#Tefview mandolin tabs code

Following that, I’ve shown a couple of simple little two-bar variations. I’ve written a basic version below that everyone should be able to work with. The ‘A-part’ is usually played twice followed by the ‘B-part’ (also twice). The Tuneīill Cheatham is most often played in the Key of A. It isn’t a difficult tune to play, and well worth the effort to learn.

I was able to find a couple of old recordings from the late 1800’s, but no composer – and not a bit of info on who Bill Cheatham might have been.īut, the tune has survived, and remained popular for over a hundred years, like thousands of other traditional old melodies. Many well-known musicians have recorded this simple little melody, and it has always been a common and ‘often learned’ bluegrass session tune.įinding information on its origin was pretty much futile, at least in the time I spent scouring the internet. But, you’ll find all three versions in the download.Ĭowboy print on a handbag (- watercolor by Jani Freimann)īill Cheatham is another popular old-time fiddle tune. To save space, I’ve only included an image of the first version below. I’m recording it on my phone and the furnace keeps cutting in. I apologize in advance for the sound file. Just for fun, the third version is played an octave higher and moves up the neck for a few bars. The first two are very similar to each other, with some slight variations in the second. I’ve tabbed out 3 slightly different versions. As a result, with emphasis on the 1st and 4th beat, you can get the feel for that marching rhythm. The following setting is in the key of G Major, with a 6/8 time signature (count 6 beats per measure). This tune has been recorded by many different artists over the years. With a change of lyrics, the melody was used by some of the New York Regiments during the American Civil War and renamed ‘The New York Volunteer’. It’s an old English folk song that was (and still is) used in several different locales as a marching song. The melody actually comes from another old tune, ‘The Lincolnshire Poacher’. Today, California is the most populated state in the U.S.A. As a result, towns flourished all across the U.S., and travel ’off to California” was now cheaper, faster and much safer. On May 10th, 1869, the two railways had met, and the last spike was driven into the rail line at Promontory, Utah. Ten years later, they contracted the Union Pacific Railroad, and the Central Pacific railroad to build the ‘ Transcontinental Railway‘.Īfter the end of the civil war in 1865, there was a big push to finish the railway and join the country together. Sometime in 1853, Congress appropriated funds to survey, and establish routes that would connect the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Congress rushed to incorporate California into the Union. As a result, the population increased 1000-fold and, though it wasn’t even a Territory yet, U.S. Off to California Slowerĭuring the ‘ California gold rush‘, it’s estimated that over 130,000 people entered over the California Trail, and even more arrived by sea. The second version is slowed down a little, with a bit of a bounce. “Off to California” is in the key of G Major, and I’ve tabbed it out in 4/4 timing (without dotted notes). But sometimes, I just end up playing the hornpipe more like a reel. I’ll usually tab out a hornpipe without the dotted notes, then put the lilt and emphasis in wherever I want. You, of course, will play it how you like! Ta Da, Ta Da, Ta Da, Ta Da… I like the bounce to be a little less pronounced, but that’s just my opinion. I sometimes find that sounds a little static, or a little much, like. Hornpipes are supposed to have a little ‘lilt’, or a ‘bounce’ to them, and that’s often written with dotted quarter notes. If you look at those settings you’ll notice the dotted quarter notes.

There are two settings in that publication (#1628 and #1629). The tune is one of many melodies collected by Francis O’Neill and later published in “ O’Neill’s Music of Ireland“.

Ever so infrequently, I’ll refer to a tab but I prefer to work out the mechanics of finger position/progression by myself.“Off to California” is a traditional Irish hornpipe.

#Tefview mandolin tabs code

I’d care more about tabs but having the score from the abc code as dots on the screen/paper has allowed me to learn to read music just barely well enough to play ITM type music. There still aren’t any tab format files on the web for abc notation. If you’re a Macintosh person and want the Command-H to work in EasyABC, I have a shell script you can run that will fix that in the EasyABC Python code. The latest versions of EasyABC are here:, is the old version. You could take a look at some of these sites (skip for now - it’s broke as noted above): EasyABC can be “extended” with format files.