Fiddle Tunes for Guitar

Fiddle Tunes for Guitar is a book of fiddle tunes designed for the guitarist who is advancing in his or her skill level as a soloist. If you learned guitar through our Technique, Theory, & Tunes guitar book, then you are ready for this book. Or, if you have learned to play melodies on guitar with a flat pick and wish to expand your repertoire, this is the book for you. The tunes in this book come from the American fiddle tradition, and from the American ragtime piano tradition. Most American fiddlers play 3 very specific types of tunes. Those tunes are; hoedowns, rags, and waltzes. This book specifically introduces hoedowns and rags to the guitarist.

You’ve likely heard of the Ragtime era when ragtime piano music dominated popular music culture. That era took place from about 1897 to 1917. The most famous ragtime pianist was Scott Joplin. He composed everyone’s favorite ragtime piano piece, The Entertainer. But Joplin was not the only talented pianist of the ragtime era. There were many highly skilled pianists during those years, and they too composed many memorable melodies. George Botsford composed one of the ragtime tunes in this book (Black and White Rag). Euday Bowman composed another tune in this book (12th Street Rag). You might notice that many ragtime-era melodies have the word “rag” in their titles. That is the best indication that the tune originated on the piano during the ragtime era. The word “rag” comes from the word “ragged.” Many people of the ragtime era referred to the piano music of the time as being very “ragged” in its sound. What they were trying to understand was the new sound that ragtime pianists were producing. That sound was a mixture of the rhythmic syncopation of the right hand melodies combined with the hard-driving rhythm of the left hand accompaniment. It looked and sounded very advanced to the people who heard it for the first time. In subsequent years, other musicians started to play ragtime piano melodies on their violins—or fiddles—as the instrument came to be known during the 19th and 20th centuries.

A hoedown is a type of tune that is related to the Irish Reel. A reel is a dance. The music played for that type of dance is also called a reel. For example, in this book there are 2 Irish reels (Congress Reel and McCahill’s Reel), and one Danish-inspired reel (Jutland Reel). A reel is a tune in 4/4, 2/4. or cut-time rhythm. A hoedown is in the same rhythm realm. The primary difference is that American hoedowns have a distinctly American flavor and are typically played in fiddle contests rather than in dance settings. Durham’s Reel is thought to be an American reel—likely composed by an Irish-born American (who’s last name might have been Durham).

Please know that the audio files above are midi files generated from our music software. These files will serve well as samples of how the tunes sound even though they are not played by real humans playing a real, acoustic instruments. However, we will add real human audio as soon as we can. Please accept these midi files for now.