fiddlepogo - Posted - 09/27/2012:  17:51:32

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Originally posted by DougD

Michael, you were good enough to watch the demo video I mentioned, but you came away from that very short example with some serious misconceptions about my playing. That was the only fiddle tune in a set of 7 or so pieces, and I remember thinking while I was playing it that I wasn't bowing the way I usually do, and specifically that reading some of the  threads at the FHO was hurting my playing. I was just trying to get through it and end the set in a dignified manner, so I used more sawstrokes. Any fiddler uses some sawstroke passages, but I don't think that's usually a big part of the way I play. I admire a lot of fiddlers, including Doc Roberts, but I only play two of his "signature" pieces - "New Money," which I learned on mandolin from his son James about 30 years ago, and "Martha Campbell," which I'm sure I really learned from Buddy Thomas' record "Kitty Puss." I've never even heard a lot of his recordings until recently - they weren't widely available. He is usually considered a "long bow" fiddler, but I really have no idea what his bowing strategy was. I know you found that video of him playing "Wagoner," which is quite an unexpected treasure, but that was late in his life, and a somewhat atypical tune for him. In fact it was funny that in that thread I started about Heifetz' bowing, the examples you found from different other fiddlers were much different than the pieces I was thinking of. I meant to comment on it, but didn't have time. Maybe I'll have to revisit that.

What I meant here was that if you listen to a lot of Tommy Jarrel's playing, maybe some of that rhythm will come out in your own playing if you like it, but on other tunes if you don't want to try and exactly imitate him. I like a lot of the "modern Round Peak players," but I'd still look for inspiration to the older generation. That's what the "modern" ones did.

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Well, I'm glad you clarified that... I did have a fleeting thought here or there that "One tune is an AWFULLY SMALL SAMPLE!"'

And that would be as true of Doc Roberts as of you.

Now you've got me curious, and wanting to hear/see a video of some of your playing that you think is more typical!

In GENERAL, I'd agree with you about looking to the older players for inspiration... but specifically for the "leading the beat" TJ lick, I think there's more of a chance of hearing different takes on it from modern R.P. players..

For being out of your comfort zone, you did REALLY well!!!

I don't think it was that unusual for the better fiddlers of that generation to have a couple of different strategies they could use effectively-  basically a more old fashioned style, since they would have been very familiar with the older fiddlers playing as they were growing up, plus the fiddling styles that they and their contemporaries were attracted to.

It's also not unheard of for a fiddler's style to change over time, especially if there has been a hiatus of some kind.

I know from experience that putting your fiddling back together after a long hiatus produces a different result than the fiddling from before the hiatus.  Things that may have been easy then become hard... things that were hard then finally "click" and become easy.  And from what I've read, it was REALLY common for the fiddlers born around 1900 to stop fiddling for a long time, usually during the '40's and '50's.

groundhogpeggy - Posted - 09/28/2012:  04:50:57

Not to chamge the subject, but maybe just a little bit...I was thinking about this...we had to get up extra early this morning and I decided because of my continuing example of guitar picking, which I am extremely comfortable with after 50 years of playing ( though not really good...lol...still, I know pretty much how to fingerpick), I decided...ok...my example is aways that once learning to fingerpick, for me as a child, was like learning to bow now...I looked at YouTubes showing people folk style fingerpicking patterns to see what I'd be up against f I wa trying to learn that now, cold...yeeeeeesh! All I can say is I'm glad I'm NOT trying to earn to fingerpick a guitar. There are tons of YouTubes, showing tons of patterns ... People trying to dissect them and show people how you would combine them, etc. well it made e glad that I can at least toss these finger ideas ( plus many others) in and out of guitar picking in a matter of split seconds...and I feel for any adult attempting to earn this! Them there's me on fiddle now: glad I'm fairly comfortable with Nashville shuffle, so I ain't jst standing out shivering in the cold on this...but recognizing the monotony you can get into ( same thing with fingerpicking...one s good, but there's only so much f it you can take)... So...it was a helpful reminder...patience...learn...and let go enoug to let em go...but still hanging onto them! I think I'll get it...at some point! As an adult, you don't have the same patience as a child, because you aren't as easily satisfied...but then again, you can see past things kids don't look for...so you can focus in n where it is you're going with it all. I'm gonna hang tight...wish I had mre time!!!! But I'll be thinking about it when I can't try it. And now...daylight is creeping through and I can hear those chickens making a racket...so the day s officially on!

fiddlepogo - Posted - 09/28/2012:  13:15:15

That's an interesting take on things.

The challenge with the information explosion is that you have piles of stuff to sort through and attempt to filter and organize.

It's easy to get into "looking for a needle in a haystack" situations as well as "can't see the forest for the trees" situations.

And that's as true of music as anything else- musical Information overload!