Australian Traditional Dance Tunes Volume 2 (e-book)

These are tunes sourced and transcibed from the National Library of Australia collection of Australian folk music by Jane Brownlee and David De Santi as part of their 2004 National Library of Australia Folk Festival Fellwoship. The book has notation and chords for 179 tunes. There also instructions for 29 Australian folk dances.

Dancing, singing and music have been essential to the party spirit as long as we can remember and the European settlers of Australia were no exception.

Dancing, singing, reciting and music for the white settlers became an integral part of the lives, whether it was in a grand Colonial Ball in the city, a celebratory end of sheep shearing season Woolshed Dance or simply a gathering of friends and family for an evening's entertainment in a kitchen or round a campfire.

The songs, dances, poems and music reflect the hopes, humour, disappointments and the perseverance of these pioneers in a distinctive and characteristic Australian manner.

Here's some Australian dance tunes to whet your appetite. They are tunes collected from Australian dance musicians and well worth keeping alive.