Tune Index and Practice Tracks
Looking for a tune?
The tables below show all tunes in all sets, sorted alphabetically by tune name; by key; or by type. Change the index sorting by selecting a tab at the bottom of the table. The tables cannot be edited or re-sorted, or downloaded. Scroll the entire web page (outside the table) to get to the bottom of the table and select tabs. Scroll INSIDE the table to scroll the lists. Open the table in a new browser tab.
Learning a tune?
Learning to play a tune with Cape Breton styling can't be done by note reading alone! Listening to both older and modern fiddlers playing the tune will help you learn how to play a tune and make it sound "right". Fiddlers rarely play a tune the same way twice, so you will find that the recordings here may not match the PDF notation note for note. The goal is to hear the overall sound of the Cape Breton style applied to the particular tune.
Click the tune name in the table below to get a listing of known recordings of the tune played by Cape Breton artists.
Click the artist name in the table to listen to the tune as recorded on the listed album.
Click the album name to see what other tunes that artist plays in the same set.
Wondering what other tunes go well with the tune you are learning? Click the tune name, then follow links on Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index at cbfiddle.com to what other tunes have been recorded in the same track. The tune search feature on this website is a valuable resource if you are learning Cape Breton fiddle tunes.
Practice Makes Perfect!
The most important thing when learning tunes is practice, practice, practice. When playing by yourself it's hard to know when your intonation is off. Slow speed practice and backing tracks can help a lot when learning or perfecting new tunes. Technology helps a lot too, applications for computers and mobile devices such as the Amazing Slow Downer, Transcribe! etc. let you slow down or speed up mp3 recordings, loop sections of a tune or even transpose a tune to a different key. Some of our dedicated volunteers have been working on providing play-along tracks for some of our sets to help you learn tunes at home on your own. These tracks are all played at a very slow speed for learning, as you get more familiar with the tune you'll want to use some software to speed things up a bit, or switch to playing along with recordings from a CD. Most of the practice tracks have two versions, one with the melody and one with just the accompaniment backing track (guitar or fiddle). Click the button below to access the practice tracks.
Found a boo boo?
Mistakes happen! The audio recordings above were generated automatically and there are too many to be able to test them all. If you find one of the audio files is incorrect, or of terrible quality please report it so we can replace it with a better one. If you have suggestions for changes to the tables let us know at cbsession@cbsession.com.
NOTE: the sample recordings on this page are provided to assist in researching and learning the Cape Breton fiddle style and repertoire. The samples are excerpts from copyrighted recordings. The artists identified above have given permission for their recordings to be used in this manner. In some cases, where we haven't been able to contact the copyright holder the material is provided lawfully under the fair dealing exception in the Copyright Act of Canada.