[.ca] The Fiddler's Fakebook (ISBN 0825602386)

The one to get!:
This is the tune book to get. It contains most of what is being played, and in the key and style and version you are most likely to hear it. Sure there are other tune books you will want, but this one will always be the core of your collection. I am on my second one, the first one got so weathered and beaten, and the binding eventually broke and fell away, and I carried the pages held together with a large binder clip for awhile, hesitating to buy a new one because I did not want to lose all the hand written notes I had scribbled. Ok ok, I also did not want others to see the shiny pages free of the coffee stains and sun dried water stains.

Fakebook Tunes (Including Reels):
Brody provides a good background on fiddling and fiddle tunes in this wonderful selection of music. The book appeals to fiddlers, and it also provides violinists interested in old-time tunes with sufficient resources to begin playing in styles different from classical music. The large selection of music provides great versions of mazurkas, waltzes, hoedowns, reels, jigs, hornpipes, airs, marches, and numerous other genres. Although the focus is on tunes commonly played by old-time fiddlers in the USA, the selection is international in scope, and the book includes tunes from Scotland, Ireland, America, Canada, and other countries. Each tune is annotated with a description of where the tune originated and a listing of various musicians who recorded the tune. These annotations will be especially helpful for musicians interested in the history of fiddling and for fans who wish to hear how the tunes sound prior to learning them from the printed page. The book should appeal to fiddlers of all skill levels; there are simple tunes for beginners as well as more numerous tunes that are a challenge more advanced players.

EXCELLENT!:
Great book-has info on each song - country of origin, style, albums including the song, etc... Easy to read notation including chords. A Must!

An indispensable resource!:
Printed in 1983, the Fakebook remains the undisputed champion of music references for fiddlers, and it's aided a fair number of other non-fiddlers as well. Inside its broad covers you'll find nearly 500 tunes from the various fiddle traditions. Jigs, reels, hornpipes, rags and breakdowns, each clearly labeled for origins (Irish, bluegrass, French-Canadian, old-time, etc.) and including a short list of recordings where the tune can be heard. Just flip it open randomly for a taste of its contents, and imagine the sound of tunes like "Haste to the Wedding," "Leather Britches," "The Munster Buttermilk," "Drowsy Maggie," "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," "Hanged Man's Reel" and "Great Big Taters in Sandy Land." Eight pages of textbook materials -- music theory, history and culture, style and genre -- give a wonderfully brief overview of the things you'd like to know without loading the book down with endless information which, frankly, can get in the way of the tunes and make it too bulky for carrying. Better still, the book is held together by a sturdy plastic binding which allows you to plop it down on your music stand with ease. There's nothing so frustrating as a music book with tight bindings which make it impossible to play straight from the page.

AWESOME:
This is the third and LAST "fakebook" I will buy. It should be called "the Fiddler's Realbook" While the other fakebooks are just that, this one actually uses sheet music rather than tab. Now I can play the tunes with any instrument, or any other musician (who can read sheet music) I very much recommend it.