At the end is also the 18th century tunebook of William Clarke of Feltwell which I did not
create or transcribe, but have 'tidied' somewhat from the original transcription for modern playability - see the notes below.
Newsflash - 2013 Edition of the Session Tunebook now released!
More tunes (453), but now only £7.00 (+p&p) to buy printed and bound from Lulu!
Paul Hardy's tunebooks contain tunes that I have learned (or am learning!) to play on my English concertina.
They should also be playable on other folk melody instruments such as fiddle,
whistle, flute, mandolin or dulcimer.
Most are traditional tunes from the British Isles, many of Celtic origin, including many Irish
dance tunes, but others are from an eclectic mix of sources.
Some have been adapted from Internet resources, in abc, midi or visual score formats.
Others have been learned by ear or handouts from various sessions in the UK and US.
All are believed free of current copyright (unless noted explicitly), or else appear to have been
placed in the public domain as part of the ongoing live folk music tradition. Please let me know
if you are the owner of any that are under access restrictions and I'll remove them.
I have included guitar chords,
often based on computer generated ones - use these as guidance, not definitive! I have tried to present simple versions of most tunes, without much decoration and interpretation,
so add your own triplets, grace notes and variations.
The tunebooks have been prepared using the abcm2ps software, with help from abc2midi, abcmus, Melody Assistant,
ABCexplorer, and EasyABC. A big thank you goes to those creative and dedicated people who give their time to
create and maintain low-cost or free and open source software for abc music editing and output.
The mechanism I use is described further in my tunebook processs page.
Particular thanks also go to Greenshoots (www.greenshootsmusic.org.uk) for the slow sessions near
Cambridge in England that let me learn many of these tunes; the Chiltinas concertina group near Bedford in England
that gave me playing confidence and concertina technique; the Ceili House Band in Redlands in California that
opened my eyes and ears to the range of Irish music; to the Celtic jam sessions at Green Valley Lake in
the nearby San Bernadino Mountains that broadened my repertoire; and the Ceol Galore young
musician practice sessions in my home village of Comberton that are carrying traditional music forward
to the next generation.
Paul Hardy's tunebooks are all Copyright Paul Hardy, 2004-2013, and are licensed under a Creative Commons
"Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike" cc by-nc-sa licence, which lets you use them pretty freely as
long as you acknowledge origin. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/.
Contact Paul Hardy for commercial licensing terms.
This tunebook contains over 450 tunes that I have learned to play on my English concertina,
that are played at local folk music sessions, particularly in the areas around Cambridge, England,
and Redlands, California where I have lived. The tunes are available in several forms:
A print-on-demand orderable hardcopy, from Lulu.com for if you do not have access to a suitable printer,
or if you prefer a professionally printed and spiral bound copy.
An Adobe Acrobat PDF file with several tunes per page - this is probably what you want if you have a good printer yourself.
This contains Christmas tunes and carols that I play on my English concertina. Revised 2012 has same tunes, but some layout corrections and better chords.
The tunes are available as:
Newsflash - 2012 Edition of the Xmas Tunebook now released!
Better chords, but now price reduced - only £3.99 (+p&p) to buy printed and bound from Lulu!
William Clarke of Feltwell was an East Anglian country musician of the 1820s-1850s, probably superintendent registrar of the workhouse at Thetford in Norfolk.
The manuscript of his personal tunebook came into the possession of Lyn and Peter Law of Chester several years ago.
The contents have been transcribed into abc format by Mary Humphreys, Lyn Law, David Dolby, and Anahata. The master version is available for download at Mary's website - see http://www.maryhumphreys.co.uk/William_Clarke.php.
This version of October 2011 includes tidies and corrections by Paul Hardy (www.pghardy.net).
The tunes are available as:
An Adobe Acrobat PDF file with several tunes per page - this is probably what you want if you have a good printer yourself.
An abc file for use in computer music programs - for information on abc, see the
ABC resources page.
Also available is a text file of changes that I made to the abc to make it more readable, and useable in a range of abc-reading software.
I also have a private area which is password protected, in which I store work in progress and private material.
The Parts Tunebook and the Solo Tunebook which were here, have moved to the private area.
