Tunes for the Oxford Beginners Session (alto recorder, C fingering)

These are tunes chosen for the monthly Oxford Beginners session.

The Oxford Beginners session is an opportunity for all inexperienced musicians to gather and play together. The tunes, all popular in the folk session repertoire, are chosen because we think they’re tunes that even those who have only been playing for a few weeks can have a go at. They don’t require a fast tempo, and the range of notes is limited. But they’re still real tunes, as played at other sessions.

The first tunes listed are those we think are especially easy. Start with those!

The tunes are drawn mostly from the Cry Havoc session repertoire. Others are taken from the Oxford Slow Session.

See below if you'd like to print a book of these tunes.

Click on the tune title or first line music for a page showing the dots for the tune and giving links for downloading the tune in various formats. If you don't read music, or you'd like to work on practising learning tunes by ear, or just playing along with the tune, click on the learner icon for a page where you can listen to the tune repeatedly, either at the full playing speed or several slower speeds.

When changes to this site are made, the issue number is incremented. This is issue 439.

The tunes

A La Mode De France
Learner page
A La Mode De France first line
Bear Dance
Learner page
Bear Dance first line
Le Canal En Octobre
Learner page
Le Canal En Octobre first line
Laridé 6
Learner page
Laridé 6 first line
Theme Vannetaise (Twiglet)
Learner page
Theme Vannetaise (Twiglet) first line
Wals voor Polle
Learner page
Wals voor Polle first line
Will's Way
Learner page
Will's Way first line
All In A Garden Green (Harwood Hall)
Learner page
All In A Garden Green (Harwood Hall) first line
Buttered Peas
Learner page
Buttered Peas first line
Captain Lanoe's Quick March
Learner page
Captain Lanoe's Quick March first line
Elizabeth Clare
Learner page
Elizabeth Clare first line
Emma From Finland
Learner page
Emma From Finland first line
Gathering Peascods
Learner page
Gathering Peascods first line
Herbert the Sherbert
Learner page
Herbert the Sherbert first line
Just As The Tide Was Flowing
Learner page
Just As The Tide Was Flowing first line
Mazurka d'Auvergne
Learner page
Mazurka d'Auvergne first line
Mazurka de Lapleau
Learner page
Mazurka de Lapleau first line
Michael Turner's Waltz
Learner page
Michael Turner's Waltz first line
Orange in Bloom (Sherborne Waltz)
Learner page
Orange in Bloom (Sherborne Waltz) first line
The Plane Tree
Learner page
The Plane Tree first line
Rochdale Coconut Dance
Learner page
Rochdale Coconut Dance first line
The Rogues' March
Learner page
The Rogues' March first line
Rufty Tufty
Learner page
Rufty Tufty first line
Salmon Tails
Learner page
Salmon Tails first line
Three Around Three (The Pleasure Of The Town)
Learner page
Three Around Three (The Pleasure Of The Town) first line
The Winster Gallop
Learner page
The Winster Gallop first line

Printing

You can download a PDF of a booklet of these tunes. There is an A5 landscape book with one tune per page, a 4x5in portrait book suitable for use with an eReader like a Kindle, Nook, Kobo etc., and an A4 book with two or more tunes per page.

If you have a printer that can do duplex (i.e. print on both sides of the paper), you might like the A5 booklet. Print this onto A4 paper using both sides of the paper, and fold in half to make an A5 booklet.

You can also now download a PDF of the Bumper Booke. The Bumper Booke contains all the Session tunes and all the Morris tunes in a single book. There is an A5 landscape book with one tune per page, a 4x5in portrait book, an A4 book with two or more tunes per page, and an A5 booklet for printing on A4 paper and folding in half.