Old-Time Kentucky Fiddle Tunes

Rating:
Summary: Get it now, don't wait
Review: It took me a while to cough up the do, re, mi for this one, but I'm glad I did now it's in my hands. I love this book because it's all about the music. It has enough ethnomusicoligy in it to assure you it's honest. It has a wealth of wonderful tunes both in print and on a CD. The CD gets the underlying rhythm across like notation just can't do. And the stories about the old boys and girls are a bonus. Too many old time fiddle books seem to be a catalogue of old boys. You sometimes wonder if the author ever heard them play. Not this book. This is a university press publication, so if it sells out it probably won't be available again for a long time, if ever. So get it now.

Rating:
Summary: Get it now, don't wait
Review: It took me a while to cough up the do, re, mi for this one, but I'm glad I did now it's in my hands. I love this book because it's all about the music. It has enough ethnomusicoligy in it to assure you it's honest. It has a wealth of wonderful tunes both in print and on a CD. The CD gets the underlying rhythm across like notation just can't do. And the stories about the old boys and girls are a bonus. Too many old time fiddle books seem to be a catalogue of old boys. You sometimes wonder if the author ever heard them play. Not this book. This is a university press publication, so if it sells out it probably won't be available again for a long time, if ever. So get it now.

Rating:
Summary: not that great
Review: Maybe my expectations for this book were off base. The book has 170 fiddle tunes and also alot of historical and geographical references of where in Kentucky they originated from. I see that the book was funded in part by grants and it does read like alot of Masters Theses and grant proposals that I've encounted. Which is to say I think it's packaged well but also has alot of b.s. in there. I wouldn't recommend this book especially if if you want to learn some fiddle tunes, which gets back to the fact that maybe I was expecting something else altogether. On the cd there's 26 of the 170 tunes and only 9 of these are in standard tuning. Also the pitch is often way off and the transcription don't seem to jibe either. The better thing to do is just forget about the transcription and try and fiddle along. In this repect there are some pretty interesting recordings. What this book is mainly is a reference book so if you want to learn some fiddle tunes I'd say to spend your money on something else such as the Fiddler's Magazine Favorites book which comes with 2 cds and all the tunes accuratly transcribed. I don't see it on Amazon but Fiddlers Magazine puts it out ... Another good book is the Advanced Fiddling Book by Craig Duncan. It does get pretty advanced but some of the tunes are more beginning and intermediate. Also not on Amazon from what I can see but I think it's through Mel Bay. Mel Bay's Complete Fiddling Book, also by Duncan (and available thru Amazon) has some good beginning to intermediate tunes but the video which must be ordered seperatly through Mel Bay doesn't have all that many of the 300 tunes in the book so if you want a recorded rendition this is a problem as only about 10% of the tunes are on the video. What it does have though is good. Again I can see how the other reviewers gave this Kentucky Fiddle Tunes book 5 stars because it's a nice package and a decent reference book but you better be into altered tunings quite a bit... Anyway there's no way I'd tell a friend it was anything above 2 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Kentucky Fiddling
Review: There are very few good compilations of fiddle tunes from various states. While there are excellent tunebooks from a range of fiddle traditions, it is also important to have great collections of good tunes from individual states and regions. This book is an important addition to the research on fiddling traditions that comprise an important part of American folk music. The introductory materials in the book provide a fine understanding of the background of fiddle traditions in Kentucky. Titon then presents the transcriptions of dozens of great tunes, and the book includes an audio CD to help provide a better understanding of old-time fiddling in Kentucky. Highly recommended for fiddlers and old-time music fans.

Rating:
Summary: Kentucky Fiddling
Review: There are very few good compilations of fiddle tunes from various states. While there are excellent tunebooks from a range of fiddle traditions, it is also important to have great collections of good tunes from individual states and regions. This book is an important addition to the research on fiddling traditions that comprise an important part of American folk music. The introductory materials in the book provide a fine understanding of the background of fiddle traditions in Kentucky. Titon then presents the transcriptions of dozens of great tunes, and the book includes an audio CD to help provide a better understanding of old-time fiddling in Kentucky. Highly recommended for fiddlers and old-time music fans.

Rating:
Summary: Tunes and History
Review: Titon's book is an excellent compilation of fiddle tunes from Kentucky. After introductory material that places his scholarship within the history of research on old-time fiddling, Titon focuses on the transcriptions of 170 tunes that are either unique to Kentucky or else characteristic of Kentucky fiddling styles. The tunes are transcribed in clear, accessible, and accurate musical notation. He includes transcriptions of older recordings made decades ago as well as transcriptions of recent field recordings. The tunes are from the repertoires of numerous players, and the transcriptions should thus be very useful in comparing individual techniques. They also will add to the store of tunes that fiddlers can play. Titon includes discographic and historical information on each tune, thereby adding to the usefulness of his study of Kentucky fiddling. I also appreciated the biographical information and photographs of the various fiddlers, and listening to the accompanying CD warmed the written notes on the cold, printed page. The book has a terrific bibliography for those interested in additional research on fiddling, and I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in folk music, folklorists' scholarship, and Kentucky history. My only critique of the book is that Titon could have included more information about the style of fiddling used in each tune. Simply discussing bowing techniques, tempo, and ornamentation for various tunes within the pages where they were transcribed would have helped round out the excellent treatment of Kentucky fiddling.