Suggestions for the forum

[oldbones]

Here are a few thoughts about areas which might be worth having in the forum:

GEAR such as amps, FX units, mics, pickups etc. which folkies who wander around here might be using at home or when gigging?

RESOURCES such as books (eg: The Folk Handbook: Working with Songs from the English Tradition) or useful websites (I'm sure everyone here knows 'The Contemplator' website which has to be one of the best resources for folkies of pretty well any persuasion. ).

SOFTWARE (free, shareware or commercial) for the creation, viewing, recording or editing of your music or learning other folks' music. (eg: TEFView and TABLedit)

[Danny]

All good ideas, anybody have any thoughts on this?

By the way, I've never heard of 'The Contemplator' any chance of a description and a link?

[oldbones]

Link > www.contemplator.com/

This is a superb resource for lovers of folk music. In almost all cases, you can click on a song title and then access the following resources ...

Full lyrics
Often there are detailed notes about a song's hisory
Listen to a midi file of the tune (it uually starts playing as soon as the page opens)
Download that midifile by right-clicking in the usual way
Often there are links to other history sites which have a relevance to the song

Areas covered by the website are -
Folk Music of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales & America
Francis J. Child Ballads
Popular Songs in American History
Songs of the Sea
Turlough O'Carolan
Taylor's Traditional Tunebook

I often download the midifile and extract the melody line for printing. On occasions I have converted the midifile to wav or mp3 for use in other projects such as animations.