Question: Is there a charge for downloading MIDI from this site?
Answer: The MIDI on this site are free for personal use. Commercial use of material from this site requires written permission and payment of a royalty. (read our Terms of Use)
Hetzler's Fakebook has no salaried employees. It operates with minimal expense, funded by small individual donations, commissons from sales on other sites to which we refer, and sponsored links.
Question: What does NB mean next to some of the tunes?
Answer: NB is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase nota bene, which means note well. When you see NB next to a tune it means there is background or historical information available. Clicking on the link will open a new window allowing you to view the information without losing your place.
Question: Is sheet music for the tunes available?
Answer: There is no sheet music available on this site. Hetzler's Fakebook is intended to be used in conjunction with Notation Musician. This is a program that will convert MIDI to sheet music and let you adjust the tempo of the playback. It is a Windows only program.
Question: How are Hetzler's Fakebook and Earth Harmony, LLC related?
Answer: Earth Harmony, LLC is a business owned and operated by Ed and Louise Hetzler that provides music lessons and speech-language services in Hudson, MA. It is the primary underwriter of the Hetzler's Fakebook site.
Question: Can you really learn to play using written music?
Answer: This question fuels an endless debate among folk musicians. I think you must become proficient with your instrument before it has any meaning. Novice musicians often equate memorizing tunes with learning to play and then wonder why they can never quite get the sound they are looking for. Memorization creates the illusion of quick results, but in the end is very limiting.
Music is made up of many parts; pitch, rhythm, intonation, dynamics, etc. Mastering these elements takes effort and requires practice. Mimicking someone else’s playing without developing the requisite skills leads to hard to correct faults that limit your playing ability.
Folk musicians do not need the rigor of classical training, but all musicians need a basic understanding of chords, intervals, scales, technique and theory. Without a solid grounding in music you will hit a wall in your playing that is difficult to overcome. Written music is a standardized concise way to communicate accumulated musical knowledge. Learning to sight read music notation is time well spent and will expedite your learning process.
I encourage my students to focus on their instrument first then on learning the specific style they want to play. It takes a combination of ear training, sight reading, practice and playing with others to create competency. Shortcutting this process leads to frustration and disappointment.
Fiddle Slow Jam
If you live in the
Boston Metrowest
Area
come to our monthly slow jam in Hudson.
Frustrated?
The most common road blocks to successful playing are inattention to:
- pitch
- intonation
- timing
Hetzler's Fakebook
Hetzler's Fakebook
