunes before standard bluegrass material. In addition to what John mentioned, here are some of my favorites that we play:

Whiskey Before Breakfast
St. Anne's Reel
Temperance Reel
Flowers of Edinburgh
Cold Frosty Morning
Jerusalem Ridge
Lonesome Fiddle Blues
Beaumont Rag
Bill Cheatum
Billy in the Lowground
Itzbin Reel

deestexas - Posted - 05/13/2016:  09:45:10

Lost Indian, Beaumont Rag, Dragging The Bow, I Don't Love Nobody, Whistling Rufus, Jerusalem Ridge, Cattle in the Cane, Lady Be Good,Bonaparte's Retreat

steve davis - Posted - 05/13/2016:  10:08:26

Dusty Miller
Washington Lee Swing

Anything Kenny Baker played.

n1wr - Posted - 05/13/2016:  10:48:09

Back Up and Push, Black Mtn Rag

mikejboulder - Posted - 05/13/2016:  10:56:34

A couple of others that are banjo friendly Gold Rush, Redwing and Southern Flavor.

Tam_Zeb - Posted - 05/13/2016:  11:04:57

Turkey in the Straw' Sally Goodin

jhko - Posted - 05/13/2016:  11:51:28

They've named most already, but add Dixie Hoedown, Big Sandy River, Lonesome Moonlight Waltz, Monroe's Hornpipe. 

I realize most of these are "instrumentals", not pure fiddle tunes. But you will see them pop up in jams routinely. 

Texasbanjo - Posted - 05/13/2016:  12:35:41

Old Joe Clark, Soldier's Joy, Red Haired Boy.

Zephinie - Posted - 05/13/2016:  13:21:45

Thanks everybody for your contributions so far! Joe, I kind of use fiddle tune as a synonym for instrumentals. I that's a pretty common thing in bluegrass. I'm going to try to put the whole list together tonight, people can keep throwing suggestions out there in case anyone has missed a popular tune.

teakinmn - Posted - 05/13/2016:  14:06:26

A few more that show up at our jam -- Over the Waterfall, Liberty, Clinch Mountain Backstep, Irish Washerwoman, Sailor's Hornpipe, Forked Deer, June Apple, Pig Ankle Rag, Raggedy Ann

smithbanjo - Posted - 05/13/2016:  14:56:22

Great fiddle tunes, get Noam Pikelny and Steward Duncan's play Kenny Baker play Bill Monroe. Learn Sally Johnson, Old Dangerfield, Ragtime Annie , Hamilton County, Red Apple Rag, Daileys and Snowflake Reel and you will be on your way!

arnie fleischer - Posted - 05/13/2016:  15:24:37

Angeline the Baker, Two O' Clock in the Morning, The Grey Eagle, The Eighth of January, Wheel Hoss, Big Sciota, Virginia Darlin', Paddy on the Turnpike.

Every fiddle tune is an instrumental, but not every instrumental is a fiddle tune. The terms aren't really synonymous. 

Fathand - Posted - 05/13/2016:  15:39:28

I don't think I have seen Sally Goodin mentioned yet also Katy Hill.

five-string fever - Posted - 05/13/2016:  15:55:15

"Lonesome Fiddle Blues". "Salt Spring" has been making the rounds at Colorado picks a lot lately. Here are a couple friends of mine, the Conley brothers, playing it on mando and guitar and a full band with banjo on the other one. The tempo is easy but lots of fun chord changes and a nice mix of major and minor chords.

youtube.com/watch?v=20vPrINHeuA

youtube.com/watch?v=AtEFXm7eobg

Edited by - five-string fever on 05/13/2016 15:58:07

steve davis - Posted - 05/14/2016:  06:32:19

Get some fiddletune tab books.
Bill Keith
Tony Trischka Melodic Banjo
Anything titled something like "Fiddletunes for 5 String Banjo".

arnie fleischer - Posted - 05/14/2016:  07:34:38

If you read musical notation, another thing to do is get a book of fiddle tunes for fiddle players such as "One Thousand Fiddle Tunes" or "The Fiddler's Fakebook" and use it to learn a tune's basic melody. Then you can figure out your own way of playing it on the banjo. I have to admit that I'm very lazy and have only done this a handful of times, but one of them is a great tune that I forgot to mention before, "Little Rabbit."

I think it's time for me to take my own advice and start learning a few more.  My spring and summer project!  

chuckv97 - Posted - 05/14/2016:  09:08:11

Yon Downder 😎

monstertone - Posted - 05/14/2016:  11:42:20

Every bluegrass banjo player should be able to hold his/her own with the common jam session fiddle tunes. Sally Goodwin, Old Joe Clark, Bill Cheatham, Blackberry Blossom & the like. One thousand Fiddle Tunes? (Many of which are older than dirt, and/or rarely heard this side of the pond.) Unless you're at a fiddler's convention, that's about 980 too many. LOL Out of those left, make one or two into your own, fake the rest. :-)

steve davis - Posted - 05/14/2016:  12:31:15

We get a lot of "Smash the Windows" and "Big John MacNeil" here.

Learning new fiddletunes from the fiddlers is a ton of fun for me.

I also like going to abcnotaton and figuring arrangments out from scratch.There are a great many fine fiddletunes.

I introduced Green Castle Hornpipe to some local jams and it's gone over very well.Most of the fiddlers I've shown it to didn't already know it.Very pretty tune.

Edited by - steve davis on 05/14/2016 12:37:14

banjopickingbuddy - Posted - 05/14/2016:  22:53:03

I love playing fiddle tunes on my banjo, my latest one is 'Shove the pigs foot a little farther in the fire"  Bruce Molskey and Jay Ungar with Molly Mason do a great performance of this on youtube. There are two versions of tab here on hangout, I put the up the neck part of one with part B of the other one and it comes out real good.

Jim Yates - Posted - 05/15/2016:  04:26:12

Weave & Way,

Red Haired Boy (also called Gilderoy, Little Beggerman, Old Ragadoo, Old Soldier With The Wooden Leg and a few other names)

Coloured Aristocracy,

Down Yonder,

Bully Of The Town,

Buck Dancer's Choice

Zephinie - Posted - 05/15/2016:  05:23:13

Ok, I've put together a list of 15 fiddle tunes to try and learn over the summer before school starts back up in the fall. I picked the tunes based on what seemed popular, but also which ones I enjoyed listening to the most.

The first one I'm working on is Big Sciota. I'll probably post a video in the Sound off section in a few days where I'll play the changes and the melody in both single string and melodic style. Going to try to post a fiddle tune a week if I can.

Thanks again everyone!

steve davis - Posted - 05/15/2016:  06:49:42

It helps a lot to jam with fiddle players.

kaybone - Posted - 05/18/2016:  20:34:19

Don't forget Salt Creek or Sally Ann

Ira Gitlin - Posted - 05/19/2016:  06:27:09

Has no one mentioned "Big Mon" yet? (I see Arnie already mentioned "Wheel Hoss", AKA "That tune that isn't 'Big Mon'".)

steve davis - Posted - 05/19/2016:  06:32:30

Santa Claus

Old Hickory - Posted - 05/19/2016:  08:34:21

Great list so far.  I have nothing to add. Can't think of anything that comes up with any regularity at the jams I attend that hasn't been mentioned already.

"Big Sciota" is a great one to start with.  I had never heard it in 40 years of playing. Then when I attended my first jams after moving to NYC in Sept 2013, I heard it twice in one weekend.  Faked my way through it then went home and learned it.  Posted my version in the tab archive. There are several tabs of it here and some outstanding recordings that will give you all sorts of ideas.

"Tony Trischka's Master Collection of Fiddle Tunes" has most of the "essential" tunes. No book can have them all.  I guess what's essential depends on what comes up in the jams you attend.  As I said above with Big Sciota, lived my life in DC not needing it; in NYC it gets played almost every jam.

I highly recommend learning at least basic versions of "Whiskey Before Breakfast" and "St. Anne's Reel," not only because they're standards and popular, but because on banjo they provide a good introduction to playing melodic (or single string) in D without a capo.  When I first taught myself "Whiskey" in the 80s, I capoed 2 and played as if in C.  Learning it in D was more satisfying.

Along the same lines, "Billy in the Low Ground" is good to learn for increasing your up-the-neck and melodic technique in C.

"Jerusalem Ridge" in A minor can be played in G tuning without a capo or in G minor tuning capo 2.  There are excellent versions using both approaches.  I think Noam Pikelny retuned for his version on the Noam Plays Kenny Plays Bill album.  John Boulding teaches a basic G tuning version in his Lick of the Week videos.

Part of what I'm gettting at is learn fiddle tunes in the keys that fiddlers typically play them. Nothing wrong with learning A and B-flat tunes in G and capoing.  But C and D fiddle tunes generally sound better open.

arnie fleischer - Posted - 05/19/2016:  09:26:35

I forgot "Arkansas Traveler" (preferably without the jokes) and "Red Wing."  Each of these has been called recently at a couple of different jams I've attended - and by guitar players, no less.  

steve davis - Posted - 05/19/2016:  11:37:26

Down Yonder

steve davis - Posted - 05/21/2016:  07:18:16

Roanoke

arnie fleischer - Posted - 05/22/2016:  09:56:08

Think I'll play "Roanoke" at tonight's jam.  Thanks, Steve!

steve davis - Posted - 05/22/2016:  15:22:06

Grey Eagle

Huckleberry Hornpipe

Edited by - steve davis on 05/22/2016 15:22:43

northwoodspicker - Posted - 05/22/2016:  17:39:11

Fiddle tunes are some of my favorite tunes to play:

-Cripple Creek
-Sally Ann (Sandy Land)
-Sally Goodin
-Sourwood Mountain
-Soldier's Joy
-Ragtime Annie
-Bill Cheatham
-Salt Creek (Salt River)
-Devil's Dream
-Cumberland Gap

arnie fleischer - Posted - 05/23/2016:  06:36:39

So we had a good fiddler with us at the jam last night and we played "Roanoke," "Wheel Hoss," "Temperance Reel," "Red Haired Boy," and "Arkansas Traveler" (complete with pauses for the awful jokes that go with that tune).*  And I resurrected "Dixie Breakdown" - not a fiddle tune but one of my favorite banjo numbers.  

*What are those awful jokes? you may ask.  Well, here's the premise: The Arkansas Traveler is a city slicker lost in the woods of Arkansas, trying to get to Little Rock, when he happens upon a farmer fiddling up a storm.

AT: Farmer, I'm lost, does this road here run to Little Rock?

F: I've lived here 20 years, the road hasn't run anywhere yet.

AT: Farmer, you're not very smart, are you?

F: Maybe so but I ain't lost.

AT: Farmer, there's not much between you and a fool, is there?

F: Just this fiddle I'm holding.

chuckv97 - Posted - 05/23/2016:  09:07:57

Fiddle tunes I've learned over the years (some I've forgotten how to play, and need dusting off):

Blackberry Blossom , Bill Cheathum, Devil's Dream, Turkey in the Straw, Old Joe Clark, Dixie Hoedown (mando tune), Cold Frosty Morning, Cripple Creek, Salt Creek, Red Haired Boy, Sailor's Hornpipe , Soldier's Joy (Earl's "Old Folks") , Cumberland Gap

steve davis - Posted - 05/24/2016:  06:45:03

I'm listening to Bryan Sutton's Kitchen Girl on Sirius right now.I've been playing this one for years.

Beardog - Posted - 05/24/2016:  11:54:31

My experience has been that no matter how many fiddle tunes I learn, it is never enough. No list is long enough. There is a non-exhaustive number of tunes in the fiddle repertoire.....

TBaileySr - Posted - 05/24/2016:  13:41:41

Tennessee Waltz

steve davis - Posted - 05/26/2016:  06:55:34

There are many thousands of fiddle tunes at abcnotation.

5stringpicker2 - Posted - 05/26/2016:  09:13:21

Rickett's Hornpipe, Sugar Foot Rag, Fisher's Hornpipe just to name 3 or 2.

( I  )====='----<: :}

5stringpicker2 - Posted - 05/26/2016:  09:33:20

Thought of another if not yet mentioned...Little Rock Getaway

( I  )====='----<: :}

steve davis - Posted - 05/27/2016:  05:51:58

Cluck Old Hen (even though it has words).

SteveMurtha - Posted - 05/27/2016:  07:30:20

Well, Steve, if it comes to that, so do Cripple Creek, Sourwood Mountain, Cumberland Gap, Old Joe Clark, etc. (Have words, that is.) I believe even Soldier's Joy has words, apparently referring to morphine and whisky. Seems to me the term "fiddle tune" is pretty loosely defined.

JR Carolina - Posted - 05/27/2016:  07:56:57

Two of my favorites,

Fire on The Mountain

Whiskey Before Breakfast

Tom Berghan - Posted - 05/27/2016:  08:32:50

Just get the Phillips Collection of American Fiddle Tunes and be done with it. All you need in one source at a bargain price. 

teakinmn - Posted - 05/27/2016:  08:44:02

Good advice, Tom. This thread seems to have devolved into a "how many fiddle tunes can you name" thread rather than the OP's original request for 10-15 "essential" fiddle tunes.

steve davis - Posted - 05/27/2016:  09:05:36

There are more than that,Tom.

10-15 would be way too limiting.Any good tune is "essential".

Smash The Windows on a Cold,Frosty Morn when Big John MacNeil shoots the Pidgeon on the Gate using the Crooked Stovepipe for a rest.

I love Bela's Cold,Frosty Morn.

Edited by - steve davis on 05/27/2016 09:07:19