50 traditional klezmer tunes with playalongs.

The Klezmer Playbook is a collection of 50 traditional klezmer tunes respectfully transcribed from historical sources and carefully arranged, with professionally recorded playalongs for digital download. The book is available in six versions, suitable for all instruments.

The melodies in this book are popular tunes played at klezmer jam sessions around the world. They are simplified for ease of reading, written with only a few indications of articulation, phrasing and ornamentation. We have selected the tunes to include the most common dance and non-dance styles (khosidl, freylekh, bulgar, zhok/hora, waltz, honga, patsh tants, terkisher, dobriden) and ensured all the typical klezmer modes and keys are well represented. Also included are some useful worksheets on modes, accompaniment rhythms and chords as well as links to resources.

The Klezmer Playbook is available in six different editions, so you can play these tunes with every member of your ensemble. You just need the right book for your instrument!

“This is a brilliant collection of tunes, and a great resource for klezmer sessions as there are so many classic tunes and the transcriptions and recordings are so clear and helpful. The playalong tracks are absolutely beautiful and it's really useful having the slower practice speed as well as the performance speed tracks.”

Adina Presman, Klezjammers

Look inside the book

We invite you to have a look at the different editions of the book before you order – please just scroll down on this page.

Order the book here

About the playalongs

The playalongs, professionally recorded by Susi Evans (clarinet) and Szilvia Csaranko (piano), are a fun way to learn the tunes and beneficial to practising phrasing, style, rhythm and intonation. There are four playalong tracks for each tune in practise tempo, dance tempo and with and without melody. The first and the last tune in the book are quite slow melodies anyway, so these just come in one tempo. In total, you get 196 mp3s for download - that's more than 9 hours of music!