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Tunes as Vehicles

Posted by mudbug on Saturday, July 4, 2009

Well,  I've been at this fiddle journey now for 5 months,  playing every morning before work,  and in the evening.

I find at this point that I'm just STARTING to get comfortable with all the myriad details that go into fiddling  i.e. positioning of fiddle,  hand positions,  bow tightness and pressure,  etc.  I THINK I have all the major positioning issues out of the way,  and now it's just subtle little shifts.

It feels cool to have the fiddle in front of you,  and just swing it up to the shoulder in a smooth motion. 

I find that at this point,  I'm still satisfied to only play a few tunes.  I seem to be using the tunes as vehicles for working on the details of learning this instrument.  It reminds me of some jazzers years ago,  who when woodshedding,  would put on the same album ( remember those) for as much as a year.  

I have done this in the past on different instruments,  and it's amazing how a tune that you play every day will continue to show you new possibilities.  It's like an onion,  where with each new listen,  you are able to see more and more layers beneith.

Maybe,  in reality,  there IS only one universal tune.  



13 comments on “Tunes as Vehicles”

FiddleJammer Says:
Saturday, July 4, 2009 @4:59:46 AM

For some reason, I found that hornpipes helped me get the hang of rocking the bow. Boys of Bluehill, Harvest Home, and Morpeth Rant. Something about that boingy-boingy rhythm just clicked.

I enjoy your posts Steve.

Hey, come on down for the Harry Smith Frolic, eh?

bj Says:
Saturday, July 4, 2009 @5:20:45 AM

I suggest that soon you start branching out. Take three or four new tunes in the same key and start working on them one by one. Each new tune will give you bits more fiddle vocabulary, so you can start adding new blocks to your building kit. Learning in one key at a time will cement that key's patterns and notes and muscle memory positions into your brain and body. And as Terri said, start getting out to jams. It will shortcut you enormously.

Cyndy Says:
Saturday, July 4, 2009 @6:39:36 AM

You mention how cool it feels to swing the fiddle up to your shoulder and I can really connect with that. So many times I'll lift mine up thinking how comfortable it's become to have it under my chin. And then some days I take my hands away and let it dangle there like a funny neck appendage thinking how fun it would be if I had just been born with it hanging there ready to play. (laugh)

mudbug Says:
Saturday, July 4, 2009 @7:53:25 AM

Thankyou all. I think I need to just woodshed by myself for awhile. Otherwise, the details that I do badly by myself, I would just be doing badly with others. "To every thing (fiddle, fiddle, fiddle) there is a season". Plus, even though I have nothing against learning new tunes, I am of the belief (for myself at least) that one could learn everything that one needs to know about Bossa Nova for example, by playing along with "The Girl From Ippanima" album, or anything by Bill Evans for Jazz. There's a time to 'shed and a time to jam. Remember the days when people only owned a few albums, and friends would come to your house to listen to yours, and you would go to their house to listen to theirs. There wasn't this glut of music, and you would listen to the same album over and over, and you knew all the words and all the changes. I still remember those albums fondly, and even though I haven't heard some of them in many years, If I hear one of those songs today, as soon as it ends, I KNOW the song that should come next. Each album was a jewel with many facets. We have so much music avalable today, and while I'm thankful for that, with anything gained, ther's always something lost. I guess I just need to "micro-fiddle" at present. I'll know when it's time for me to go "macro".

ChickenMan Says:
Saturday, July 4, 2009 @8:41:51 AM

I still listen to 'albums' over and over and over again, using my vehicle's CD player (ooh, I tied that into your blog title!). I currently have a two disc set of Jake Krack tunes that i compiled from the Digital Library of Appalachia playing regularly for the past 4 months. Still haven't gotten "tired of it". Just like the Pink Floyd album The Wall that I learned inside and out as a high schooler, and which I can still recreate/recall note for note, sound effect for sound effect, I find the music I like wants me to give it repeated listening so I can truly get it into my being. And I tend to want to recreate the music I love, so this is a good thing.

mudbug Says:
Saturday, July 4, 2009 @8:57:13 AM

Yeah ChickenMan! You understand!

FiddleJammer Says:
Saturday, July 4, 2009 @1:49:13 PM

Steve, you'll just be wasting time playing in your cocoon.

Come on down to Harry Smith. It will move you along faster than any amount of time behind your woodshed. Trust me. We may sound like we're good, but there are some people who are not that great, just playing along as best they can. And, because they're playing along with others who can carry the load, everyone sounds better and everyone learns something. Perfection really is over-rated when it comes to old time fiddling.

FiddleJammer Says:
Saturday, July 4, 2009 @6:35:32 PM

And, I mean this in the nicest way. Really.

mudbug Says:
Sunday, July 5, 2009 @4:24:07 AM

Of course Terri, I always assume you're being nice! By the way, where and when is Harry Smith. Somewhere in Perth?

FiddleJammer Says:
Sunday, July 5, 2009 @5:13:14 AM

No.... This weekend Western Massachusetts, near Greenfield, just south of Brattleboro. Pack up your truck man! I have no connection, by the way. It's just (shhhhh, don't tell too many people) the sweetest littlt OT gathering in these parts.

http://www.sacrasoft.com/HarrySmith/

(I'm in Albany, NY these days. No Aussie festivals for me until next year, unless someone want to pay for a plane ticket sooner than that.)

jamieholmes Says:
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 @6:27:12 AM

Dear mudbug,
I can very mutch see myself in what you write.I am now going on the 1 year of playing and it is really starting to open op for me and I can't get enough I just think about fiddling all the time(it is as if I have reached my fiddle teen years I can't stop thinking about fiddling my fiddle all the time).
The only thing now is that my bow hand if not really keeping up with the other but I am
working on it.
I also only know a few tunes and that is where I go when I need to kick back from all the scales etc.

Fun to see that we are in the same boat going to the same shore ;D

Cheers,
Jamie.

mudbug Says:
Tuesday, July 7, 2009 @11:54:51 AM

" Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip
that started from this tropic port aboard this tiny ship" - Theme from Gilligan's Island

Hopefully Jamie, you get the reference ( I don't know if they do American 1960's tv show re-runs in Denmark), and hopefully we won't share their fate. Although, having a great adventure every week would sure be interesting! I don't know about you, but as a 10 year old boy, I was always kinda partial to Mary Ann!

Bouie Says:
Sunday, July 12, 2009 @6:47:01 PM

Mee too Steve! Great minds think alike...Of course I play more like Gilligan.

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