Fiddle Tunes Workshop
With
Martin Gilmore
Welcome!
This page contains the materials from my fiddle tune workshop, including tablature, practice recordings, and additional resources to help you learn and retain the tunes we covered. My goal is not simply to help you memorize a few melodies, but to develop the skills and habits that will make it easier to learn tunes by ear, play with other musicians, and build a repertoire you can carry into jams and performances.
Feel free to work through these materials at your own pace. Learning fiddle tunes is a long-term process, and a tune often reveals new details each time you return to it. I hope these resources help you continue the journey long after the workshop is over.
Happy picking,
Martin Gilmore
Learning Strategy
- Learn the A part first. Go phrase by phrase.
- Play it from memory.
- Learn the B part. Go phrase by phrase
- Play it from memory.
- Learn and memorize the chord progression.
- Play the tune slowly with a metronome, over and over again.
- Increase speed only after the tune feels comfortable.
Don't just learn the notes, listen to the tradition. Spend time listening to folks like Kenny Baker, Bobby Hicks, Norman Blake, and Tommy Jarrell. The goal isn't to copy them exactly, but to absorb the phrasing, timing, and feel that make fiddle tunes come alive. A few hours of listening can often teach more than a few hours of practice.
Suggested Listening!
Essential Listening
Kenny Baker
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Kenny Baker Plays Bill Monroe
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Master Fiddler
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Anything with Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass.
The bluegrass fiddle should sound like Kenny Baker. Learn his groove and sense of timing.
Bobby Hicks
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Texas Crapshooter
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Recordings with Ricky Skaggs
Stuart Duncan
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Stuart Duncan
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Recordings with the Nashville Bluegrass Band
Essential Tune Albums
Norman Blake
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Whiskey Before Breakfast
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The Fields of November
Norman's recordings are often slower and clearer than modern bluegrass versions, making them ideal for learning tunes.
Blake & Rice
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Blake & Rice
A gold mine of fiddle tunes and tune-based guitar playing.
David Grisman Quintet
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Hot Dawg
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The David Grisman Rounder Album
For students interested in expanding beyond straight bluegrass.
Old-Time Foundations
Tommy Jarrell
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Sail Away Ladies
The Skillet Lickers
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Early recordings
These will help you understand where many fiddle tunes came from before bluegrass.
Tunes Every Student Should Know
Recommend listening to multiple versions of:
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Soldier's Joy
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Bill Cheatham
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Whiskey Before Breakfast
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Red Haired Boy
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Old Joe Clark
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Arkansas Traveler
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Liberty
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St. Anne's Reel
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Salt Creek
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Angeline the Baker
Modern Masters
Bryan Sutton
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Ready to Go
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Not Too Far From the Tree
Perhaps the finest modern interpreter of fiddle tunes on guitar.
Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway
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Excellent examples of contemporary bluegrass rhythm and tune playing.