Fiddle Lessons

Whiskey Before Breakfast in Fiddle Tab

Lord preserve us and protect us, we been havin' Whiskey Before Breakfast

I'm not sure who wrote those words, but I sure remember hearing them at the Florida Folk Festival. That fiddle tune has been popular in Florida for a long time. Does that say something about us?

There are a couple of musical notation conventions used for the map of this tune.
First, in the A part, take the first ending and go back to the beginning. At the end of the second ending notice the D.S. That means go back to the sign, (D.S. is an abbreviation for del segno.)
The sign looks like this:

After going back to the sign take the first ending again. This is your third time past the third bar. Repeat and on the fourth time go on to the B part. The ending is written “Going on.”

The second convention is D.C. That means go back to the beginning. The last bar leads you musically to repeat the whole tune.

The B part has a lick in the first and third bars that I associate with Texas style fiddling. I like to use it.
The source of this rhythm is the cakewalk, a musical form derived from 19th century Afro-American slaves.

Have you ever heard, "Hello, my baby! Hello, my honey? Hello my ragtime gal.?" That's a cakewalk rhythm. This rhythm dominated popular music in America for a time, and set the stage for ragtime and all that followed.

Go to the chart by clicking here.