How many times have you
heard someone (perhaps yourself) ask, "What's the difference
between a violin and fiddle?" Beyond the short answer, "spelling,"
this age-old conundrum invites the ponderer to step beyond stereotypes
and assumptions, and to explore music’s many meanings. I've
encountered the question many times myself. I began as a classically
trained violinist, then switched to playing folk music in my 20s.
Since then, I've taught fiddle at universities, dance camps, and
ASTA and NCOA summer camps, as well as at my own In the Groove Workshops
and Groove Camp, in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Some fiddlers say that
the only way to learn fiddling is to go hang out and jam with fiddlers,
preferably primary sources. It's what the vast majority of fiddlers
past and present have done. Others say they’ve learned most
of their repertoire from recorded sources, while some even learn
by reading exclusively. Still, jamming remains the prevalent way
of sharing fiddle music with others, and jam sessions are cultivated
carefully in communities to maintain this opportunity. Dances (contra,
square, Cajun, step, clogging) are what fiddling is designed to
support, while jams are the ideal setting for actual learning.
There are as many styles
of fiddling as there are communities with fiddlers in them, and
each regional music has a physical and cultural home. The music
fits and describes the place it’s played in, the people who
play it, the kind of community it is, even the climate!
Be forewarned: After
a lifetime of consciously not tapping your feet when you play the
violin, it will start to creep back in when you play fiddle tunes.
This is perfectly normal and nothing to be alarmed about: It means
you're hitting the groove, the place where the music flows like
honey from your fingers. Welcome to fiddling. Here are 12 questions
that classical players frequently ask about fiddling, and yes, even
some written examples to help you make the connection.
1. How does fiddling
differ from classical music?
Beat, beat, beat! Most
classical music has a stronger accent on the downbeat, while fiddling
accents the upbeat for dancers (see Example 1). Regional or ethnic
fiddling styles use different left- and right-hand techniques to
produce authentic sounds, with beat placements and degrees of swing
changing from one style to the next.
Fiddle music evolved
for dancing, and improvisation and spontaneous composition are the
heart of fiddling. Jazz players compose a new melodic line over
the chord changes. Fiddlers use the bow and left-hand ornaments
to drum a new rhythm over the melody, accenting key parts of the
dance with licks, drones, and dynamics, since dancers will use the
tune to tell their place in the dance.
Fiddling is an oral
tradition. Fiddlers learn hundreds, even thousands, of tunes, almost
entirely by ear and in a variety of keys and modes. We learn from
other musicians at jam sessions, and from recorded and (sometimes)
printed sources. Most classical players use printed music to train
the ear, which kicks in when sight-reading the music. But you can't
learn fiddle rhythms or styles from written music; you must hear
it first. Fiddling pedagogy asks you to hear all the layered parts
of a phrase–melody, beat placement, left- and right-hand ornaments,
dynamics, chord changes and other moving lines–and then try
to reproduce exactly what you hear.
Playing for dances is
fiddling's main function, but jam sessions are the important forum
for learning style and for transmitting repertoire and fiddling
culture. We learn to play with others at the jam, flowing with the
group beat or groove. We create medleys, and arrange tunes creatively
on the fly. At "slow-jam" sessions, we play tunes at a
slower speed to allow everyone to grab the basic tune, then gradually
speed up to a dance tempo: 115–130 beats per minute for hoedowns,
hornpipes, and reels in 2/4, jigs or marches in 6/8, and marches
in 4/4.
2. Why does fiddling
sound so scratchy and out of tune?
There is no universal
performance standard in fiddling, nor a universal scale, because
scales and standards are culturally relative. We bend notes, raise
a scale degree by several cents, and generally emphasize groove
over a flawless tone. What you'd call "scratchy fiddlers"
are likely to be what fiddlers call "primary sources."
We revere these ancestors and bearers of tradition, often trying
to model their styles. Tommy Jarrell is a primary source among southern
old-time fiddlers, and Franco-American fiddler Louis Beaudoin is
always in my head when I play French-Canadian tunes. This modeling
is done with the utmost respect, even reverence, for the source,
hearing beyond limited technique or the infirmities of age to their
rhythms, creative variations, and the soul they put into it.
3. Why aren't you
playing what's written down for the tune?
Published fiddle music
is usually only a skeleton of what we play, often lacking bowings,
dynamics, ornaments, variations, or even chords. Tunes are usually
written unswung, with one full repeat of the melody line (usually
two eight-bar phrases repeated—once through most square and
contra dances). Variations, beat placement, and bowing syncopations
are implied and change with style. Most of this "performance
practice" couldn't be read by the majority of fiddlers. Defining
techniques are learned as part of a style, and applied to the tunes
as a spoken accent is to a language (see Example 2).
4. Why does it feel
like I'm bowing everything backwards?
Maybe you are! Some
tunes play easier with an up bow on the downbeat, reversing what
you may be used to. The bowing pattern may even reverse the next
time we play the phrase. We may end up bowing a phrase in both directions,
producing the same rhythmic accent both ways. Driven up bows are
also common in some styles (see Example 3), while other styles slur
across the beat and bar lines for more syncopation. We follow the
groove and accent it, regardless of bow direction.
5. Why don't you use
all of your bow?
It's a misconception
that fiddlers don't use the whole bow. Regional styles change and
vary. Some use long, fluid bow strokes—Texas, Cajun—and
others use short, repeated bow strokes—Cape Breton, French-Canadian,
and some southern old-time styles. Many fiddlers work off the balance
point of the bow, using the weighted center for power and mobility.
A player who favors the tip might compensate by choking up on the
bow hold to shorten the stick length.
6. What's that rocking
thing you keep doing with your bow?
Usually it's a shuffle.
Shuffles accent the offbeat for natural syncopation. The basic shuffle
forces an offbeat accent in 2/4 (see Example 4). We can create different
rhythms by tying notes together over a two-bar phrase, often across
the bar lines and beats. There's a "split bowing" shuffle
with two notes slurred, two separate over a pattern of four notes
(see Example 5). The Georgia Shuffle is a three-slurred, one-separate
bowing rhythm that can pop the offbeat out like an elbow in the
ribs (see Example 6).
7. What about dynamics?
Usually the focal point
of the tune is played louder, while some notes are played softer
or even ghosted. Dynamics within a bar punch the offbeat like a
heartbeat or breathing—soft, loud, soft, loud. One approach
is to play a double-stop drone from the harmony on the offbeat (again,
see Example 3).
8. Don’t you
get sick of playing the same 32 bars over and over again?
We don't play them the
same way over and over. Once you learn the ornaments in any style
you'll be able to vary the melody authentically in that style. We
also play medleys of tunes for fun and to avoid repetitive use injuries.
Variations begin on the second or third repetition, and then we
might vary the rhythm under the tune a little. It's always moving
somewhere, never static (see Example 7).
9. What about vibrato?
You won't hear it much.
Most reels are full of 16th notes played at 120 bpm, with no time
for vibrato. You might use it in waltz, but all ornaments in any
style are subordinate to the rhythm. If there isn't room for the
ornament "in the groove" we lose the ornament rather than
lose the beat.
10. How do you set
up, tune, and hold your instrument?
Most modern fiddlers
have their instruments set up much like a violinist's. Some fiddlers
let the bridge do the work of playing adjacent-string drones, filing
the top of the bridge's curve down a bit. We may also keep a second
instrument tuned to an open chord, say AEAE from bottom to top.
In AEAE you can play either in A minor or A major–or both.
Many traditions—Southern old time, Cajun, Scandinavian, French-Canadian—have
tunes that require retuning to (bottom to top) AEAE for tunes in
A, ADAE for tunes in D, and AEAC# for A major. Our fiddling postures
are personal, based on physique and inclination (and yes, sometimes,
ignorance), and often dictated by the rigors of the style we're
playing. You'll see many variations on bow and instrument holds.
11. I can already
play the violin. How long will it take to learn to fiddle?
First, it's important
to recognize the fiddling stereotypes lurking in your subconscious.
A common one is the assumption that because "it's almost all
in first position, it should be easy, and besides, I can play already."
You probably have more left-hand position chops than most fiddlers,
and are able to read almost anything with facility and speed. But
don't underestimate what fiddlers do. How many ways could you rearrange
the notes in four or eight or 16 bars of music at 120 bpm, playing
the tune authentically with good timing and ornaments, creating
tiny rhythmic variations with each repetition yet never losing the
outline of the melody, never playing it exactly the same way twice,
keeping a rocking offbeat going all the while, changing tunes and
keys in medleys and arranging all of them intuitively, without using
sheet music?
Fiddling is another
language and immersion is the best way to learn. Find a style you
love and learn everything you can—tunes, harmonies, rhythms.
Listen repeatedly so your fingers can catch minute changes in rhythm
and melody. When you learn any tune the first time, you imprint
it, so aim high and learn from the best. If possible, find a mentor
you can play with regularly, and learn enough tunes to be able to
play in a jam session. Keep a music notebook and write down every
tune you learn, noting bowings, suggested harmonies, licks. At the
very least, keep a recorded journal and a tune list.
12. Why should I learn
fiddling at all?
There are two compelling
reasons to learn and teach fiddling in schools and private studios.
First, it satisfies all ten of the MENC National Standards for Music
Educators: a) Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire
of music; b) Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a
varied repertoire of music; c) Improvising melodies, variations,
and accompaniments; d) Composing and arranging music within specified
guidelines; e) Reading and notating music; f) Listening to, analyzing,
and describing music; g) Evaluating music and music performances;
h) Understanding relationships between music and other arts, and
disciplines outside the arts; i) Understanding music in relation
to history and culture; and j) Integrating dance with music.
Second, how many of
your string students will make it to an orchestral, teaching, or
solo career as an adult, or even grow up to play in an amateur chamber
group? Don't you want them to have as many opportunities as they
can to become lifelong musicians? Besides, you never know where
the next Mark O'Connor or Natalie MacMaster is going to come from.
Maybe one of your students?
