Musical Links

Personal Favourites



Traditional Music Sources

Mostly sources of on-line Fiddle/Traditional sheet music, in either .ABC, .ly, .midi or graphical format (such as .gif, .png or .pdf).


  • The Session Tunes - my usual starting point for musical research.
  • The Traditional Tune Archive (formerly "The Fiddler's Companion")("A Descriptive Index of North American and British Isles Music for the Folk Violin and Other Instruments.") - another key resource;
  • "Since 1996 the Fiddler's Companion has been a popular internet resource for those interested in the body of traditional music usually associated with the violin, generically called 'fiddle tunes'. Primarily dance music, the genre also encompasses listening music and music written for specific occasions. The Fiddler's Companion is used by musicians, investigators and writers as a research aide, a source for information and lore, for general interest and just for the fun of browsing."

    "Indexing began in 1987 and continues through the present, and is the sole work of the editor and identified contributors and sources."

  • The "Digital Tradition" is a feature of the Mudcat Cafe - it is an online searchable database of Lyrics and "Knowledge" of Folksongs, also available as a downloadable executable and database. I mention it here because the "knowledge" part of the equation is quite extensive, and the website includes a set of Forums for discussion which are quite busy. Of special interest is the "Songs you thought were trad" forum, where I found out, for instance, that Redwing is not "trad", and that the "Happy Birthday" song is still in copyright (according to Warner Music, until about 2030..., although see here; http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/warner-music-pays-14-million-863120. Also note that because the database is transportable, it is available as mirrors, including the Yet Another Digital Tradition Page, which also includes ABC files (at least for some songs).
  • The Max Hunter Collection is an archive of almost 1600 Ozark Mountain folk songs, recorded between 1956 and 1976.
  • irishtune.info Irish Traditional Music Tune Index -
    "This non-profit site aims to be especially useful for both experienced and novice players of traditional Irish music as well as for musicologists. It appears to be unique in the world for its coverage of recorded sources of Irish traditional music."
  • JC's ABC Tune Match [tunefind] on trillian.mit.edu
  • Ceolas - claims that it "houses the largest online collection of information on celtic music, and has links to hundreds of related sites"
  • The Virtual Session hosted by BBC radio. Not really a source of sheet music in ABC or other transcribable format, but you can print the sheet music used therein...
  • Sheet Music from Canada's Past - by our very own Library and Archives Canada.
  • The ABC Notation Homepage