Ryan Mammoth Collection, 1050 Reels and Jigs (Hornpipes, Clogs, Walk-arounds, Essences, Strathspeys, Highland Flings and Contra Dances, with Figures)

Was delivered fast with no damage but way Too small of printing, some notes bleed together hard to see. They should have made the book larger in print I would have paid more to see clearer print. Mel bay screwed up on this.

Fairly useless. Take a picture and blow it up and print it again I guess.

This collection of old-time music, the stuff people used to dance to all the time in Ireland and in America many years ago, is priceless for all the gems it contains. I'm giving it 5 stars because it's a great collection and this is a nice reprinting with one exception -- these "perfect" bindings are horrible for any publisher to use on music books that people need to have lie open on their music stands! Whenever I buy a book with this sort of binding, I first curse the stupid publisher and then go visit my locally owned copy shop, where I have them convert the book into a coil binding. It's an extra $3 expense, but it's well worth it to be able to have the book actually be usable to perform from. I really ought to give it only 3 stars because the binding is so impractical but I don't want to scare anybody away and once the binding has been converted it's definitely worth all 5 stars!

Yes, finally "1000 Fiddle Tunes" is available again, this time with some history.I rate only 4 stars so as to bring attention to the binding - I will have it replaced by spiral binding so that the book lies flat - cheap enough. Otherwise it is an unrelenting joy.I use it to add to my many books of scale / arpeggio exercises for french horn - they are a breath of life in what can otherwise be dull exercises that musicians endure. The tunes are good for enhancing dexterity and also for learning transposition, especially to the key of C (french horns are pitched in F), so as to jam with mainstream instruments.Makes a great gift for that musician in your life who has everything.

This is an astonishing book, and surprisingly small, no bigger than any standard sized fiddle book. I was expecting bible-like thickness. I was interested in O'Neill's but got bogged down on which edition to choose, reading all of the contradictory comments about which is best.Then 2 photocopied pages of this book were shown to me. Wow, what a treasure house! Anyone who can read music should own a copy, if only for the exercise and sight-reading potential. That is just skimming the surface of course. The wealth of tunes for the traditional player is breathtaking.It has the wrong kind of binding though - that was not thought through well by the publisher. I will take it to a print house and have it spiral bound eventually.

The binding doesn't allow it to lay flat, which can be fixed, but it is annoying. What use is a music book if you can't set it on a music stand? Also, the print is very small.

It's a really good source of music from the 19th century as it was played then. It is written so one line is eight measures that repeats (the A part) and the next line is the B part so it is really easy to read.

This is the book many (most?) of us knew as Cole's 1,000 Fiddle Tunes. Good historical background on Ryan's book (the original) and the culture of music publication in general in the 19th century.

The contents page lists everything alphabetically, there doesn't appear to be any sort of order to how things are grouped e.g. Scottish reels or Jigs. Unless you know the name of what you're looking for it's not the best way of arranging the tunes. Not impressed really it just looks like a jumbled mess to me.

Classic Irish tune book

La fameuse collection