Welcome to Zuppardi’s Old Time Collection!
Welcome to Zuppardi’s Old Time Collection! The tune versions presented here should be viewed as the building blocks of melody, and are hopefully satisfying enough to play as written, but with plenty of room for variation and embellishment as you see fit. The selections are presented in both standard notation and tablature, but as ever, there’s no substitute to learning these tunes by ear, and an accompanying YouTube playlist (see below) will give you an opportunity to learn these tunes as intended, without the distraction of fiddly dots, lines and numbers.
A note on the Second Edition: Other than the groundbreaking addition of page numbers, this second edition also features an additional section featuring tunes in the key of C, which is a more uncommon key in the old time tradition. I’ve also included words to a few of the tunes, but rest assured singing is not necessary to play and enjoy these melodies! As ever, keep an eye on key signatures unless otherwise indicated. Old Time tunes often feature what we call modes, which lend tunes an evocative sound somewhere between a happy major and more brooding minor. In this version June Apple, Cluck Old Hen and Kitchen Girl feature some of these modal variations in the key of A. Whilst the key signature might indicate D or G, these are the ‘parent’ keys, but the tunes revolve around A as the root.
Banjo Videos coming soon
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