A collection of tens of thousands of trad tunes, contributed collectively by a strong community of musicians. There are updates to the tunes on a daily basis.
From Jeremy Keith
Mickie Zekley has scanned many of Cecil Sharp’s piano arrangements of country dance tunes, originally published in 1912, and made them available online in PDF format. These scores provide ideas for piano players about how to accompany many popular English country dance tunes. Note that the key signatures of some of the tunes differ from those most commonly used by contemporary musicians.
From Mendocino ECD
This website contains hundreds of tunes with MP3 audio clips, sheet music and ABC notation. The tunes come from several regions around the North Atlantic: Scandinavia, the British Isles, Quebec, Cape Breton, Métis (Saskatchewan & Manitoba), New England, Appalachia, and more. The website also includes some of the Vermont Fiddle Orchestra tunes which often have harmonies included.
From North Atlantic Tune list
SPUDS are an open/all comers dance band. Their website contains a large number of tunes in abc format and standard notation, along with links to other tune repositories.
From SPUDS
Jeremy Child explores positional calling as a way to expand the boundaries of choreography.
Colin Hume gives his detailed thoughts and tips on composing dance music.
From Colin Hume
“Do We Have To?” Copyright Basics
This article by Pat MacPherson provides some considerations on whether one needs to get permission to use someone else’s work when publishing a dance or tune book or when recording a CD.
From the CDSS News
Tracking Copyrights and Composers
Susan Songer describes how she tracked down composers and copyrights for her one of her books of contra dance music.
From the CDSS News
Making Jam Sessions Great, a guide for participants and leaders
An article from Dave Firestine about how to create a great jam session, both as a participant and leader.
From the CDSS News
This blog post provides some thoughts on how to lead an open band.
From Jeff Kaufman
Thanks to the Massachusetts Cultural Council for their generous support.