I've started a beginner fiddle group here in Bahrain. We have five members so far and have learnt Ida Red, Shortnin' Bread, Going Down the River, The Britches Full of Stitches and The Butterfly. Suggestions for good beginner group tunes please and any general advice etc would be much appreciated.
If you log out of this site & click on the "members' tag, then select "tunebook" it will show you the tunes that have been added the most to peoples tunebooks on this site.
I'll save you the trouble.
Drowsy Maggie 2908 times
The Kesh 2490 times
The Butterfly 2264 times
Cooley's 1958 times
Morrison's 1760 times
The Silver Spear 1714 times
The Maid Behind The Bar 1617 times
The Banshee 1576 times
Banish Misfortune 1502 times
The Wind That Shakes The Barley 1432 times
The Glasgow 1414 times
The Connaughtman's Rambles 1333 times
The Rights Of Man 1303 times
Out On The Ocean 1303 times
The Mason's Apron 1262 times
The Harvest Home 1262 times
The Gravel Walks 1255 times
The Kid On The Mountain 1228 times
The Musical Priest 1211 times
King Of The Fairies 1168 times
If the participants are truly beginners, it helps a lot to play tunes they already have in their heads. I don't know what that means for folks in Bahrain. Here in the States, I use tunes like Amazing Grace, Simple Gifts, You Are My Sunshine, and the Do Re Mi song from Sound of Music to get people playing.
For a group, waltzes are fun. Some popular ones include:
Ash Grove
Calibri Waltz
Westphalia Waltz
Ashokan Farewell
Lover's Waltz
Margaret's Waltz
Sky Boat Song
Arran Boat Song
Trip to Skye
Tennessee Waltz
If it's just fiddle in general you're after, and not any particular genre of music, there's a host of easy "Americana" tunes and songs that land well on fiddle:
Angelina Baker
Boil Dem Cabbage Down
Cluck Old Hen
Sailing Down the River
Sarah Armstrong
Cold Frosty Morning
Old Joe Clark
Dancing Bear
Cotton Eyed Joe
Faded Love
Eighth of January
Flop Eared Mule
Red Wing
Liberty
Oh Them Golden Slippers
Maiden's Prayer
Rubber Dolly
Sandy Boys
Soldier's Joy
Here are 50 tunes, a list first developed by thesession.org member ‘Dr. Dow,’ which are pretty common the world around. Some of them are a bit overplayed, or felt to be out of fashion, but generally, when they get played at a session, most everyone in the circle can join in. Learning them is a good place to start.
Reels: The Banshee [James McMahon], The Bird In The Bush, The Bucks Of Oranmore, The Concertina Reel, The Congress, Cooley’s (Luttrell’s Pass), The Cup Of Tea, Drowsy Maggie, Farewell To Ireland, Father Kelly’s (Rossmore Jetty), The Foxhunter’s, The Gravel Walks, The Maid Behind The Bar, The Merry Blacksmith, Miss McLeod’s, The Mountain Road [Michael Gorman], Rolling In The Ryegrass (The Shannon Breeze), Saint Anne’s, The Sally Gardens, The Silver Spear, The Star Of Munster, The Wise Maid (All Around The World).
Jigs: The Blackthorn Stick, The Blarney Pilgrim, The Cliffs Of Moher, The Connaughtman’s Rambles, Donnybrook Fair (The Joy Of My Life), The Irish Washerwoman, The Kesh, The Lark In The Morning, The Lilting Banshee, Morrison’s, My Darling Asleep, Out On The Ocean, The Rakes Of Kildare, Tripping Up The Stairs.
Hornpipes & Set Dances: The Boys Of Bluehill, Harvest Home, King Of The Fairies, Off To California, The Rights Of Man
Slip Jigs: The Foxhunter's, The Kid On The Mountain.
Hop Jigs: The Butterfly, The Rocky Road To Dublin.
Slides: Merrily Kissed The Quaker’s Wife, The Road To Lisdoonvarna.
Polkas: Denis Murphy’s, Egan’s, John Ryan’s (The Keadue).
It depends how beginner your fiddlers are, as there are quite a lot of common or well-known tunes that aren't actually that easy to play (Irish Washerwoman for example).
In our beginner's practice session (all instruments not just fiddles) we've recently started teaching some tunes by ear and we've purposely chosen quite simple tunes that are easy to pick up.
You've already done Britches Full of Stitches which I think's a great starter. We have also done Lucy Farr's, Jim Ward's and Behind the Haystacks.
Of those AlBrown suggested above I can recommend, as easy starters: Egan's, John Ryan's, (and Conner's) polkas, Out on the Ocean, Tripping up the Stairs (Jigs) and the ubiquitous hornpipes of Boys of Blue Hill, Off to California and The Rights of Man.
The work you are putting in is truly great, I wish you all the best with the group!
Not able to add anything to what is already listed above, but thought I'd share a great site for good value for money violins that I just found; www.classicviolinshop.com
Beginner Fiddle Group Tunes
Beginner Fiddle Group Tunes
I've started a beginner fiddle group here in Bahrain. We have five members so far and have learnt Ida Red, Shortnin' Bread, Going Down the River, The Britches Full of Stitches and The Butterfly. Suggestions for good beginner group tunes please and any general advice etc would be much appreciated.
# Posted on June 18th 2011 by Fiddle Fancier
Re: Beginner Fiddle Group Tunes
If you log out of this site & click on the "members' tag, then select "tunebook" it will show you the tunes that have been added the most to peoples tunebooks on this site.
I'll save you the trouble.
Drowsy Maggie 2908 times
The Kesh 2490 times
The Butterfly 2264 times
Cooley's 1958 times
Morrison's 1760 times
The Silver Spear 1714 times
The Maid Behind The Bar 1617 times
The Banshee 1576 times
Banish Misfortune 1502 times
The Wind That Shakes The Barley 1432 times
The Glasgow 1414 times
The Connaughtman's Rambles 1333 times
The Rights Of Man 1303 times
Out On The Ocean 1303 times
The Mason's Apron 1262 times
The Harvest Home 1262 times
The Gravel Walks 1255 times
The Kid On The Mountain 1228 times
The Musical Priest 1211 times
King Of The Fairies 1168 times
# Posted on June 18th 2011 by B Rad
Re: Beginner Fiddle Group Tunes
If the participants are truly beginners, it helps a lot to play tunes they already have in their heads. I don't know what that means for folks in Bahrain. Here in the States, I use tunes like Amazing Grace, Simple Gifts, You Are My Sunshine, and the Do Re Mi song from Sound of Music to get people playing.
For a group, waltzes are fun. Some popular ones include:
Ash Grove
Calibri Waltz
Westphalia Waltz
Ashokan Farewell
Lover's Waltz
Margaret's Waltz
Sky Boat Song
Arran Boat Song
Trip to Skye
Tennessee Waltz
If it's just fiddle in general you're after, and not any particular genre of music, there's a host of easy "Americana" tunes and songs that land well on fiddle:
Angelina Baker
Boil Dem Cabbage Down
Cluck Old Hen
Sailing Down the River
Sarah Armstrong
Cold Frosty Morning
Old Joe Clark
Dancing Bear
Cotton Eyed Joe
Faded Love
Eighth of January
Flop Eared Mule
Red Wing
Liberty
Oh Them Golden Slippers
Maiden's Prayer
Rubber Dolly
Sandy Boys
Soldier's Joy
# Posted on June 18th 2011 by Will Harmon
Re: Beginner Fiddle Group Tunes
Here are 50 tunes, a list first developed by thesession.org member ‘Dr. Dow,’ which are pretty common the world around. Some of them are a bit overplayed, or felt to be out of fashion, but generally, when they get played at a session, most everyone in the circle can join in. Learning them is a good place to start.
Reels: The Banshee [James McMahon], The Bird In The Bush, The Bucks Of Oranmore, The Concertina Reel, The Congress, Cooley’s (Luttrell’s Pass), The Cup Of Tea, Drowsy Maggie, Farewell To Ireland, Father Kelly’s (Rossmore Jetty), The Foxhunter’s, The Gravel Walks, The Maid Behind The Bar, The Merry Blacksmith, Miss McLeod’s, The Mountain Road [Michael Gorman], Rolling In The Ryegrass (The Shannon Breeze), Saint Anne’s, The Sally Gardens, The Silver Spear, The Star Of Munster, The Wise Maid (All Around The World).
Jigs: The Blackthorn Stick, The Blarney Pilgrim, The Cliffs Of Moher, The Connaughtman’s Rambles, Donnybrook Fair (The Joy Of My Life), The Irish Washerwoman, The Kesh, The Lark In The Morning, The Lilting Banshee, Morrison’s, My Darling Asleep, Out On The Ocean, The Rakes Of Kildare, Tripping Up The Stairs.
Hornpipes & Set Dances: The Boys Of Bluehill, Harvest Home, King Of The Fairies, Off To California, The Rights Of Man
Slip Jigs: The Foxhunter's, The Kid On The Mountain.
Hop Jigs: The Butterfly, The Rocky Road To Dublin.
Slides: Merrily Kissed The Quaker’s Wife, The Road To Lisdoonvarna.
Polkas: Denis Murphy’s, Egan’s, John Ryan’s (The Keadue).
# Posted on June 18th 2011 by AlBrown
Re: Beginner Fiddle Group Tunes
Thank you. This is all really helpful.
# Posted on June 19th 2011 by Fiddle Fancier
Re: Beginner Fiddle Group Tunes
It depends how beginner your fiddlers are, as there are quite a lot of common or well-known tunes that aren't actually that easy to play (Irish Washerwoman for example).
In our beginner's practice session (all instruments not just fiddles) we've recently started teaching some tunes by ear and we've purposely chosen quite simple tunes that are easy to pick up.
You've already done Britches Full of Stitches which I think's a great starter. We have also done Lucy Farr's, Jim Ward's and Behind the Haystacks.
Of those AlBrown suggested above I can recommend, as easy starters: Egan's, John Ryan's, (and Conner's) polkas, Out on the Ocean, Tripping up the Stairs (Jigs) and the ubiquitous hornpipes of Boys of Blue Hill, Off to California and The Rights of Man.
Dave
# Posted on June 19th 2011 by davedupplaw
Re: Beginner Fiddle Group Tunes
Hello from Australia!
The work you are putting in is truly great, I wish you all the best with the group!
Not able to add anything to what is already listed above, but thought I'd share a great site for good value for money violins that I just found; www.classicviolinshop.com
Good luck in Bahrain!
John
# Posted on June 23rd 2011 by abs942