Reddit reviews The Fiddler's Fakebook: The Ultimate Sourcebook For The Traditional Fiddler

We've had a lot of luck with this one: https://www.amazon.ca/Fiddlers-Fakebook-Ultimate-Sourcebook-Traditional/dp/0825602386

I've been trying my best to practice the fundamentals as much as possible. Practicing scales slowly and making sure I'm in tune. I check my intonation against the open strings whenever I can depending on the scale. It's can be extremely frustrating! But I figure if you can't play it accurately slow then you wont stand a chance at faster tempos. Also if I land on an out of tune note instead of sliding to find it I try to take my finger completely off and try to land on it as accurately as possible.

If you can read sheet music I highly recommend the fiddlers fakebook!

mandolin cafe is one of my favorite resources for all things mandolin. Got lessons on there, but their forums are a great source for whatever you want to learn. My other advice would be to get a book of songs (I use the fiddlers fakebook) and just run through them til you're dead.

>G above the first measure shows that the song is in the key of G.

I don't mean to make things more confusing or distract from the original question, but that's not quite right; the F# just before the 4/4 time signature is what shows that the song is in the key of G. (The 4/4 time signature tells you that there a 4 quarter notes to each bar, giving you that common 1-2-3-4 count.)

As others have said, the 'G' indicates the chord that accompanies that measure - it's informational, not something you're supposed to somehow simultaneously play along with the melody. Think of it this way: Say you get together with a guitar player who knows how to play chords, but doesn't know the melody for "Go Tell Aunt Rhody." They can still play along with you by counting along and following those chord changes indicated above the music. Likewise, if you get together with other musicians and they have something like the Fiddler's Fakebook, you can play along with them even if you don't know the song; you'd just follow the chord changes and play banjo chords to back up the melody.

Regarding key signatures/music theory in general check out Edly's Music Theory for Practical People, which is a good introductory guide. Some people will tell you that you don't need to bother with music theory for banjo/folk music, but it really helps in terms of understanding why you play certain chords to accompany certain keys, etc; it can make the difference between learning by rote memorization, and learning by developing an intuitive understanding for how notes, scales, and chords fit together.

I recently was at a party of violinists and this got pulled out: http://www.amazon.com/Fiddlers-Fakebook-Ultimate-Sourcebook-Traditional/dp/0825602386/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=&qid=

It immediately popped out to me as the most important thing that any violin player should have, most of all because it just has a ton of really fun easy to learn pieces. Also of course, playing with other people is always going to be the most fun way to practice so see if you can figure out if there is a group of musicians near you.

I play mandolin and use The Fiddler's Fakebook

Nice because it catalogs who has recorded it along with the music. There is no tablature, only standard notation. I don't like tabs anyhow.

Also, Carpilation

This is an assembly of fiddle tunes from an annual gathering in Kansas. It is also standard notation only. I uploaded the PDF file to Kinko's and had them print and spiral bind it for me.

Not all of the tunes are Irish tunes, but they are the majority.