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Pete Showman’s Tune Lists

Tune Lists (PDFs)

Monday-night “South Bay” Old-Time Jam Tunes

The Monday-Night-Jam Tune List (PDF, updated June 30, 2017) has the names, keys and modes of 186 mostly old-time-style tunes that were played fairly often at the jam in 2016 and early 2017 — or in a few cases, that some of us hope to learn, so we can play them there. (Many other tunes were also played; these are just the most-common.)

The list is printable on one sheet, with one side organized by key and the other alphabetical. The by-key side helps us find tunes in the current key, since we try not to change key very often (to avoid people having to retune or switch instruments). Learn more about the jam here

There's also a list of formerly-listed tunes and new tunes (the former having been played less often during the past 18 months or so; the list shows the years they were included).

Old-Time Tune Starters

NOTE: This list is just tunes I've played, or in a few cases, that I want to learn. Though it is often used as a guide at the South Bay Jam, that is NOT its intent.

The “tune starter” list has some 275 tunes with title, key(s) and mode(s), and 3-4 measures of the first part of the tune, in standard notation. These are also mostly old-time in style. In a few cases I've also added the first few measures of succeeding parts (new parts are introduced by ‘||’), for tunes where some of us have had trouble remembering which 'B' goes with which 'A', or which version of a tune is meant. I hope these will help those of us who know many of the tunes, but can’t always remember which is which, or how they start.

This list (PDFs) now comes in four formats:

The The Printable Tune-Starter List, Alphabetical * is in 3-column format, intended for printing on letter-sized (8.5 x 11 inch) paper; currently 6 pages.
The The Printable Tune-Starter List, by Key is the same layout but sorted by key (Mixolydian mode grouped with Major, and Dorian mode with minor). Also 6 pages. (new 8/24/14)
The Small-Screen Tune-Starter List * is in single-column format, intended for display on a phone or other smallish screen; alphabetical only. Use a PDF viewer that can search for parts of the titles.
The Two-Column Tune-Starter List * (alphabetical only) is a compromise of sorts, and an experiment. It's intended to be used on a tablet with a larger screen, or could be printed (for those whose eyes don't like the small 3-column format and don't mind having a lot of pages). It's nominally set up for a 5.25 x 7 inch screen, so if you do print it on larger paper be sure to select “stretch to fit” when you print. Currently about 15 pages. If you find this format useful, let me know. (I don’t: I don’t have a tablet, and for printing I prefer fewer pages.)

* Updated 8/10/2014, with many errors corrected; minor update 8/24/2014.

Please send me any suggestions or corrections for any of these lists.

This page is maintained by Pete Showman.

Need more information? Email Pete: jaminfo2, at showman dot org, with subject: "Old-time jam query," or call (408) 255-0297.

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