Music Books by Region of Origin
On taking up a musical instrument, it is only natural for the beginner to want to reap some rewards as quickly as possible. After all, music is for the enjoyment of the player, as well as the listener.
Forty complete Scottish songs, collected arranged and edited by John Loesberg. Lyrics, music and chords.
A great selection of traditional favourites in melody line arrangements complete with guitar chords and lyrics. Titles include 'Blow The Man Down', and 'Where Have All The Flowers Gone'.
Over 40 traditional and contemporary songs from the world of folk and folk-rock, all presented with complete lyrics and a detailed chord guide.
This collection of morris music, although far from comprehensive, contains most of the dance tunes currently in vogue in what might be called the popular Cotswold traditions. All of the tunes can be found elsewhere, but unlike previous publications, they are all presented in keys which most of today's morris musicians are most likely to favour.
First published in the 1950s and now re-printed with Chords. The Fiddlers Tune-Book was a landmark collection edited by veteran folklorist and collector Peter Kennedy. This book is crammed with 200 core repertoire tunes for all traditional musicians. If you have no traditional music books, this is the first one you should buy.
133 Songs from around the world including 'Auld Lang Syne', 'Danny Boy', 'Greensleeves', 'Hava Nagila', 'This Train'. Arranged for Easy Guitar.
Kyle Creed Clawhammer Banjo Master is a collection of clawhammer banjo tablature as played by Kyle Creed, with modern interpretations by Bob Carlin and Dan Levenson. This book is the first in a series of transcriptions of tunes from the old masters--in this case, Kyle Creed--who gave definition to our style of old time clawhammer banjo playing. The repertoire, presented in tablature, is intended to be a starting point for your journey through the old time music world. As such, each piece is presented in multiple arrangements, but on the page and on the accompanying audio CD. The recordings are for the most part played at a learning tempo and are close to the written notationbut not exact in all cases.
The banjo shares many of the same sonic qualities as a harpsichord, so although it's so closely associated with more homespun genres, the instrument actually lends itself very well to classical music! The pieces in Bach for Banjo are in tablature only with chord symbols, arranged at the beginning to intermediate level for five-string banjo players. As in classical guitar arrangements, the melody and harmony are combined. Most pieces are on facing pages with no page turns required, and beginners can pick through the selections at a slow pace. The book features just the best-known parts of 20 beloved Bach pieces: Air on the G String · Arioso · Minuet in G · Sheep May Safely Graze · Sleepers, Awake · and more.
Fred Cockerham & Tommy Jarrell: Clawhammer Banjo Masters is a collection of 23 clawhammer banjo solos written in tablature. The pieces are transcribed as played by Fred Cockerham and Tommy Jarrell by Bob Carlin. Also included are modern interpretations by Dan Levenson. This is the third book in a series of transcribed tunes from the old masters. Previous books are Kyle Creed - Clawhammer Banjo Master and Wade Ward - Clawhammer Banjo Master. Fred Cockerham and Tommy Jarrell both gave unique definition to the style of old-time clawhammer banjo playing. The repertoire, presented in tablature, is intended to be a starting point for your journey through the old-time music world. Eachpiece is presented in multiple arrangements, both on the page and in the online audio. Most of the recordings are played at learning tempos and correspond to the tablature.
The Banjo Play-Along Series will help you play your favorite songs quickly and easily. Just follow the banjo tab, listen to the audio to hear how the banjo should sound, and then play along using the separate backing tracks. The book includes access to audio tracks online for download or streaming featuring Playback+, a multi-functional audio player that allows you to slow down the audio without changing pitch, set loop points, change keys, and pan left or right. This volume includes: Billy in the Low Ground · Cluck Old Hen · Devil's Dream · Fisher's Hornpipe · Little Maggie · Over the Waterfall · The Red Haired Boy · Soldier's Joy.
The Banjo Play-Along Series will help you play your favorite songs quickly and easily with incredible backing tracks to help you sound like a bona fide pro! Just follow the banjo tab, listen to the demo track on the CD to hear how the banjo should sound, and then play along with the separate backing tracks. The CD is playable on any CD player and also is enhanced so Mac and PC users can adjust the recording to any tempo without changing the pitch! Each Banjo Play-Along pack features eight cream of the crop songs. This volume includes: Ain't It Enough · The Cave · Forget the Flowers · Ho Hey · Little Lion Man · Live and Die · Switzerland · Wagon Wheel.
A fun collection of 25 Disney favorites arranged for 5-string banjo, including: The Ballad of Davy Crockett · The Bare Necessities · Be Our Guest · Bella Notte (This Is the Night) · Cruella De Vil · It's a Small World · Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious · Under the Sea · You've Got a Friend in Me · Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah · and more.
O'Carolan's best-loved harp tunes are notated in a contemporary style that makes them accessible to all instrumentalists. This ideal collection with accompanying audio lays bare 20 classic Irish compositions for melody and backing players using standard notation and chords. For all 5-string banjo players, fretting and picking-hand fingerings are included in the transcriptions which match the play-along tracks. This is Hanway's fourth collection demonstrating Celtic fingerstyle banjo in G tuning. It is part of a Celtic 5-string series that includes Mel Bay's Easy Irish and Celtic Tunes for 5-String Banjo: Best-Loved Jigs and Reels (2012) and Mel Bay's Easy Irish andCeltic Melodies for 5-String Banjo: Best-Loved Airs and Session Tunes (2013). Tom Hanway's pioneering work, Mel Bay's Complete Book of Irish & Celtic 5-String Banjo (1998), was acclaimed by Bluegrass Unlimited magazine (1999) "as 'the bible' for any 5-string player with an interest in this joyous music." The current collection breathes life into the Gaelic classical melodies of Ireland. Access to online audio download.
If you've ever felt compelled to play Flight of the Bumblebee on the 5-string banjo, this is the book for you!Challenging banjo transcriptions of classical masterpieces may seem like a humorous anachronism to some, but not for Italian master Claudio Parravicini, a conservatory graduate who, while majoring in French horn, always believed that the banjo was 'a virtuoso instrument capable of enriching any musical genre. In the author's words, 'I chose the classical pieces in this book on the basis of how they might advance right and left-hand banjo technique and even refine the player's musical sensibility ¦ Some pieces, like Flight of the Bumblebee will challenge yourability to play rapidly, while others like Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, are much slower, but will test your musical abilities in other ways. The other pieces in the book are: Prelude No. 2 in C minor and Inventions No. 4 and No. 6 by J. S. Bach, Flight of the Bumblebee by Korsakov, Perpetual Motion and Carnival of Venice by Paganini, and Toccata for Piano or Harpsichord by Paradisi. Classical Masterpieces for Banjo is written in tablature only in standard G tuning [gDGBD] using three-finger banjo technique in the traditional, melodic and single-string style. Each selection is guaranteed to further your technique and delight your audience, or simply expand your vision of what is possible on the 5-string banjo.
The melodic style is a beautiful three finger picking style which can be traced to the early 1900's and became a fully accepted style for playing the five-string banjo in the 1960's, and is today an integral part of the three-finger style of many banjo players at all playing levels. Plus, the songs arranged in this style are easy and fun to learn. Although the melodic style may sound impossible with all of those notes coming from it, surprisingly you will find that it is not that difficult to learn and no previous musical knowledge is needed. This course covers the melodic style from the very basics of this picking style to the advanced techniques and provides many fun toplay and well-known songs arranged in the three-finger melodic style for upper level beginning players through advanced level players. Includes access to online audio.
A Clawhammer Christmas by Dan Levenson is a collection of 30 of the most loved Christmas songs transcribed in tablature for the 5-string banjo in the clawhammer style with chords provided for accompaniment instruments. Written in his clear and traditional style, Dan has finally made these holiday favorites accessible to all clawhammer banjo players with good basic skills. All songs have been written in one of the three basic old-time banjo tunings of G, double-C or G modal. This will allow you to find the tune in a fingering you know and easily capo to your preferred singing key. Build your skills as you entertain family and friends and maybe even yourself! Ring in the holiday season with the joyful sound of the 5-string banjo played clawhammer style and have a double-thumb, drop-thumb Clawhammer Christmas!
Five-string banjo enthusiasts who play in the stroke, clawhammer or guitar styles will enjoy these 50 melodic, tab-only arrangements. The collection is unique in that it includes reels, polkas, jigs, hornpipes, minstrel songs, ballads, light classics, and a Christmas tune—nearly all in C tuning with the fourth string a step lower than the typical 5-string G tuning. Well-known classical and popular composers: Beethoven, Foster, and Vivaldi, plus collector/historian-authors: Converse, Emmett, Howe, Kerr, O’Neill, and Ryan—are all represented in this book.With the exception of two Twiss originals, the music was chosen from sources available circa 1840 – 1890. Some of these settings can be used as accompaniment to unison singing; all are designed to lie well on the 5-string fretboard for optimal playability. Using a custom-built fretted, nylon-string banjo, the author has provided online recordings of every tune for ease of learning.
These lessons, originally handwritten and in some cases were offered only as tab transcriptions, have now been typeset in standard notation and tab. The audio lessons in this series were initially recorded in the 1970's, released on audio cassettes. We have gone back to our master tapes to get the best possible sound for this new CD edition.
Rob MacKillop presents 20 wonderful fingerstyle blues arrangements and compositions in DADGAD tuning. The styles covered in this book include country blues, boogie woogie left-hand piano blues, early jazz blues, gut-bucket blues and modal blues. Great traditional songs are included such as St. James Infirmary Blues, St. Louis Blues, C. C. Rider and more, alongside 15 full-length studies. The book begins with easy arrangements, progressing to intermediate and more advanced ones - in short, these blues studies will improve your technique through playable 12-bar tunes. A wide array of chord and scale fingerings are also provided, including pentatonic minor and major scales, bluesscales, diminished arpeggios and scales, 7th chords, whole-tone scales and the super Locrian mode and much more! All the tunes presented have accompanying audio recorded by Rob MacKillop and are available to download.
This fingerstyle guitar collection features 20 engaging lyrical tunes from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales plus three original pieces by accomplished guitarist, trumpeter and composer William A. Bay, president, and editor-in-chief at Mel Bay Publications. Tasked with writing intermediate-level arrangements in either standard or dropped-D tuning, guitarist/arranger Raymond Gonzalez displays uncommon music rethinking skills while preserving the plaintive and lilting nature of these enduring melodies. Unique to these settings, you will find sparse, open-chord harmonies accentuated by double hammer-ons and pull-offs, and the odd harmonic mixed with normal tones within a melodic line— all reminiscent of gentle waves washing up against a rocky island shore. Conceived to be played on either steel or nylon-string guitar, these pieces are written in both standard notation and tablature. Includes online access to the author’s own audio recordings.
Alfred Duelling Banjos (From Deliverance) for Piano. From the Warner Bros. film 'Deliverance'.