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yellowfiddler image Home The entry point for Old Time Tim's website
yellowfiddler image Abbots Langley Winter Acoustic Concerts News and info for our concert series.
yellowfiddler image Threadneedle England's sharpest ceilidh and barn dance band!!
yellowfiddler image Tappalachian The only Hertfordshire-based Appalachian Dance Team
yellowfiddler image Songs and Monologues what I wrote
redfiddler image Fiddle Music Collection of dance tunes composed by me and me mates
yellowfiddler image Tall Tales Stories collected over the years
yellowfiddler image The Knoll Historic connections of my home
yellowfiddler image Publications Buy it from here!
yellowfiddler image A song for Beds Herts and Bucks Web pages to accompany the CD of finalists from the Watford Folk Club Song competion of October 2012
yellowfiddler image Knowledge Management My personal views on this contentious subject
yellowfiddler image Links Connect to friends, aquaintances, and other places of interest.
yellowfiddler image Site History A log of changes to this site

"This is dance music - even if you are sitting on your backside listening to it - it is still dance music!"

  - This observation attributed to Gordon Potts - unless anyone knows better?

I get my greatest kicks ( well nearly! ) playing for dancers. Whether it's as part of a band for a ceilidh or barn dance, for a solo step dancer, for some precision Appalachian Cloggers, or a Morris Side, I just love the two-way thing that's going on.

Currently I play regularly in the string band which accompanies the Appalachian clogging team, "Tappalachian", though 1 have been playing mandolin or fiddle for dancing since about 1973 both as a member of a number of bands and for several dance teams. Click on their names on the right to find out more.

Session Etiquette:

The text of my article "The Unwritten Rules of the Traditional Music Session" originally published in "The Living Tradition" in 2003.

American 'Old-Time' Fiddle Tunes:

By popular request, to support some of the workshops that I run, I have also created a page of Old Time Tunes played slowly and clearly as a source for other musicians

Click here to get to the Barebones Old Time Fiddle Tunes page

Click here to download a pdf document of Chord charts for some popular old-time tunes


Not just American though - Follow the links below for some great dance tunes in a variety of styles

composed by some very talented friends, and a few by me.

"Stealing Thyme" notation or midi file or abc file - I made up this slip-jig over 30 years ago - it's based loosely on the melody of the traditional song 'Thyme'. I usually sandwich it between "The Splashing of the Churn" and the Peacock followed the Hen" The second change is a corker!

"The Lobster" notation or midi file - a 16 bar hornpipe written by Mick Pearce - guitarist with The Rose and Shamrock band

"Jaybird Died of the Whooping Cough" notation or midi file - 32 bar traditional American reel. This is my current fave traditional old time tune.

"A Cup of Tea" notation or midi and "A Piece of Cake" notation or midi . Two very danceable 48 bar jigs by Bruce Warburton, one time Melodeon player with Grand Union Morris, Lord Pagets Morris, and Alberts Last Dance - a ceilidh band from way back when. If anyone has any info about Alberts Last Dance ( dates, members, etc) I would be interested to hear from you. Here is an alternative midi version of these two tunes as a medley, coded by Roger (Gadge) Colwell. This is nearer to how Happenstance used to play it, than my plainer versions although it morphed somewhat as the successive influences of Bruce himself, Andy Cutting, Ian Murfitt, and finally Paul Scourfield each got applied to the tune!

"Abbots Road" notation or abc file for a 3 part 4-bar 3/2 Hornpipe written by Tim Brooks. At the time I put this together we had heard about the imminent publication of a book by John Offord called "Johnny of the Greeny Cheshire Way", which was to include a large number of 3/2 Hornpipes. At that time, being ignorant of what a 3/2 Hornpipe rhythm sounded like, I made one up to find out. Originally this tune had two parts, but Lesley suggested a third part which fitted very well. This tune could be arranged AA-BB-CC or AA-B-C-B-C but I normally play AA-B-C, which is how the tablature and this midi file are arranged. You can play it however you wish!

Incidentally abc transcriptions of many of the tunes from "Johnny of the Greeny Cheshire Way" can be found here

"Granny Does your Dog Bite?" notation - for a 64 bar American reel/polka arranged by Tim Brooks

"Dumas' Duel " notation or midi file - a 32 bar jig written by Geoff Drage
Geoff was once a member of both Herga Morris and of The Rose and Shamrock Band. Geoff wrote this tune specifically to be used for a new Morris Dance "The Three Musketeers", which was one of a group of dances introduced at Festival workshops by Roy Dommit, fitting a specific sticking pattern he had devised to a variety of morris "traditions" and teaching them to a number of different dance sides over a period of time. In Herga's case we used it as a new "Ascot under Wytchwood" dance. As a consequence of Roy's work variants of this dance now crop up all over the place in the styles of many different traditions, frequently under the more common name of "Skirmish".

To Come

Sorry! The rest of these tunes are in various states of preparation, so no use clicking on them yet - as soon as the media have been prepared and appropriate permissions have been obtained their links will be activated and they will be moved to above this comment


Something Else - A 32 bar American reel/Polka by Tim Brooks
A Ream of Double Elephant - A Brilliant 32 bar hornpipe by Andy Cutting
Flash Monk - 32 bar 3/2 hornpipe by Andy Cutting - written to pair with.Abbots Road

Past and present musical associations include:

Ceilidh Bands

Threadneedle 2016 - ..... - England' sharpest ceilidh and barn dance band

The Gallows Hillbillies 2008 - 2016 - rebranded as Threadneedle - the music continues!

Strung Up 2006 - ..... - Occasional Barn-Dances with other musicians from the Haddenham Hoofers band

Gizmo 1995-1996

Happenstance 1986-1995

The Rose and Shamrock Ceilidh band 1979-1986

Puddleduck 1973 - 1979

Dance Teams

Herga Morris

Haddenham Hoofers

Tappalachian

Rockhopper

Pirton Appalachian Clog Workshops

Dancers

Kerry Fletcher

Wendy and Paul Morton

Recommended Listening

Bob Carlin - "Banging and Sawing"