Old-Time Fiddle Tunes with Singing
Old-Time Fiddle Tunes with Singing
The tunes here are tunes that, if you go to local jams in the Southeast, people often sing.
Each tune has a song book sheet (pdf file) with the source, lyrics, fiddle tuning, and pointers to reference recordings that have singing. Sometimes the vocal melody isn’t the same as the fiddle melody, so it’s important to listen to both melody lines.
Some pages have links to recordings that are in the members-only area. Those recordings are accessible only to members. If you are a member and can’t access the recording, you’re probably not logged into the website. Please log in and try again. Contact membership@fiddlers.org if you have problems logging in, or you can log in, but can’t access the members-only recordings.
Please do not share the recordings in the members-only area with non-members. They are provided to our members for instructional use only. Some are excerpts of commercial recordings where we need to be careful to avoid infringing on copyrights. Others are field recordings where the musicians are happy to share the recordings with musicians who want to learn from them, but they don’t want them up on YouTube or some other public site for everyone to listen to.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation! – Ray Chen
The tunes are sorted by key because most of them are Round Peak tunes played in specific fiddle tunings.
They will also be bundled into a songbook in the future. Info on the sources used for these tunes can be found here (link coming).
Key of D: fiddle tuning ADAE. Many tunes played in this tuning (also known as “high bass”) can be played in standard tuning (GDAE).
- Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss (aka Susannah Gal) – coming soon
Key of A: fiddle tuning AEAE. Typically, A tunes played in AEAE (also known as “cross” or “sawmill” tuning) can be very difficult to play in standard tuning if you want to play the drones and double-stops.
- Big-Eyed Rabbit – coming soon
- June Apple
- Let Me Fall – coming soon
- Police – coming soon