How it started
While leaning the 5 string banjo in finger picking bluegrass style I became interested in playing a wide variety of tunes. However, I ran into various problems with this. The tunes I was interested in were mostly American traditional pieces that had become popular in bluegrass and old-time music circles. First I had problems tracking down any kind of music for many of these. Some were available in tablature form, only trouble was, I found I could not get on with tab. With most tab, not only do you have to struggle with a tune you don't know, but you are also supposed to play it in the style dictated by the tab - the style favoured by the writer of the tab who is probably a very expert player. Occasionally one would come across tab that gives only the main melody notes so allowing you to do your own thing for the rest of the bar, this is the type I favour and the tab you will find on this site is this melody only style.
LEARNING BY EAR and SIGHT READING
What seemed to work best for me was a combination of by-ear and a standard music score to help me find the right notes more easily. Those not familiar with bluegrass banjo might say "why not just sight read from a score?". Well this would be possible with some banjo styles but the bluegrass style usually involves splitting each bar into 8 note rolls, and at the same time some how fitting some appropriate melody notes at the right point in the bar, and this does not really lend itself to sight reading. In fact most of the bluegrass musicians I know do not read music much at all, and learn everything by ear.
This by-ear method also has problems, as finding a suitable recording to learn from can also be difficult. Many recordings are very stylised, so that figuring out what is the tune, and what is the style, can be a problem. Then there is the matter of "not quite on key recordings" requiring annoying instrument re tunes, and the often breakneck speeds on recordings.
As I was working in the computer field I though it worth while to see if applying some computer technology might help with learning tunes. I found it worked well and set out to put together my own traditional music library. Firstly this was to cover bluegrass and oldtimey (these being my favourites), but also to eventually cover a whole range of folk and traditional music.
The bluegrass collection was the first part to go on-line, followed by sections for Oldtimey, Session tunes, Irish, Scottish, Stephen Foster songs, cowboy songs, bawdy songs, folk songs popular in the 60's, well known traditional tunes, and Christmas carols. Since I started around 6 years ago the site has grown "organically" and now has more than 30,000 files - hence you will find some old dusty neglected parts of the site in need of modernising - this is getting done but I tend to give precedence to adding new stuff.
THE MIDI MUSIC
Mostly I have provided a simple chord and bass line backing on the right channel and the melody on the left so you can set your balance control to suit your needs. Everything has been kept as simple as possible and I have chosen simpler versions of the tunes where options were available. In a few cases you will find more than one version of a tune where for some reason I felt this desirable.
KEEPING IT RUNNING
This on-line Traditional Music Library project started as just a minor hobby, costing nothing but my time, and using just the free web space provided by my ISP. However, somehow it got out of hand and kept growing, and encouraged by lot of positive feed back from users I took the plunge and got it a proper domain name and more expensive hosting. This is a labour of love and not a commercial enterprise - I hate to think how many 1000s of hours have gone into it - but I do need to try and offset my expenses somewhat hence the adverts and the fact that I do sell some "registered" versions.
It's a sad fact, that despite the huge growth of The Internet, the number of websites actually providing real content, is I think, if anything, reducing. Anyway, my object is to provide you with yet more useful content, and I have several projects lined up for the coming year. These new items like most of my content will be free, so please don't begrudge me the few chargeable items, and the adverts.
ADVERTISING ON THIS SITE
I may occasionally accept paid advertising for appropriate products and services, for more information please email to, "rod smith at rod smith .org .uk" (reformat as needed remove spaces in name etc). I have a page here which outlines terms & conditions for acceptance.
USING MIDI & GRAPHICS FILES FROM THIS SITE
Website owners are granted a free licence to use midi files and graphics files from this site on their personal websites providing an acknowledgement of source is given (one for each item used) and a link to my home page is include on each page where one or more items is used. This invitation is only extended to sites with content suitable all the family.
Suggested sample code:
"Example" is used by permission of
<a href="http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk">Traditional Music Library</a>
DON'T BE OFFENDED - DISCLAIMER
Books and song lyrics tend to reflect the cultural values and attitudes of their time and circumstance. Some of the attitudes and values expressed fall short of what we would today consider acceptable, and the fact of the existence of such on this site should not be construed as agreement with any such views. Rather, you should consider this site as what it is, a library, so please don't shoot the librarian if you don't like what you find in the books.
COPYRIGHT
In general the materials on this site are provided for personal, non commercial, research and educational purposes. Some items e.g. books are covered by particular or public commons licensing. (see below)
To the best of my knowledge all the music included come under the traditional category and is out of copyright* or otherwise within the public domain category. My arrangements are intended to be generic, and do not represent the performance of any particular artist, band or version. The arrangements and midis are all my own work and my copyright. However, you are welcome to use these scores and midis to help with your personal music training and development, and you may pass them to your musician friends for their personal training purposes. I would also recommend that before using this material as the basis for any public performance or commercial exploitation you check the copyright status with HFA, BMI, ASCAP and similar agencies. The other lists and information on this site have been generated by me from my own researches, and is my copyright material.
BOOKS:
This site also includes many musical reference works, most of these are my OCR conversions of scanned image versions of PUBLIC DOMAIN status or out of copyright* books either from my own copies of the works or from various internet sources. Unfortunately, the scanning OCR process is far from perfect and I cannot guarantee them to be free from errors.
* The fact of items included on this site being out of copyright in the U.S.A. where this site is hosted does NOT mean they has the same status in other countries, you should check you local copyright laws before using these materials.
If you feel that any item on this site contravenes some copyright or has a similar problem with it, please email mail me with the details and I will remove it if applicable. However, I will require that you identify yourself properly to me, (name address phone etc) before I take any action.
FAMILY FRIENDLY CONTENT, ADVERTISING & PRIVACY POLICY
What standards of content and advertising to expect on this site.
My general policy is to provide only family suitable material that is related to traditional music. This is not usually too much of a problem, as most of the material originates from the 19th century, a time when, arguable, in many resects, moral standards were higher than today. However, some common cultural values of that era, particularly in the area of ethnicity, would be considered unacceptable by today's standards.
Another potential problem area is that of bawdy songs, the lyrics of some of which may be found offensive. These too are part of our musical and cultural heritage, albeit one you may not want to know about. Most of them will be found in the Bawdy Songs section of the library which is easy to avoid, but beware there are a few scattered among the 3700 or so song lyrics in the in the Traditional & Folk Songs - Lyrics collection. There may also be a few in the Traditional & Folk Songs With Lyrics & Midi Music collection. These last two collections each contain 3000+ songs and the bawdy content is only a handful.
In general, I hope you will consider this site as you might a regular library, there may be some books here that you don't like, but don't blame your librarian too much. If you find an item on this site that you really think is unsuitable, and has no redeeming academic or historical value, let me know about if and I will seriously consider removing it.
This site does take paid advertising, the revenue from which helps to pay for site expenses such as web hosting and domain rental. Unfortunately, the amounts earned are tiny, but they do make it possible for me to continue with this hobby site, whereas I would be tempted to give it up if I had to pay for it entirely from my small retirement income.
I also suspect that many other excellent hobby sites may be in the same situation.
Most of my adverts are from Google, who on the whole, serve relevant, appropriate and non-aggresive adverts.
If you do see any inappropriate advert on this site (one that is too pushy or you would not be happy to let your child or granny see) please let me know the URL of the offending advertiser and I will block them.
Sadly, increasing numbers of visitors to this and other good sites are choosing to block ALL adverts. It may be something you have never even thought about, but your decision in this affects not only you, the site visitor, the site ownere who has made the material available to you.
I like your content, but screw you !
By blocking adverts while browsing this site you are effectively saying "I like to read your content, but screw you"
Or perhaps you might think that a friendly sites like this, that provide good content, deserve support; if so, please allow us one of the very few sources of income open to us and don't block our ads.
This is your ethical choice; my "if you can read this message" banners are ONLY on this and the home page, so you can continue browsing the rest of the site blocking my ads with out annoyance from my messages if you so choose.
Causes of blocking.
If you can see a Google advert underneath the photo banner at the top of this page then you are NOT blocking adverts, if you see my text directing you to read this section then you are.
As well as using blocker software, sometimes the settings in your browser can cause it most commonly by having scripting turned of. By the way, many sites use menus that rely on JavaScript so turning it of will also give you navigation problems on such sites. Having accept cookies turned off complete will cause cause problems and will also prevent online purchasing and login on most secure sites.
In Internet Explorer setting your security and privacy to their default level provides enough security for safe browsing and won't generally cause you unwanted blocking. Go to Tools, Internet options then Security, then press the default button, do the same under the Privacy tag then click the apply button at the bottom to finish off. In Firefox go to Tools Options
Content and tick Enable Javascript, then under the privacy tab tick the Accept cookies box. To avoid collection to many cookies on your PC you might also choose the "Keep until I close Firefox" this will stop you being tracked by cookies but will still allow their functionality. When done click OK .
Privacy Policy
I do not collect information on visitors, I ONLY keep a record of persons purchasing any of my paid products and this only for accounting purposes. I do not do mass mailing neither do I pass such information to anyone else.
Asense Privacy Policy
Because this site uses Google Adsense I am required to include the following policies:
Google, as a third-party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on your site.We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and would like to know your options in relation to·not having this information used by these companies, click here.
You can find additional information in Appendix A of the NAI Self-Regulatory principles for publishers (PDF). Please note that the NAI may change this sample language at any time.