WELCOME
Sliding Scale Music is the certainly-not-for-profit project of Michael Mendelson - Santa Barbara, California-based composer, fiddler, guitarist and fiddle scholar.
NEW TUNES
"Waltz for Ann Marie" - full written score for violin, piano and cello
*** "Waltz for Ann Marie" - synth performance of the score
"Green Eyes" ("les yeux verts") - Twin fiddle score
"The Muddy Pig" - Another G-major jig
"Tailspin Reel" - A "trance-like" G-minor tune
"Maxwell's Rag" - Fun to play and a great 2nd-position exercise!
"Well You Shouldn't" is an arrangement of the Thelonious Monk tune "Well You Needn't" as a jig
"One-Legged Chicken" is a moderate-tempo western swing / Dixieland tune
"Rattlesnake Jig" is the "Rattlesnake Rag" morphed into a Canadian jig
"Against the Grain" is a moderate-tempo bluegrass tune
"Fire Creek" is a straight-ahead, up-tempo bluegrass tune
"Edge of Remembrance" is a waltz
"The Stumbling Monk" is a minor-to-major key jig
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ALL THE TUNES IN ONE PDF FILE!!!
A single PDF file containing all my lead sheets. Jigs, reels, hornpipes, rags, lots of waltzes, a polka, a hambo, a tango and more!!!
Download it here: All the Tunes
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Tunes from the Western Edge
The original 1993 tune book by Anita Anderson and Michael Mendelson.
Download it here: Tunes from the Western Edge
CALENDAR
Sunday, January 26, 2020 - Chopped Liver - 20th Anniversary Dance - Carrillo Ballroom, Santa Barbara
(***CANCELED***) Saturday, March 14, 2020 - Fiddle Tunas - contradance - Odd Fellows Hall, San Luis Obispo - schedule
(***CANCELED***) Sunday, March 15, 2020 - Fiddle Tunas - contradance, Carrillo Ballroom, Santa Barbara - schedule
(***CANCELED***) Sunday, May 17, 2020 - Topanga Banjo and Fiddle Contest, Agoura Hills, CA - Information
(***CANCELED***) Friday - Sunday, October 9-11, 2020 - Harvest Moon Dance Festival, Santa Barbara, CA - Information
(***Virtual Festival***) Saturday/Sunday, October 10/11, 2020 - Old-Time Fiddlers' Festival, Goleta, CA - Information
NEWS
I recently donated recordings of some of my early fieldwork to the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University. I don't know when these will be available for viewing/listening, but here are descriptions of the materials donated.
The story behind the video oral history with legendary Texas fiddler Benny Thomasson from 1976.
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“An Introduction to Bluegrass” (1969)
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My tune "Dance of the Lemmings" was a winner in the 2011 Strings Without Boundaries composition competition. A video of the orchestral arrangement of the tune can be found at: https://youtu.be/3TTFTh72l6Q
A clip of my recording and the lead sheet can be found on the Compositions page.
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15 original tunes for the fiddle:
bluegrass, contradance, celtic, rags, waltzes and a tango
This is an Enhanced CD with the added features:
- The complete 1998 CD "A Fiddler's Notebook" in MP3 format
- Lead sheets (printable music) for all the tunes
Now available from Amazon Music or by emailing me directly at cdsales@SlidingScaleMusic.com.