Mardles

Twenty popular session tunes

There are many collections of popular session tunes in books and on internet websites. Here's a selection of people playing them on YouTube. Why not join in the videos as if you were in a session. The tunes are in no particular order, but all are played in either G or D or a mixture.

Full list
Jenny Lind Polka - played by the Boat Band A part in D / B part in G
Speed the Plough / Princess Royal / Soldier's Joy on D/G box
Three Around Three (A part starts at 0.11) - played in G
Curly-Headed Ploughboy - A part in D / B part in G
(Oh Dem) Golden Slippers - played by Gavin Atkin in G
Country Gardens - played in G
Davy Knick Knack - played in G
Old Joe the Boat is Going Over - played by Gavin Atkin in D
Walter Bulwer's Polka No 1 - played by Gavin Atkin A part in G / B part in D
Oyster Girl - played in G
Uncle Bernard's Polka - played in G
Grandfather's Tune - played by Lester Bailey in D
Jimmy / Jamie Allen - played in G
Haste to the Wedding - played by Anahata in D
The Blue-eyed Stranger, Getting Upstairs and Princess Royal - played by Mark Insley & Jon Doran - in G
Brighton Camp - played in G
Buffalo Girls and Salmon Tails - played in G
The Weaver's March - played in D
The Sloe - played by Anahata in D
Winster Gallop - played in G

Jenny Lind Polka - played by the Boat Band A part in D / B part in G

Speed the Plough / Princess Royal / Soldier's Joy on D/G box

Three Around Three (A part starts at 0.11) - played in G

Curly-Headed Ploughboy - A part in D / B part in G

Galopede - played by Anahata in G on D/G box

(Oh Dem) Golden Slippers - played by Gavin Atkin in G

Country Gardens - played in G

Davy Knick Knack - played in G

Old Joe the Boat is Going Over - played by Gavin Atkin in D

Walter Bulwer's Polka No 1 - played by Gavin Atkin A part in G / B part in D

Oyster Girl - played in G

Uncle Bernard's Polka - played in G

Grandfather's Tune - played by Lester Bailey in D

Jimmy / Jamie Allen - played in G

Haste to the Wedding - played by Anahata in D

The Blue-eyed Stranger, Getting Upstairs and Princess Royal - played by Mark Insley & Jon Doran - in G

Brighton Camp - played in G

Buffalo Girls and Salmon Tails - played in G

The Weaver's March - played in D

The Sloe - played by Anahata in D

Winster Gallop - played in G

Sources of traditional tunes

Here are five fantastic sources of tunes - submitted by Mike Rudge

TRADITIONAL MUSIC LIBRARY

A huge archive of traditional, folk & old music - song-books with lyrics & chords, tune-books, sheet-music, scores, old songs, midi backing tracks, tabs, music lessons & theory, learn to play guides for various instruments, chord diagrams, scales and other music educational & academic reference materials.

abc notation home page

abc notation is a text-based music notation system and the de facto standard for folk and traditional music.

around 570,000 tunes, available as free sheet music or midi sound files, at this site alone
traditional music from medieval & renaissance times up to the present day
tunes from many cultures - a large proportion from Irish, Scottish & other Celtic sources, with plenty of music from America, England, France, Scandinavia & all over Europe and even a sizeable collection of Chinese music
a notation format popular all over the world, particularly for folk and traditional music
online versions of many well-known historical collections, such as O'Neill's Music of Ireland, Playford's English Dancing Master & tunes composed by Carolan, to name but three
a concise, text-based music notation system, that makes it easy to share tunes via email or on websites such as this one
session tunes, band repertoires and original music
specialist software which can generate tabulature and fingering charts for instruments such as guitar, mandolin & banjo (and other fretted, stringed instruments), fiddle / violin / voila, diatonic accordion, trumpet, horn euphonium & tuba, harmonica and drums
examples, tutorials, a blog, discussion forums and plenty of other information about abc

THE SESSION

The definitive site for music resource, covering a vast range of tunes from many folk genres. Also includes discussion blogs from musicians and suggestions for tune sets.

THE VILLAGE MUSIC PROJECT

This music project is primarily interested in the traditional social dance music of England – where it came from, where it went to, who it travelled with and where it is now. Because the places where we will be looking for this music also contain other sorts of material such as folk song, carols and religious music, band and military music, etc. we have left the aims more open, to allow for expansion of the project at a later date. We are intending to fill in a gap in the ethno-musicological research spectrum and not duplicate the research in which other people are engaged.

PAUL HARDY'S TUNEBOOKS

Paul Hardy's tunebooks contain tunes that he learned to play on my English concertina. They should also be playable on other folk melody instruments such as fiddle, whistle, flute, mandolin or dulcimer. Included are guitar chords, sometimes based on computer generated ones - so use these as guidance, not definitive! By far the majority are traditional tunes from the British Isles, including many English, Irish, and Scottish dance tunes, but others are an eclectic mix of session favourites. Some have been adapted from Internet resources, in abc, midi or visual score formats. Others have been learned by ear or handouts from various sessions in the UK and US. All are believed free of current copyright (unless noted explicitly), or else appear to have been placed in the public domain as part of the ongoing live folk music tradition.

Tunes

This section of the website is for tunes in abc format. This format can be converted to sheet music (dots) using this online converter: http://mandolintab.net/abcconverter.php
The on-screen sheet music can then be displayed as a pdf file and printed . Give it a try - it's a great tool.

Twenty popular session tunes

Sources of traditional tunes

Tunes

Mardles

Suffolk Folk

Norfolk Folk Association

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