Songbook and ToneWay Music Method

Lyrics and chords for 330 songs

The Songbook and ToneWay Music Method features the lyrics and chords to 330 songs commonly played in old-time and bluegrass music. There are slow songs, fast songs, ballads, hymns, fiddle tunes, all with their roots in the mountain music of Appalachia and other areas.

Show complete list of all 330 songs

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We use what's sometimes called the “Nashville Numbering System” for chord changes. This makes it trivial to play any song in any key. The book explains how to use it.

Those numbers in the top-right corner are the first, highest, and lowest tones in the song. The first tone helps know where to start when singing or playing the melody. The high and low tones tell you the “range” of the melody you'll be singing and/or picking. Using the simple method explained in our book, you can use this information to find the optimum key in which to sing a particular song, just by counting on your fingers!

I must say, your ToneWay Music Method is the best on the market that I have found for a new or amateur player for bluegrass music. I spent endless hours in the past memorizing notation for picking songs. Within the first few days [of using the ToneWay Method] I can now pick some by ear.

Thanks so much,
Todd Boughan

Learn to Play By Ear
With the ToneWay Music Method®

The Toneway Music Method® utilizes the simple 'relative tone' nature of music—which applies to singing and any instrument you'd like to play—to show you the easiest way to play music by ear. So, if you can count to seven, you've got what it takes.

Complete ToneWay Picking Patterns (see Commandment III) are included for all the bluegrass instruments—guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo (three-finger and frailing styles), bass, and Dobro. Using the Picking Patterns in concert with ToneWay Notation quickly instills in you the 'intuitive picking pattern' you need to play by ear—and in every key, no less! Possibly the greatest advantage of this 'bare-bones' approach over tablature or a standard musical score is that you can't become dependent on it. This 'forces' you to subconsciously and intuitively learn to play by ear, and soon you'll be able to play any melody you know well.

Your method makes playing a lot of fun and I know that I will be enjoying myself while learning . . . if I had your book a few years ago (when I started playing), I would've had a lot more fun with my guitar, and I would have been invited to a lot more jams.

–Jack Gottlob
New Jersey

Hundreds of Song Clips
  Listen to them for free!

Our minute-long Song Clips are optimized to help you learn the melody, words, and qualities that give each song its unique 'soul'. Three hundred and sixty songs have been recorded—that's more than are in the book!

You don't even need our book to use this resource. Just head over to our songs section and click on a song. Notice the "break" at the end of each song: this is there to give you a chance to try singing the song by yourself, or to practice playing melodies on your instrument.

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Reviews

[The book] has a gentle, supportive, "you can do it" attitude that promotes family-style playing, singing and community . . . An easy, affordable, enjoyable way to play over 300 great tunes!

–Billy Pitrone
Santa Cruz, CA

(Note: The next two reviews were submitted back when the book came with a CD, now made obsolete by the Core Songs CDs.)

Dear Abbott Family,
I just had to write and thank you for putting this book and CD together. I'm having so much fun learning these old songs and playing my mandolin (I already play by ear) along with the CD. I really don't know where else I could have gotten such a resource!! I believe it was money well spent, especially considering all the resources available on the website. God bless you and your family! If you're ever in South GA, look us up.

Best regards,
Mary Ann Eason

If you are in the Northern California area, you may have seen the Abbott Family perform at jams or festivals. Carl and Leslie Abbott, with their sons Luke and Kyle and Grandma Gema, have strengthened their family bonds with a love of making music together. Their enthusiasm for music has inspired a songbook and CD that belongs in any bluegrass or old-time music lover's collection. [The book] has lyrics to [over 300] traditional songs complete with the chord changes. What makes this collection unique is the careful attention to making the music . . . Many pages in the book are devoted to the bluegrass instruments, music and chord theory with an emphasis on understanding why the music works and how to make music a part of your life and family time. Luke spends time on the CD demonstrating vocal ranges and his "join in the fun" attitude has the listener trying out vocal range and finding the tones in a song!

The Songbook and Learning Method includes a CD with 25 of the songs in the book, performed by the Abbott Family Band. If you didn't have a family singing tradition while growing up, here's an excellent opportunity to adopt the Abbott family's as your own, and start your own tradition, get out to local jams and make music, and not just listen to it.

–Brenda Hough, NCBS Board Member
(This review was written back in 2004, for local bluegrass newsletters.)