Fellow Musical Travellers
Riddell fiddles – have a good selection of popular Scottish fiddle tunes in sheet music, mp3 and ABC formats. Well organised in terms of difficulty of playing and with a site search engine.
Inverness Fiddlers – have been going strong for over 35 years playing concerts and ceilidhs throughout the Highlands. Visiting Fiddlers are always welcome.
The Border Strathspey & Reel Society – are comprised of fiddlers, pianists, accordionists, cellists, base players, flautists, pipers and drummers and are happy to bring in anyone with an instrument and an interest.
Resources
Bob Dougan Violin Restorations – Bob has been a member and supporter of GFW for many years. He can be found most Wednesdays giving help and advice on instruments and related matters to GFW members.
Nigel Gatherer’s Traditional Music Site – This site reflects Nigel’s lifetime involvement and love of Scottish traditional music. It includes an extensive range of sound files, tunes in standard notation, TAB and ABC, as well as mandolin and whistle tutorials.
The following sites are all useful for finding traditional tunes in various formats:
Learning
abc notation home page – extensive web site with tunes, tutorials and software. Best to go here if you already know about ABC. If you don’t try the following sites:
How to understand abc (the basics) – very clear introduction by Chris Walshaw, the inventor of ABC notation.
How to interpret abc music notation – a basic guide to learning ABC notation
Beginner Violin Tips – well organised text based site including material or reading sheet music and rhythm.
StrumPatterns.com – for guitar strumming, mandolin strumming, ukulele strumming, banjo strumming. The site has a large number of sound files demonstrating different rhythms and time signatures.
Learn Traditional Irish Music on Guitar – over 70 lessons in the form of podcasts.
Tuition
The Islay Inn – Join the rest of the the GFW crew on Monday nights after classes or go to one of the other music nights. The drink’s not bad either.
Very Slow Session – now moved to the Islay Inn – Standard session tunes played slowly to encourage early stage players. All instruments and levels welcome. See GFW Sessions for more info on all sessions and tunes.