Free Fiddle Music
Tenpenny Bit for Guitar & Fiddle
Free fiddle music with guitar tabs -- Tenpenny Bit is a driving, rhythmic jig in 6/8 time.
It makes a great ensemble piece or solo for your beginning flat-picking guitar student, with or without a fiddle-player around!
Please scroll down the page for the download links.
A fiddler plays Ten-Penny Bit
What is a "jig?"
For a guitarist used to picking "down-up, down-up, down-up," a jig feels different.
Because the rhythm of a jig divides a measure of six eighth notes into two strong pulses instead of three pulses, the picking needs to emphasize beats 1 and 4 instead of 1, 2, and 3.
Where is the WEIGHT of the rhythm?
So, instead of ONE-two, THREE-four, FIVE-six, the emphasis must be ONE-two-three, FOUR-five-six, to give the melody line proper support.
What this means to the guitar player is (traditionally) DOWN up DOWN, DOWN up DOWN. At least, that should be in the back of your mind as you wield the pick, as an ideal.
However, it isn't practical in all the measures, or even most of the measures, of Tenpenny Bit!
Here is what Doug Sparling says on a page about jigs from GuitarNoise.com:
"Jigs are in 6/8 time, which can take some getting used to if you haven’t flatpicked many jigs or used a lot of triplets in your playing.
"There are a few general guidelines to flatpicking jigs. Jigs are often played with a “lilt” by slightly lengthening the first eighth note of a triplet (on the downstroke) and subsequently shortening the second eighth note (on the upstroke).
"Another item to consider is picking direction.
"Unlike reels, which are normally played using alternating picking, with jigs we’ll use a downstroke on the downbeats to give them emphasis, which in turn helps give the tune a rhythmic drive.
"For example, we’ll pick triplets Down-Up-Down Down-Up-Down (DUD DUD) instead of alternating (DU DU DU).
"This is a guideline, not a rule…you may like the sound of alternating picking better, and in some places, sticking with one picking pattern may be awkward."
Thank you, Doug! What a great resource GuitarNoise.com is, with its free, detailed, informative lessons.
Adding ornaments
And here is Ten-Penny Bit again, with a few added ornaments that sounded right to me after listening to a few videos.
There are other changes that could be added, also, but you can add them yourself! The more I listen to videos of this free fiddle music, the more details I notice.
The chords for this free fiddle music are my own suggestion -- you could probably switch the G chords and Em chords around and not really have it sound too different.
I really love this free fiddle music, Ten Penny Bit.
The pdf download links for the fiddle & guitar music:
Download free fiddle music Tenpenny Bit, version 1
Tenpenny Bit free violin sheet music, version 2 with ornaments, for flatpicking guitar or fiddle
Dianna:
Your website is a light in the darkness. THANK YOU for all you do in helping to spread the love of music. It matters!
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Comments
Do you have a story or a question about teaching guitar? Do you think it is a hard instrument for beginners, or easy? What have been your challenges?
Please note that all comments are moderated, and will not appear until I have approved them. Also, IF YOU ARE ASKING FOR MUSIC THAT IS NOT IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN, YOUR REQUEST WILL BE IGNORED. That's pretty much any music written in the last 75 years...
About the Author
Hi, I'm Dana! (Say that like "Anna".) I'm the owner of Music-for-Music-Teachers.com, and a newer site, SingTheBibleStory.com.
Like some of you, I've been playing the piano since early childhood, and have added a few other instruments along the way, plus an interest in arranging and composing music.
You can find out more about me and the reason for this website at my About Me page.
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