The Short History of Granger's Fiddle Tunes for Guitar
After getting bitten by the flatpicking bug in the sixties, I devoured what little educational material there was, then started learning stuff by ear. When I went to work on A Prairie Home Companion, I found an environment where I was constantly encouraged - required, actually - to learn new fiddle tunes, tunes of all sorts and styles. As I learned these wonderful old-time, bluegrass, French-Canadian, Scandinavian and Irish tunes I would often think, "Gee, what a shame there isn't a big book of these tunes in guitar tablature for us flatpickers who never learned to read music." This persistent thought finally jelled into the first edition of Granger's Fiddle Tunes for Guitar.
That first effort, written and printed in the most rustic of manners, was nonetheless well-received. It was not, however, without its flaws, some of them systemic (as with the 4/4 time 16-note-per-measure format - which made it very difficult to track and to decipher timing), and some of them individual (as with the switching of the titles for the tunes Irish Washerwoman and Joy of My Life.)
Over the next decade and a half I absorbed criticism (always very graciously and with consummate maturity, of course) and gained more wisdom as a musician and teacher. I also learned many of the tunes in the book which I hadn't really known earlier, and, in so doing, found a number of changes that would greatly improve a second edition. Many tunes originally presented in open (uncapoed) A, for example, are more playable in a G position capoed on the second fret. Conversely, some of the D tunes I presented in a capoed C position on the second fret worked better on open (uncapoed) D. I also found a whole slew of new alternate titles for the tunes, bringing the total number of titles in Granger's Fiddle Tunes for Guitar to over a thousand.
By the time the second edition was more than a gleam in my eye, I had climbed so thoroughly over and through the original five hundred tunes that I was able to re-present them in a highly-playable and error-free format. I am very proud of the second edition of Granger's Fiddle Tunes for Guitar.
That first effort, written and printed in the most rustic of manners, was nonetheless well-received. It was not, however, without its flaws, some of them systemic (as with the 4/4 time 16-note-per-measure format - which made it very difficult to track and to decipher timing), and some of them individual (as with the switching of the titles for the tunes Irish Washerwoman and Joy of My Life.)
Over the next decade and a half I absorbed criticism (always very graciously and with consummate maturity, of course) and gained more wisdom as a musician and teacher. I also learned many of the tunes in the book which I hadn't really known earlier, and, in so doing, found a number of changes that would greatly improve a second edition. Many tunes originally presented in open (uncapoed) A, for example, are more playable in a G position capoed on the second fret. Conversely, some of the D tunes I presented in a capoed C position on the second fret worked better on open (uncapoed) D. I also found a whole slew of new alternate titles for the tunes, bringing the total number of titles in Granger's Fiddle Tunes for Guitar to over a thousand.
By the time the second edition was more than a gleam in my eye, I had climbed so thoroughly over and through the original five hundred tunes that I was able to re-present them in a highly-playable and error-free format. I am very proud of the second edition of Granger's Fiddle Tunes for Guitar.
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