Mel Bay Irish Fiddle Solos: 64 Pieces for Violin [Paperback]

Pete Cooper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2004

This collection includes many favourite Irish fiddle tunes. Some are easy to play, others more challenging. The bowing techniques, ornamentation and other aspects of playing style summarized in the introduction will be familiar to readers of Pete’s earlier book, the Complete Irish Fiddle Player, as will source musicians like Julia Clifford, Tommy Peoples, Lucy Farr, John Doherty and Padraig O’Keeffe. Here though, instead of proceeding in ‘fiddle method’ style from simpler to more complex tunes, regional repertoire and styles are explored. Grouped in sets for performance, the tunes from any one tradition can be of varying levels of difficulty. Less experienced players may find sets 5, 6 and 29, for example, quite approachable, as well as the first reel in set 14 and the second single jig in set 15. All tunes included on companion CD.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Born in the country near Stafford, England, Pete Cooper began playing the violin at the age of 9 and went on to study English at Belliol College, Oxford. He began his professional career as a fiddler and singer in 1978, performing in Britain, Europe, and the USA first with Appalachian dulcimer player, Holly Tannen, then with traditional singer, Peta Webb. Since the mid 1980s, Peter has concentrated his musical efforts on the study and teaching of folk fiddle styles. His first solo album, All Around the World (1990), released on his own label, Fiddling From Scratch, featured music from Ireland, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and the USA. His 1993 album, The Wounded Hussar, explores the rich diversity of the Irish tradition and includes many of the tunes in this book The Complete Irish Fiddle Player. Pete currently teaches in London and reviews for Musical Traditions and Folk Roots magazines. He has composed music for film and, in addition to solo gigs, performs with a group called Vivando whose 1995 release by the same name includes some of his own compositions.

Product Details

• Paperback: 56 pages
• Publisher: Mel Bay Publications, Inc. (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786627891
• ISBN-13: 978-0786627899
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 8.6 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #830,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Celtic music, May 24, 2007

By 

Mark L. Mintz (Knoxville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mel Bay Irish Fiddle Solos: 64 Pieces for Violin (Paperback)

Mel Bay does such a great job in providing quality instruction and background on this great type of music. The sections on embellishments are a great help in learning the true sound of Irish music. Great book for intermediate and more advanced musicians who may have grown up in the classical tradition and looking to broaden their horizons to Celtic music.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy-to-learn Fiddling, August 2, 2009

By 

Marcia McCarry "Singing Made Easy" (Livingston, MT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mel Bay Irish Fiddle Solos: 64 Pieces for Violin (Paperback)

This book is presented very well. There is some helpful instruction for the ornaments. Several pieces are put together as they are traditionally played and the CD is great.

8 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A ho-humm review, why did he do this?, February 20, 2005

By 

HoraceHorse "Wind&String" (Texas USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mel Bay Irish Fiddle Solos: 64 Pieces for Violin (Paperback)

Anybody with the slightest bit of experience in Irtrad ( Irish Traditional Dance Music ) would have known that there are several earlier and better books detailing the 'bowings' used among Irish Fiddlers; indeed Mr Cooper has extensively mined that material in order to shovel it on with his own English understanding of the Irish Tradition.

The best know antecedent to the Cooper offering is the Ossian Book "Irish Tradtional Music", which BTW, is mostly a collection of Sliabh Luachra tunes collected in Ireland by the classically trained Violinist and Pianist John Roche - an Irishman - way back before WW1. But OC Mel Bay or Mr Cooper would never want you the punter to know about that one. Heh!

The Roche Book, since it is to be replaced by a worse one IMO, does not have a CD with it, and no wonder! it's author died long before the age of recording. Cooper's book OTOH is oozing with schlick marketing bravado and Fiddling to match, such that the remote student is schlocked into dizzy befuddlement, and the must have switch is firmly jammed on. It sounds like a good come-on should, a little bit of this and a little bit of BS with bells on it to hide the lack of the other. Even if well done its a con.

If Mr Cooper could play Irtrad with any skill then it would be an interesting distraction to a talented student, if for no other reason than hearing an English Fiddler trying to play Irtrad. But no, that's not what we have here. We have a bully pulpit spreading a new gospel! 'The Oirish Fiddle be-Jazuz'.

His playing to say the least is terrible, not merely horrible, and the best thing you could do with his CD, is make a coaster of it before you are turned into a Stafford Fiddler.

The settings OTOH, like an earlier offering on Coleman by some English Professor, are imaginative and distractingly silly. If it was that easy to play like Murphy or his peers then we should have had thousands like them and not be looking for rare recordings of genius so that we might hear just one more jem played by a master.

If you must buy a Book to learn from, then this one is no better and certainly worse than others already out there. The best of these is by Matt Cranitch and it too provides an accompanying CD with the tutored tunes on it> These played through slowly and then at normal tempo.

The Irish Fiddle Book: The Art of Traditional Fiddle-Playing (Book & CD)

Matt,OC, is an Irish Fiddler who grew up and learned Irtrad in Ireland, so his settings are robust and realistic thus lacking the silliness evident in Mr Cooper's offering.


Caveat emptor