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Belfast Bay Fiddlers is a loosely organized group of amateur musicians devoted to playing and sharing traditional fiddle music in Belfast, Maine.  Both lead and rhythm players are welcome – from fiddles, mandolins, recorders and whistles to guitars, banjos, accordion and percussion.

The group conducts a regular jam session every Sunday evening the Basil Burwell Community Theater (“BAZZ”), 17 Court Street, Belfast starting at 5:30pm.  The session is open to everyone at any playing level  Contact us if you have any questions or want to be put on the e-mailing list.

We usually play fiddle tunes from the New England contra dance tradition, the traditional music of French and Atlantic Canada, English country dance, Irish jigs and reels, old-timey music and the occasional song .  See the resources page for detailed listings of sources of written and recorded music or check out the weekly jam session page to see what tunes were played at the last session.

About

In addition to our regular Sunday night jam sessions, we play frequently for educational and non-profit groups as well as a number of local festivals.  For more information, please contact Rick (belfastfiddlers@gmail.com).

To see more discussion, photos, etc, visit us on Facebook.

Blog

  • Session in Southwest Harbor, Maine (10/28/2018)

    Traditional music session – focusing on Quebecois and Celtic music – every Wednesday night from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm at the Harbor House, Southwest Harbor, ME. For more information, contact Ray at either 244-8090 or Quebecabouche@gmail.com.

  • Welcome to the New Website! (2/4/2017)

    Hello All!  I’ve finally gotten around to updating the BBF website.  One of the goals is to be more proactive in posting the Sunday night tune list, it has been way too long since we posted the lists.  Liz has been very good at writing down the tunes for most Sunday’s, we’ve got all the paper, now we just need to get it into the computer!

    If you have anything you would like to add to the website (articles, comments, photos) send them along to belfastfiddlers@gmail.com.

    In the near future, I will also be converting the email list to a Google Group or MailChimp.  If you have opinions, let me have them.

Resources

 

Here are some useful links:

Tune Books and Sheet Music:
The Portland Collection Vol 1, 3 and 3
New England Fiddler’s Repertoire
Bill Matthiesen’s Waltz Books I, II, III and IV
Susan Conger’s Along the River Tune Book
The Fiddler’s Fake Book (Available at many music stores.  Support your local music store!)
The Fifer’s Delight by Ralph Sweet

Miscellaneous Music Websites:
Chord Finder — Need to look up a chord for guitar, mandolin or piano?  Try this!
The Session —  A great place to find tunes
JC’s Tune Finder  — Many tunes in ABC format, PDF and MIDI
DEFFA (DownEast Friends of the Folk Arts) -Visit this site to find out when and where traditional dance music is being played – and danced to – around the state of Maine.
Country Dance and Song Society —  “Celebrating a Living Tradition of English and Anglo-American Folk Dance and Music since 1915”. Comprehensive online catalog of books and recordings of and about  traditional dance  music.
Fiddle-licious — A diverse group of fiddlers preserving the tunes and musical heritage of Maine, passed on from their Scottish, Irish, Quebecois, and Acadian ancestors.
Strathspey and Reel Society of New Hampshire — A site devoted to having fun with Scottish music. (thanks to JB)
Sessionite — An Irish session website for session musicians in Southern Michigan.  A good source of Irish tunes (usually in ABC format).
Concertina.net —  A file converter from ABC notation to a Midi sound file or a PDF for music.  A great find!
The Amazing Slow Downer — A truly great software utility.  You can play a CD at whatever speed and not change the pitch.
The Montville Project — A great CD with traditional New England dance tunes!  You must own this one.  A second CD is available now, see Announcements
Fiddler’s Companion — A great tune source and the transcriptions are more reliable than The Session (thanks to GF)
Fiddle-L Archives — For folks who like to read lists about fiddle stuff (thanks to GF)
Fiddle Hangout — Forums, videos, MP3s; a good site for beginner/intermediate fiddle questions/answers (thanks to GF)
Chris Peterson Music — Chris Peterson’s web site, look at the music section
North Country Public Radio — NCPR has a great traditional/acoustic music show (String Fever) with links to performances
Fiddle World — A social network for fiddlers, fiddle makers and fiddle music lovers world-wide (thanks to NTH).
Hope Hoffman — Fiddle teacher and performer.  Look for music performance samples.
2010 Maine Master Fiddlers Showcase Videos –Want to see this concert again?
Morris Tunes — This is a library of Morris tunes as used by dances in the traditions of a number of different English villages.
The Old Time Jam — Lots of old-timey tunes with guitar/banjo accompaniment.  No sheet music tunes, just chord charts.
Dances, Festivals and Jam Sessions:
Belfast Flying Shoes – First Friday of every month.  Come and play in the All-Comers’ Band
The Dance Gypsy — The definitive source for traditional (contra, english) and folk dancing events and musicians.
Down East Country Dance Festival – Topsham, Maine
Dance Flurry – A festival of music and dance held yearly in February in beautiful and historic Saratoga Springs, New York.
Penobscot Fiddles — Monday night jam sessions in Bangor area.
Camps:
Maine Fiddle Camp – A long weekend in June or 2 1-week sessions in August at Camp NEOFA, Montville, Maine
Ashokan Fiddle and Dance Camps – Multiple weeks and multiple styles, near Woodstock, New York
Fiddle Hell (November 4-7, 2021) at https://Fiddlehell.org . We have a lot of New England sessions, workshops,  and instructors,  as well as other styles. We’ll be online in 2021 – trying to keep up our 16 year tradition and keep musicians employed.

If you would like to see your link here or a link you know about here, please contact me and I’ll put it up on this page.

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