Tune of the Week


A new tune each Wednesday (more or less) chosen arbitrarily by your Webmaster, a mixture of traditional and new (but traditional in style) tunes.  Site visitors are encouraged to nominate tunes for this page via the Suggestion Form.


This week’s tune:

Reel des Accordéonistes, another wonderful Québécois reel in three parts with a nice bit of syncopation in the third part.

Last week’s tune:

Gigue de Salon,  an actual 6/8 jig (not all Québécois “gigues” are 6/8) by Pascal Gemme.  In English, “Living Room Jig”.


Recent Tunes of the Week:

  • Grasshopper Sitting on a Sweet Potato Vine, a traditional march or reel with possible African American roots.
  • Corie, a beautiful slow air written by David Kaynor for Corie Pressley.  Don’t miss the video of David playing this tune with Corie and Katie Pressley and several other great musicians.
  • Waynesboro, Originally an Irish tune (march?), Over the Moor to Maggie, it included a third part not usually played with this old-time version.
  • The Wise Maid, a very popular traditional Irish reel.
  • Lévis Beaulieu, a popular Quebecois reel which has since become a contra-dance favorite.
  • Blind Mary, By Turlough O’Carolan, a blind harper in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, considered one of Ireland’s greatest composers in any genre. Blind Mary is thought to have been another blind harper.
  • Misty Morning  And now for something completely different, a full-on Bluegrass tune by Doyle Lawson in E minor, lyrical and a touch complex.
  • You Married My Daughter But You Didn’t (Tout d’un Coup).  This quintessentially Quebecois reel  is fun to play.  (Hint: The “you” in the title refers to the priest.)
  • Efraim. The full name of this tune is Merenkulkijq Efraim Anderssonin Hambo.  This rathe hypnotic tune is from Finland.
  • The King’s Wedding March (Leksands Brüdmarsh): Thought to have been composed by several musicians for the wedding of a nineteenth century Swedish King but generally considered traditional.  Guitar players, check out the idea in the Notes section.

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Background: I started this site about seven years ago largely for my own convenience, but it quickly grew to be useful for a number of other musicians in my area.  Since then it has grown far beyond my original vision, with over 900 tunes posted and around 4400 user sessions per month from more than 30 countries.  Until now I have built and maintained the site out of my own pocket but its increasing size and complexity is requiring more outside resources and costs; hence this appeal. So if this site is helpful to you, please consider a small contribution.