Musical Links
Personal Favourites
- The Ottawa Folklore Centre - aside from at our performances, the only place you can buy our CDs. The OFC is a fixture in the Ottawa folk music scene, with friendly, helpful staff and a wealth of folk instruments found nowhere else in the capital area. Bodhrans, Djembes, Shakers and other hand-held percussion, Guitars (electric and acoustic), Mandolins, Bouzoukis, Banjos, Dulcimers, Banduras, Lutes, Harps, Fiddles, Whistles, Bagpipes, to name a few, as well as strings and cases galore. Lessons and Workshops fill out the bill - check out their website!
- Atlantic Voices, the Newfoundland and Labrador Choir of Ottawa Where the Fumblin' Fingers started.
- Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers - an actual buddy of some of the band members, Kevin and the B'ys are a treat to the ears of NLAs (Newfoundlanders Living Away), as well as Newfie wannabes and anyone who appreciates a good time. Side-splitting comedy mixed with authentic east coast roots music - see them in concert if you can.
- Corkery Road - a fine local Celtic Roots band.
- Fiddle Farmers - Everything you always wanted to know about fiddling but were afraid to ask.
- Greg Dahms http://www.gregdahms.ca/index.html (a local "archetier" or bow (as in fiddle bow) maker) has a website with Music Resources, including a variety of tunes in ABC format.
- Domenic's Music
- guitarnoise.com Free on-line guitar lessons.
Traditional Music Sources
Mostly sources of on-line Fiddle/Traditional sheet music, in either .ABC, .ly, .midi or graphical format (such as .gif, .png or .pdf).
- The Session Tunes - my usual starting point for musical research.
- The Fiddler's Companion ("A Descriptive Index of North American and British Isles Music for the Folk Violin and Other Instruments.") - another key resource;
- The "Digital Tradition" is a feature of the Mudcat Cafe - it is an online searchable database of Lyrics and "Knowledge" of Folksongs, also available as a downloadable executable and database. I mention it here because the "knowledge" part of the equation is quite extensive, and the website includes a set of Forums for discussion which are quite busy. Of special interest is the "Songs you thought were trad" forum, where I found out, for instance, that Redwing is not "trad", and that the "Happy Birthday" song is still in copyright (until about 2030...). Also note that because the database is transportable, it is available as mirrors, including the Yet Another Digital Tradition Page, which also includes ABC files (at least for some songs).
- The Max Hunter Collection is an archive of almost 1600 Ozark Mountain folk songs, recorded between 1956 and 1976.
- irishtune.info Irish
Traditional Music Tune Index -
"This non-profit site aims to be especially useful for both experienced and novice players of traditional Irish music as well as for musicologists. It appears to be unique in the world for its coverage of recorded sources of Irish traditional music."
- JC's ABC Tune Match [tunefind] on trillian.mit.edu
- Ceolas - claims that it "houses the largest online collection of information on celtic music, and has links to hundreds of related sites"
- The Virtual Session hosted by BBC radio. Not really a source of sheet music in ABC or other transcribable format, but you can print the sheet music used therein...
- Sheet Music from Canada's Past - by our very own Library and Archives Canada.
- The ABC Music Homepage
"Since 1996 the Fiddler's Companion has been a popular internet resource for those interested in the body of traditional music usually associated with the violin, generically called 'fiddle tunes'. Primarily dance music, the genre also encompasses listening music and music written for specific occasions. The Fiddler's Companion is used by musicians, investigators and writers as a research aide, a source for information and lore, for general interest and just for the fun of browsing."
"Indexing began in 1987 and continues through the present, and is the sole work of the editor and identified contributors and sources."