Lead Sheets for French Cafe/Musette music

[rgp1942]

Is there a good source for French Cafe "lead sheets" somewhere? I am a long time "play by ear" musician of many different instruments, but only recently taken up the musette accordion. I would like to acquire "lead sheets" with only the melody and chords. This speeds up my learning new tunes quite a bit where I can just concentrate on the melody. I have discovered that that sheetmusicdirect.com does provide some music in lead sheet format, but the selection is rather limited. Thanks!

p.s. When I learned to play bluegrass/traditional guitar and banjo I got a wonderful book called "The Fiddlers Fake Book" which helped me learn lots of tunes. Just wondering if there's something like this for Musette music.

 

[boxplayer4000]

I have a big book with all 'musette' tunes which I would part with. Unfortunately you're a bit far away in Oregon.

 

[JeffJetton]

There's a fantastic series of books from French publisher Paul Beuscher called "Succes Musette" ("Musette hits", I think). Each volume has over 100 musette-style tunes, mostly waltzes and javas, but also mazurkas, paso-dobles, etc. You won't find pop stuff like "La Vie en Rose" or "Under Paris Skies"... it's more along the lines of Tony Murena, Jo Privat, Gus Viseur, and that sort of thing.

All are in leadsheet format. Some volumes have the chords in French "fixed do" notation, but that's easy to get used to.

BTW, I have the Fiddler's Fakebook too. Despite the name, it's a great resource for players of all sorts of instruments, and you can keep yourself mighty busy going through it on accordion too!

 

[rgp1942]

Thanks everybody for the info!

 

[vivdunstan]

There's a fantastic series of books from French publisher Paul Beuscher called "Succes Musette" ("Musette hits", I think). Each volume has over 100 musette-style tunes, mostly waltzes and javas, but also mazurkas, paso-dobles, etc.

These are absolutely brilliant. I think there are 6 volumes, each with 110 tunes. The books run chronologically forward in time. so you get quite a mix. I love dipping into them. They can be a bit tricky to souce but searching for “musette 110” eg in Amazon can find some.

 

[Mockie]

These are absolutely brilliant. I think there are 6 volumes, each with 110 tunes. The books run chronologically forward in time. so you get quite a mix. I love dipping into them. They can be a bit tricky to souce but searching for “musette 110” eg in Amazon can find some.

I totally agree, I have two books from the series. All the 'biggies are there. At present I'm working on a beautiful waltz 'Soir de Paris' tricky but we'll worth putting time into it. Make sure to get correct fingering from day one, these pieces will improve your accordion skills.

 

[JeffJetton]

They can be a bit tricky to souce but searching for “musette 110” eg in Amazon can find some.

I've had good luck at Sheet Music Plus. (They're not cheap though.)

 

[tcabot]

Hi All,

Is there anything beginner-friendly? A lot of the pieces in the 110 books seem to be quite advanced for beginners.

 

[JeffJetton]

Hi All,

Is there anything beginner-friendly? A lot of the pieces in the 110 books seem to be quite advanced for beginners.

That's sort of inherent in the style, I'm afraid. French Musette (aka Bal-musette) is a fairly challenging subgenre on the whole.

As I mentioned in the other thread, Valse Brune (in volume 1) is probably the easiest musette-ish tune I can think of. The first part of Back to Bach (volume 2) isn't too bad either once you get the hang of it.

Poppier French songs, like Under the Bridges of Paris, Pigalle, Domino, etc., can be a lot easier, but I don't think those would technically be "musette". (Not an expert, despite having a French last name...)