Don's Fiddle Tune Arrangements
(Tabledit Format)

What exactly is a fiddle tune? A fiddle tune is a melody that once you hear it, you can't seem to get it out of your head until you can grab your banjo and learn it yourself. A fiddle tune is a living cord connecting us back to long ago generations, to feel deep in ourselves just a fragment of feeling transmitted from across the ages by some plain common folk, our ancestors otherwise long forgotten. A fiddle tune is a kind of tune that has a lot of music concentrated in just a little bit of space, and in that respect it is to notes what poetry is to words. A good fiddle tune you can play for a very long time and not get tired of it. A good fiddle tune is a tune that you can never quite play the same way twice, even when you want to. A good fiddle tune will bring two or more people together who might otherwise be enemies. Fiddle tunes all pretty much sound the same, except they all sound different when you finally hear them. A good fiddle tune will always be remembered by somebody. And a good fiddle tune will make you forget, for just an instant, that man is born to die.

 

TABLATURE LIST
If you have difficulty opening the tabs, click here for detailed download instructions.

MIDI...TAB...Abe's Retreat (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Angeline the Baker (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Angeline the Baker, Easier Version (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Arkansas Traveler (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Back Up and Push (GDGBD, C)
MIDI...TAB...Barlowe Knife (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Beaumont Rag (GDGBD, F)
MIDI...TAB...Betty Likens (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Bill Cheatum (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Billy in the Lowground (GCGCD, C)
MIDI...TAB...Black Eyed Suzie (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Black Mountain Rag (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Boatman (GDGAD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Bonaparte's March (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Bonaparte Crossing the Rocky Mtns (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Bonaparte's Retreat (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Buffalo Nickel (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Cacklin' Hen (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Campbells Farewell to Red Gap (GDGAD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Chicken Reel (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Child Grove (ADGAD, D Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Chilly Winds (GDGAD, Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Chinese Breakdown (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Cindy (GDGBD,G)
MIDI...TAB...Cluck Old Hen (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Coon Dog (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Cotton Eyed Joe (GDGAD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Cripple Creek (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Dance All Night (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Drowsy Maggie (ADF#AD, Em/D)
MIDI...TAB...Dry and Dusty (ADF#D, D)
MIDI...TAB...Ducks in the Millpond (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Ducks on the Pond (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Ebenezer (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Eighth of January (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Elzic's Farewell (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Falls of Richmond (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Flop-Eared Mule (GDGBD,G)
MIDI...TAB...Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Forky Deer (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Frosty Morning (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Gaspe Reel (ADF#AD,D)
MIDI...TAB...Girl I Left Behind Me (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Golden Slippers (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Golden Slippers (GDGAD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Grasshopper Sittin' on a Sweet Potato Vine (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Green Willis (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Grey Eagle (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Growling Old Man and Woman (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Hard Times (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Hell Among the Yearlings (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Hogeye (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...John Brown's Dream (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...John Brown's March (GDGAD,G)
MIDI...TAB...Julianne Johnson (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...June Apple (GDGAD,G)
MIDI...TAB...Kitchen Girl (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...La Bastrange (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Leather Britches (GDGAD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Liberty (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Listen to the Mockingbird (GCGBD, C)
MIDI...TAB...Liza Jane (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Liza Jane, Easier Version (GDGBD)
MIDI...TAB...Lost Indian (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Magpie (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Midnight on the Water (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Mississippi Sawyer (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Morpeth Rant (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Nancy (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Old French (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Old Joe Clark (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Over the Waterfall (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Quince Dillon's High D (ADF#AD)
MIDI...TAB...Quit Kicking My Dog Around (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Rachel (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Ragtime Annie (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Ragtime Annie, Easier Version (GDGBD)
MIDI...TAB...Red Haired Boy (GDGCD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Rock the Cradle Joe (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Rose Tree (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Rosin the Beau (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Rueben (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Sail Away Ladies (GDGAD)
MIDI...TAB...Sally Goodin (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Sally in the Garden (ADGAD, D Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Sandy Boys (GDGBD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Santa Annas Retreat (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Say Old Man, Can You Play the Fiddle (ADGAD, D Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Senaca Square Dance (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Shady Grove, Henry Reed (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Shebeg Shemore (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Shenandoah Falls (GDGAD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Ships Are Sailing (ADGAD, D Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Snowflake Reel (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Soldier's Joy (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Spotted Pony (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Spring Creek Gals (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...St. Anne's Reel (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Staten Island Hornpipe (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Stoney Point (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Sugar in the Gourd (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Tater Patch (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Texas (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...The Cuckoo's Nest (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Turkey in the Straw (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Turkey in the Straw (GDGBD, G)
MIDI...TAB...Twin Sisters (ADGAD, D Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Waiting for Nancy (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Walking in the Parlor (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...West Fork Gals (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...West Virginia Gals (GDGAD, G Modal)
MIDI...TAB...Whiskey Before Breakfast (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Wildwood Flower (GCGCD, C)
MIDI...TAB...Wind That Shakes the Barley (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Woodchopper's Reel (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Yellow Barber (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Yellow Rose of Texas (ADF#AD, D)
MIDI...TAB...Yew Piney Mountain (GDGAD, G Modal)

TOTAL TABS: 119

The tabs in the Banj'r collection are in the TablEdit format, and are opened through TablEdit's TEFView tab viewer. The viewer is available free from the Tabledit website. The easiest way to download is to left click on the file link, and use the File Download dialog box. However, with some system configurations, this function results instead in a display of the file in ASCII text or htm format. In that case, to download one of the tabs listed at the right, just right click on the link, and select "Save Link As" or "Save Target As" from the drop down menu. Make sure you include the ".tef" file extension when you save.

One of the most useful features of TEFView is that it is virtually a full function MIDI software package. TEFView contains most of the playback control features available in the MIDI format, some not found in basic players like Windows MediaPlayer or WinAmp. Taking full advantage of this, each tablature arrangement in this collection has been written with a guitar and bass accompaniment, and sometimes fiddle, clawhammer banjo, or lead guitar. . Through the MIDI Options window, you can speed up or slow down the tempo, or change the relative volume of each instrument, or temporarily turn off an instrument altogether, by unchecking the checkbox next to the title of the instrument track. Thus, you can turn the banjo voice off, and practice playing along with the MIDI accompaniment. The MIDI Options window can be accessed through the icon on the toolbar, or through the Play Menu selection on the Menu bar.

When you open TEFView, the tablature will be scaled to a particular note, either a 1/16th or a 1/32nd note. I have found generally that the tunes in 2/4 and 3/4 time are best viewed at the 1/32nd scale, while the handful of 4/4 tunes are best viewed at the 1/16th scale. The scale can be reset from the Display Menu item on the top Menu Bar. The time signature is located in the upper left corner of the tablature.

Tab is merely a technique, a relatively efficient one, for communicating how one musician has decided to render a certain musical piece. The goal is not to learn to sight read. Instead, you should memorize the arrangement as soon as possible, internalize it, changing it as little or as much as you want to suit your own taste and style. This is not classical music, where the composer's notes, written down on paper, must be taken as gospel, not to be altered. Once you have memorized the arrangement, you should continue to practice by playing along with the MIDI, but don't follow the tab itself unless you forget part of it. You don't want to play forever with a music stand in front of you, whether real or virtual.

When you work through a tab, you essentially "get inside the picker's head," and see how he or she chooses to solve a particular musical problem. As bluegrass style five string banjo is still primarily a type of pattern picking, as opposed to the more linear approach of other instruments and other types of music, there is ultimately an immense variety of solutions to that "problem" presented by a particular phrase of melody. So as you study the work of other pickers, through tab, by slowing down a recording, or by any other method, you should be selective, borrowing the sounds you like best, and substituting a different approach for the others. In the end, assuming you are putting in the effort, your arrangements will reflect your own musical tastes better than any other picker, and you will essentially be your own favorite banjo picker.

Tab also functions as a memory aid. Trust me on this- that becomes more important as you get older. More than once I have worked out an intricate arrangement, only to find a few weeks later that I have completely forgotten how I did it. After doing that a number of times, I started transcribing my arrangements as soon as they had pretty much settled down. There is nothing more ridiculous than having to slow down your own recording to half speed in order to figure out how you picked something, to motivate you to make an accurate transcription at the start.

I cannot overemphasize how useful it is to practice along with the MIDI playback. I practice with the Tabledit files for most of my practice time. While there is obviously still a very big difference between using Tabledit and actually playing with other musicians, it is still a great learning and practice tool, and I think as time goes on and more material is published this way, it is going to speed up the learning curve considerably for new bluegrass pickers.

I've read arguments that Tabledit is not as effective in developing smooth, even timing as a metronome. That may well be true in the early stages of learning, when it is best to use the metronome with one tick for each note, to guarantee an absolutely smooth roll. But in the long run, I think Tabledit is the best learning tool to come along since Earl himself. The whole MIDI playback capability also shifts the "tab as a crutch" dynamic, since as you gradually speed up the tempo, you are forced to rely more on your memory and ear, and less on the tab itself.

If you write tab, I strongly recommend acquiring the full software package. It is easy to use, creates great printed output, and has a very well organized and complete set of MIDI tools. All of the MIDI files used as background music on these web pages were created from the Tabledit program. Customer support by Keith Saturn (the American rep) and Matthieu Leschemelle (the program's author, on those rare occasions when Keith doesn't know the answer) is timely and excellent. Their website is www.tabledit.com. While the TEFView viewer can be used free of charge, I highly recommend upgrading to the TablEdit software package for anyone who intends to transcribe arrangements for five string banjo.

(c) copyright 2007, 2008, by Donald J. Borchelt, all rights reserved.