I picked up oldtime fiddling yesterday coming from playing oldtime banjo. Been playing constantly. I'm already pretty okay at it, feels good. I love playing it too, tells me that I probably just hate playing guitar cause I've tried many times to pick that up and never got farther than simple blues and half-assed Elizabeth Cotten covers.
I've been playing old time fiddle for about 3 years now, with a lot of Trad Irish thrown in there. Glad to hear someone else is into it. Biggest piece of advice since you just started is, even though you see a lot of photos of old time fiddlers holding their instrument and bow weird, you really shouldn't. Only makes the playing sloppier and not as easy, but then again I was classically trained
>>127759496For some reason, fingering and bowing came to me pretty quickly. Probably fretless banjo experience guiding the intonation and rhythm, but I'm not getting many squeaky notes either and I've got no prior bow experience. Sometimes instruments click I guess, which again, I think is a clear sign I'm just not meant for guitar.So anyway, I've got a bit of a head start it seems, and I feel like I can sorta judge how I want to approach it... I think? I might regret not taking your advice but I find the chest grip and the choked bow to be a lot nicer. I get a better tone, have better bow leverage, and the soundholes aren't blasting my left ear which already has some frequency loss. It also feels more mobile, like I can move my body with the rhythm and have more elbow room to bow with. I already went and took the chinrest off my fiddle. I figure if I start that way, I'll be more used to it. Plus it looks cool and it is traditional, the chest grip was the standard in Europe before chinrests were introduced and it carried over to America. There's a method behind the madness there, so I'm not completely without guidance. I'm tuned to AEAE right now, finding it very fun and intuitive, even went and tuned my banjo to aAEAE which definitely had a haunting droney sound. As for you, let me know if they're beginner, intermediate, or advanced, but do you have any favorite tunings, songs, or techniques to share?
https://youtu.be/4OGogTdVB-0?si=GAA-REF1gM8SKmAD
>>127759496>old time fiddlers holding their instrument and bow weird, you really shouldn't. Only makes the playing sloppier and not as easy,wrong. you can immediately tell when someone has classical violin training and tried to transition into fiddling because their bowing is too pretty. you have to add a bit of grit and elbow grease to it
>>127759947>any favorite tuningstry GDAD, you get this weird low drone from the g and a high drone from the Dhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KlpbfAZZ98
>>127759947Thats great to hear that it came to you naturally. I for one was absolutely not born to play the violin, took years before I was actually somewhat proud of my ability to play. When it comes to bowhold, I think whatever works for you is fine. Sometimes I have all my fingers correctly, sometimes I don't rest my pinky, sometimes I choke up and play higher on the bow, whatever works for you works for you. I'm more nitpicky about posture but I'm good enough a player that I can sound the same way whether I play from the neck or the chest, I'm just personally more comfortable from the neck. I think ideally, you should be able to play in any position with any bowhold and still sound good.I won't disagree that it looks cool or that it's more traditional, I just worry you might be inadvertently limiting yourself with the instrument if you don't even attempt to hold it "correctly". Same thing with reading music. I learn 100% of my old time songs by ear, but you should still learn to read music just because it gives you more options with the instrument. To be completely honest I haven't messed with cross-tuning that much just because I haven't gotten around to learning any tunes that are cross tuned. The only tuning thing I do often is I like tuning my strings down a half step, makes it sound more rustic and old-timey. >>127760818>you can immediately tell when someone has classical violin training and tried to transition into fiddling because their bowing is too pretty. you have to add a bit of grit and elbow grease to itDisagree. Adding grit and elbow grease doesn't solely come from posture it comes from your ability to change the pressure from your wrist in the bow. In fact I'd say it comes more from your right arm than anything else.
>>127759947>TechniquesYou should absolutely 100% go to the closest Old-Time jam around you, assuming you don't go to any already. Ask around in string or folk music shops, look online, find an old-time jam to go to as soon as possible. The people are always super excited to see new faces especially if you are genuinely dedicated to learning the tradition. Learn a few tunes but be prepared to sit back and just listen to a few songs if you don't know them perfectly. If you try to join in a tune and absolutely butcher it, that makes a terrible first impression. There's zero harm in just sitting back and listening to a tune you just don't know. Jams are by far the most important part of this type of playing. You can only listen to recordings so much, actually going out and playing with other people is the most accurate, traditional, and rewarding part. Jams help you practice learning by ear, learn new variations, new tunes, everything. Since the keys of old time music are all pretty simple, I wouldn't worry so much about practicing scales over and over like you would if you're playing classical. Definitely memorize them though. You should always always always be working on improving your bowing. The goal is to have absolutely zero tension in your right arm, and all the movement comes from your wrist and not your elbow. The pressure should come from your index finger pushing down on the bow. Fiddlers are able to play so many notes so fast and smoothly for two reasons. They don't use the entire bow, and they aren't holding the bow tightly. Try to use as short amount of bow as possible, if you use the whole bow for every note you are going to tire yourself out and make string crossings and fast playing more difficult.
>>127763759>Favorite songsHere's a list of ones I like to play and how often I've heard them played at jams. Sorry for being so long winded but I like this tradition a lot and I like seeing someone interestedHunt the Buffalo in A, beginner (common)Arkansas Traveler in G, beginner (very common)Angeline the Baker in G, beginner (very common)Billy in the Lowground in C, beginner (common)Dry & Dusty in A, beginner (common)Willow Creek in D, intermediate (rare)Old Grimes in G, intermediate (uncommon)Waynesboro in G, intermediate (common)Farewell Princeton in D, advanced (uncommon)Farewell Trion in G, advanced (uncommon)Big Black Cat in A minor, advanced (common)
>>127763529Yeah, I am switching around playing with different fiddle/bow positions, I don't need the chinrest to play under my chin. I like the look of the fiddle without it.>>127760828Will do. DDAD and ADAE are some I plan to play with too, along with standard. >>127763759I do a lot of improvisation and jamming on all my instruments, I approached the fiddle through improv and exploration first and foremost. Might take me a minute to find an oldtime jam, bluegrass is more popular around here and they piss me off cause they don't follow the tradition of keeping the root note of the scale the same throughout the whole jam, or at least using relative keys. Constantly have to capo/retune my banjo. They're all mandolin and guitar players so, you know. As for bowing, I'm trying to get rid of tension, and it's working but I still tense up sometimes. And yeah I do quick short bows unless I want some sustain, I can see that from watching fiddlers.>>127763789Will look at these. Been starting with Old Horse And Buggy and Cumberland Gap, along with Rare Old Mountain Dew, Rosin The Beau, and Loch Lomond. I have the same interests as you, blending my American fiddling with Celtic flair. Thanks for the advice, anon
>>127764146I play a little bit of banjo too so I know the feeling of how awful it is constantly retuning and recapo-ing. Rest assured that in old time jams they like to stay in one key for a long time to keep the banjo players from killing anyone. I'm glad your approach to learning has been good to you, improvisation is by far one of my weaker skills so I envy you. Theres definitely benefits to a freer learning experience vs. a classical training experience. I know my thing about the bow might seem over the top but it's because that the skill that took the longest for me to improve above everything else. Those are all great tunes you have picked out, good luck anon
