Posted by fiddlepogo on Monday, January 18, 2010
Monday afternoon volunteer gig rolled around- both places I do it I've been playing there for years, and have a loyal and enthusiastic audience. Today was the place with the difficult acoustics, and last week, the new bow only did okay.
Today I wanted all the help I could get, so I did the rosin on the stick side of the hair trick.
However, I wanted to get some practice or warmup time in before the gig, but serious discussions with the DW precluded that. And the weather has been wet, and the fiddle didn't sound spectacular last night.
Well, it spite of that, the bow, the strings and my right hand all worked great together!
The tone was surprisingly good and loud, and shuffling went swimminglly.
What didn't go so well was the left hand- it seemed kind of disconnected from my brain today for some reason. I made some dumb left hand mistakes in places I don't usually make them. Still, all in all, I was happy.
There's a lady there from Missouri who married a Texan and lived there for years, and so she's REALLY fond of Bob Wills tunes, and she asked me for "San Antonio Rose". I actually did it for her from sheet music- and that's getting pretty bold, because I hadn't practiced it to speak of. A bit funky, but getting the better bow tone made it more tolerable, I think. Then I did Faded Love, also from sheet music, and that went even better, but then, it's a lot like Darlin' Nellie Gray, which I kind of know.
The rosin on the stick side of the hair seems to be a keeper- especially before a gig- the bow seems to have such good traction when I do that, not to mention good tone- it really increases my confidence!
Oh yeah, we had the Old Time jam. Pretty normal, really-- 1 guitarist, 2 banjo players, a singer and a beginning uke player- all regulars. And no sloshed guitarists!!!!
I think the new bow being lighter helped me not get so tired, another plus for it.
3 comments on “Another gig with the new bow- successful!!!”
bj Says:
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 @9:50:23 PM
I'm glad it's working out so nicely for you.
Humbled by this instrument Says:
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 @9:56:08 PM
Hey Michael, don't know if I'm shuffling swimmingly, but with all the precipitation we've had, I'm raining in most all of the little glitches which were bothering me earlier, making it easier for me to dive in to new patterns and lics, try new strokes, etc. In other news, I had two sloshed band members at our last practice. The changes in chords, tempo, timing, and keys were a thing to behold, best from afar certainly.... Sloshed guitarists must be making the rounds.
Humbled by this instrument Says:
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 @9:57:19 PM
And then drinking them.
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