WELCOME
Sliding Scale Music is the certainly-not-for-profit project of Michael Mendelson - Santa Barbara, California-based composer, fiddler, guitarist and fiddle scholar.
NEW TUNES
"Maxie's Reel" - For my good buddy
"Maxie's Reel" (mp3 clip)
"Waltz for Ann Marie" - Written score: violin, piano & cello
*** "Waltz for Ann Marie" - Synth performance of the score
"Green Eyes" ("les yeux verts") - Twin fiddle score
"The Muddy Pig" - Another G-major jig
"Tailspin Reel" - A "trance-like" G-minor tune
"Maxwell's Rag" - Fun to play and a great 2nd-position exercise!
"Well You Shouldn't" is an arrangement of the Thelonious Monk tune "Well You Needn't" as a jig
"One-Legged Chicken" is a moderate-tempo western swing / Dixieland tune
"Rattlesnake Jig" is the "Rattlesnake Rag" morphed into a Canadian jig
"Against the Grain" is a moderate-tempo bluegrass tune
"Fire Creek" is a straight-ahead, up-tempo bluegrass tune
"Edge of Remembrance" is a waltz
"The Stumbling Monk" is a minor-to-major key jig
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ALL THE TUNES IN ONE PDF FILE!!!
A single PDF file containing all my lead sheets. Jigs, reels, hornpipes, rags, lots of waltzes, a polka, a hambo, a tango and more!!!
Download it here: All the Tunes
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Tunes from the Western Edge
The original 1993 tune book by Anita Anderson and Michael Mendelson.
Download it here: Tunes from the Western Edge
CALENDAR
************* 2026 ***********
Saturday, March 14, 2026 - Chopped Liver - contradance (6:30-9:00pm) - Odd Fellows Hall, San Luis Obispo - schedule
Saturday, March 15, 2026 - Pate de Faux Gras - English Country Dance (2:00-4:15pm) - Carrillo Ballroom, Santa Barbara - schedule
Sunday, March 15, 2026 - Chopped Liver - contradance (6:00-9:00pm) - Carrillo Ballroom, Santa Barbara - schedule
Saturday, June 13, 2026 - Fiddle Tunas - contradance (6:30-9:00pm) - Odd Fellows Hall, San Luis Obispo - schedule
NEWS
I recently donated recordings of some of my early fieldwork to the Center for Popular Music at Middle Tennessee State University. I don't know when these will be available for viewing/listening, but here are descriptions of the materials donated.
The story behind the video oral history with legendary Texas fiddler Benny Thomasson from 1976.
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“An Introduction to Bluegrass” (1969)
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My tune "Dance of the Lemmings" was a winner in the 2011 Strings Without Boundaries composition competition. A video of the orchestral arrangement of the tune can be found at: https://youtu.be/3TTFTh72l6Q
A clip of my recording and the lead sheet can be found on the Compositions page.
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15 original tunes for the fiddle:
bluegrass, contradance, celtic, rags, waltzes and a tango
This is an Enhanced CD with the added features:
- The complete 1998 CD "A Fiddler's Notebook" in MP3 format
- Lead sheets (printable music) for all the tunes
Now available from Amazon Music or by emailing me directly at cdsales@SlidingScaleMusic.com.