This is a selected list of American old-time tunes we might play together at TrailJams old-time jams. If you would like a much longer list of tunes to jog your memory of tunes you know or to inspire you with tunes to learn, Wendy’s Old-Time Tunes List is a good place to look.
The tunes in the list are divided up as “A Tunes,” “D Tunes,” and so forth mostly to accommodate banjo tuning: once banjos are as close as they can get to being tuned, it is best to leave them in that tuning a while. It is not uncommon to stay in the same tuning for several hours in a session. If you are uncertain about Dorian and Mixolydian modes, the article “Dorian, Mixolydian, Oh My: Modes in a Nutshell” has a brief and painless explanation.
A Tunes
- Bill Cheatham
- Cluck Old Hen (A Dorian)
- Old Joe Clark
- Red Haired Boy (A Mixolydian)
C Tunes
- Billy in the Lowground
D Tunes
- Angeline the Baker
- Boil Them Cabbage Down
- Bonaparte Crossing the Rhine
- Coleman’s March
- Liberty
- Midnight on the Water (Waltz)
- Mississippi Sawyer
- Over the Waterfall
- Saint Anne’s Reel
- Soldier’s Joy
- Whiskey Before Breakfast
G Tunes
- Big Scioty
- Blue River Waltz
- Cold Frosty Morning
- Southern Aristocracy
- Girl I Left Behind Me
- Redwing
- Sandy River Bell
- Shove that Pig’s Foot a Little Closer to the Fire