First part of book is a contents list for the material covered on the six instructional CD's. Second part is the actual written instruction and scores of music to be practiced.

A collection of simple traditional Cajun tunes presented in the keys of A, D and G. Songs use mostly quarter and half notes. the CD includes spoken instructions by the author. Each piece is played exactly as written, then played again with a Cajun swing rhythm. Book includes all fingerings.

Beginning with a section of easy arrangements of popular Cajun tunes, this book progresses to more difficult solos based on the playing of various fiddlers includingDewey Balfa, Michael Doucet, Doug Kershaw, and Rufus Thibodeaux. Cajun stylings, rhythms, double stops, slides, turns and trills, bowings, and tunings are discussed throughout the book. Fiddle and guitar are used in demonstrating the tunes in this book. Comes with access to online audio including recorded versions of most of the pieces in the book. The recorded versions are played at a slower tempo than typical performance speed to allow the listener to pick out details of the Cajun style

The non-jazz improvisation series is a concept that germinated in Dick Weissman's mind while he was attending music school. He wrote a 15-piece arrangement of the old square dance tune, Cripple Creek, and wanted the trombone to take a solo as part of the arrangement. When the trombonist kept playing a bebop solo that was totally unsuitable for the chart, Dick realized that - in addition to the many musicians who do not improvise - there are even jazz musicians who don't know how to improvise outside the limits of their own stylistic backgrounds. the non-jazz improvisation series mostly includes new original tunes that are intended to show how to improvise in many musical styles, including;BluesCountryAmerican folkLatin-AmericanWorld music including South American, Eastern European and AsianOdd meters (playing in a variety of time signatures)New AgeClassicalFolk-RockIn short, the books are an encyclopedia of virtually every musical style, excluding jazz.

Louisiana Fiddlers shines light on sixty-two of the bayou state's most accomplished fiddlers of the twentieth century. Author Ron Yule outlines the lives and times of these performers, who represent a multitude of fiddling styles including Cajun, country, western swing, zydeco, bluegrass, Irish, contest fiddling, and blues.Featuring over 150 photographs, this volume provides insight into the fiddlin' grounds of Louisiana. Yule chronicles the musicians' varied appearances from the stage of the Louisiana Hayride, honky tonks, dancehalls, house dances, radio and television, and festivals, to the front porch and other more casual venues. The brief sketches include observations on musical travels, recordings, and family history.Nationally acclaimed fiddlers Harry Choates, Dewey Balfa, Dennis McGee, Michael Doucet, Rufus Thibodeaux, and Hadley Castille share space with relatively unknown masters such as Mastern Brack, Cheese Read, John W. Daniel, and Fred Beavers. Each player has helped shape the region's rich musical tradition.

Here, at long last, is the perfect fiddle book for the true and total beginner. No previous experience needed! Wayne takes you through every step of adjusting, tuning, holding and playing the fiddle. The tunes are written out in Waynes unique and easy tab system an also in standard notation. Fiddle instruction has never been simpler, clearer, or more humorous. Includes instructional CD.

Play Me Something Quick and Devilish explores the heritage of traditional fiddle music in Missouri. Howard Wight Marshall considers the place of homemade music in people’s lives across social and ethnic communities from the late 1700s to the World War I years and into the early 1920s. This exceptionally important and complex period provided the foundations in history and settlement for the evolution of today’s old-time fiddling. Beginning with the French villages on the Mississippi River, Marshall leads us chronologically through the settlement of the state and how these communities established our cultural heritage. Other core populations include the “Old Stock Americans” (primarily Scotch-Irish from Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia), African Americans, German-speaking immigrants, people with American Indian ancestry (focusing on Cherokee families dating from the Trail of Tears in the 1830s), and Irish railroad workers in the post–Civil War period. These are the primary communities whose fiddle and dance traditions came together on the Missouri frontier to cultivate the bounty of old-time fiddling enjoyed today. Marshall also investigates themes in the continuing evolution of fiddle traditions. These themes include the use of the violin in Westward migration, in the Civil War years, and in the railroad boom that changed history. Of course, musical tastes shift over time, and the rise of music literacy in the late Victorian period, as evidenced by the brass band movement and immigrant music teachers in small towns, affected fiddling. The contributions of music publishing as well as the surprising importance of ragtime and early jazz also had profound effects. Much of the old-time fiddlers’ repertory arises not from the inherited reels, jigs, and hornpipes from the British Isles, nor from the waltzes, schottisches, and polkas from the Continent, but from the prolific pens of Tin Pan Alley. Marshall also examines regional styles in Missouri fiddling and comments on the future of this time-honored, and changing, tradition. Documentary in nature, this social history draws on various academic disciplines and oral histories recorded in Marshall’s forty-some years of research and field experience. Historians, music aficionados, and lay people interested in Missouri folk heritage—as well as fiddlers, of course—will find Play Me Something Quick and Devilish an entertaining and enlightening read. With 39 tunes, the enclosed Voyager Records companion CD includes a historic sampler of Missouri fiddlers and styles from 1955 to 2012. A media kit is available here: press.umsystem.edu/pages/PlayMeSomethingQuickandDevilish.aspx