Some help or advice on learning to sight read, please ...

[Andyrondack]

So you want to play the melody of fiddle tunes and not just play chordal accompaniment all the time.
Get a list of some of the most commonly played tunes, unfortunately there can be different variations of the same tune but if you are lucky some variations played by your mates might be found on www.thesession.org , in which case your luck's in. Download the midi file and the notation. Play the midi file through a slow down app and learn to play it by ear, a phrase at a time in conjunction with studying the notation to double check you'r getting the correct notes, the correct rhythm should be apparent to you from listening to the recording .

NB To complicate matters the rhythm traditional players use does not always correspond to the rhythm of the notation. It's not unusual to simplify the notated rhythm to make it look less complicated on the page but that might not be the way the tune is traditionally played. You can only pick some things up by playing by ear along to a recording.

[Ralph124C41]

Originally Posted by Andyrondack

So you want to play the melody of fiddle tunes and not just play chordal accompaniment all the time.
Get a list of some of the most commonly played tunes, unfortunately there can be different variations of the same tune but if you are lucky some variations played by your mates might be found on www.thesession.org , in which case your luck's in. Download the midi file and the notation. Play the midi file through a slow down app and learn to play it by ear, a phrase at a time in conjunction with studying the notation to double check you'r getting the correct notes, the correct rhythm should be apparent to you from listening to the recording .

NB To complicate matters the rhythm traditional players use does not always correspond to the rhythm of the notation. It's not unusual to simplify the notated rhythm to make it look less complicated on the page but that might not be the way the tune is traditionally played. You can only pick some things up by playing by ear along to a recording.

Yes I'm familiar with that website but the sheer number of variations just stumps me. For example, the group does "Down by the Sally (or Salley) Gardens" in C and I've found no less than 38 versions of the song, most in D I think.

[Andyrondack]

Originally Posted by Ralph124C41

Yes I'm familiar with that website but the sheer number of variations just stumps me. For example, the group does "Down by the Sally (or Salley) Gardens" in C and I've found no less than 38 versions of the song, most in D I think.

Yes tell me about it, I hear many traditional songs played in clubs which don't resemble any notated version I can find.
But what you could do is get a digital recorder or just use your phone to record the groups version of Sally Gardens then use the recording as a reference to compare the versions on the Session site to find one that matches.

[leew3]

Originally Posted by Ralph124C41

Yes I'm familiar with that website but the sheer number of variations just stumps me. For example, the group does "Down by the Sally (or Salley) Gardens" in C and I've found no less than 38 versions of the song, most in D I think.

many traditional tunes are in D I believe for the fiddle and mandolin. As a mandolin player I appreciate it, but if you've learned it in C just capo up and you're good to go.