Customer Reviews

The Portland Collection: Contra Dance Music in the Pacific Northwest

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After the "Fiddler's Fakebook" this is the tune collection to own. Hundreds of reels and jigs in clear notation with, usually, good chord suggestions. Little, if any, overlap with the tunes in the FF. Very durable spiral binding, sits easy on a stand or table. Includes many recently composed tunes including my favorite, Erik Sessions' "It Ain't the Heat, It's the Humidity." Many hours of playing pleasure, fast becoming a standard collection.

If you are looking to purchase a fiddle book, this is definitely the best one to buy. This book contains about 400 tunes and the quality of the tunes is fantastic. Every single tune in this book sounds great and can be ornamentated dozens of ways with plenty of room to make the tune your own. One of the best features of this book is the spiral binding. The binding is great because you don't have to constantly bend your book to get it to stay open on the stand. Another great feature is that the book is organized alphabetically so you can find your tune quickley during a jam. There is also an index which organizes the tunes by key and type which makes it really easy to come up with your own sets. There are even detailed notes on each song. Some of the notes even give suggestions on how to add some ornamentation to the tune.

Overall, this book is great, but there are two things which are worth noting.
-The pages are quite thin and could tear easily.
-The book is very thick but it's only about 8.5 inches tall. This could make it difficult for people with weak eyesight to see some of the tunes.

While the fiddler's fakebook has a greater quantity of songs, this particular collection has consistent quality of songs chosen. There are so many great tunes in here, jamming out would not be quite the same without it. My personal favorite is "Lady of the Lake". Yes, I know there are two of them... but they're both good! Go figure.

A great source of tunes, I had heard about this book from a few friends. Add this to the Fiddlers Fakebook and you will have plenty to keep yourself busy.

This book is THE bible for contra musicians in the Western US. Its form factor is VERY pleasing, especially compared to some other, similar works. Nice and easy to use and read.

This is a strong collection of tunes with both melodies and chords included so that an advanced novice guitar player could accompany and fill out the sound. Songs are included in both 4/4 and 6/8, so the rhythms and tunes overall are more diverse and interesting than just standard "old-timey" fiddle tunes. While the collection was compiled for contra dancing, they make for charming ensemble pieces that work well at a variety of tempos. I had a few played at my wedding with a mandolin, penny whistle and guitar, and we were all under the spell of love and good music!

For me this was not a particularly good book. Probably well written, but not helpful for me.