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English Session Tunes?


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It's long past time for a tunebook of popular English session tunes with tablature for concertina - specifically for C/G Anglos who want to play in the more standard session keys of G and D.

 

What are some of the "must have" tunes that need to be included?

 

The tunes so far: Albert Farmer’s Bonfire Tune, Banbury Bill, Banks of the Dee, Beatrice Hill’s Three-Handed Reel, Bonny Kate, Captain Lanoe’s Quick March, Clee Hill, Curly-Headed Ploughboy, Dorset Four Hand Reel, Down the Road, Enrico, Galopede, Harper's Frolic, Huntsmans' Chorus, Lemmy Brazil's No.2, Little Diamond, Michael Turner's Waltz, Oyster Girl, The Quaker, The Roman Wall, The Rose Tree, The Seven Stars, The Sloe, Smash the Windows, Three Around Three, Tip Top Polka, Walter Bulwer's Polka No. 1, Walter Bulwer's Polka No. 2, Young May Moon.

 

Thanks!

 

Gary

 

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Apolgies if some of these tunes have already been mentioned.

 

In Kent, there are 3 tunes often played as a set: Jamie Allen, Rigs of Marlow (AKA Rakes of Mallow), The girl I left behind me (AKA Brighton camp).

 

Others that spring to mind:

Ashokan farewell

Planxty Irwin and Planxty Fanny Power

Canal in October

Sussex cottillion

Trumpet hornpipe (AKA Captain Pugwash)

Wals voor Polle

Margaret's waltz

 

Add in many of the tunes in the Northumbrian pipers' tune books and Fiddlers' tune books.

 

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5 hours ago, Paul Draper said:

Well they may get played in English sessions but most of those others are not English!😏

I was using the definition of tunes that get played in English sessions.

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we also play Man in the Moon, Old Kiss My Lady, Uncle's jig/Ty a Gaard a lot.

 

There are two existing collections that already cover a lot of ground of 2024 "in" tunes: Paul Hardy's Tunebook and the Unexpected Polka. 

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Paul Hardy's 2024 edition only has 699 tunes, and the 4 Mallinson books only have 404 tunes...

 

The problem is, I have a bookcase full of tunebooks, but need to distill all that down to a reasonable number of most common session tunes to put into Anglo tablature. I wish I could do them all ("and it would be a shame not to try"), but I'm hoping for something between 50 and 100 for this current project.

 

So, this is everyone's chance to propose their local session favorites. And who knows, it could turn into Vol. 1, Vol. 2, etc. since there are plenty of wonderful tunes to choose from!

 

Gary

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I understand, John. As Gary points out, the space in a book is limited and it seems a pity to include non-English tunes at the expense of English tunes. For myself, I've played Irish music for years on a DG melodeon and regularly play at an Irish session where a surprising amount of English music is played, along with Scottish, north American and Scandanavian, I've even played a few French sets there but don't get many joiners.

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19 hours ago, RAc said:

There are two existing collections... Paul Hardy's Tunebook... 

My thought when I first saw this thread. Paul Hardy's Session Tune Book is one of the best resources available on t'internet and it's easy enough to add basic concertina tablature to the tunes...

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