Posted by BoFiddley on Sunday, February 13, 2011
Well, my band's in the studio this month and we managed to record five tracks on our first day of recording - not bad for a bunch of novices! We’re doing it all live as well, with no opportunity for patching things up later – yikes. Amazingly, I’m actually doing a lot of improvising, nothing special, but at least it takes me one tiny step closer to my ultimate goal (of being a red-hot, devil-may-care bluegrass fiddler). Of course I’ve painstakingly worked out all my breaks in advance (and practiced them all a gazillion times) but when I’m doing backup I sort of mess around with various ideas I’ve been working on over the last few weeks. So that’s got to be a good thing (in theory)!
In other news, I learned a lot about improvisation this week in a lesson with a fiddler called Aaron Jonah Lewis, an American guy based in Berlin and currently doing some gigs in London. My brief to him was simple: I told him I wanted to learn to like Soldier’s Joy. I’ve always hated this tune; it’s just too happy and fiddley-diddley for my tortured soul. I prefer tunes that are spooky or sad, or that have some tension or emotion to them, but Soldier’s Joy just leaves me cold. Aaron started by teaching me a weird version that a friend of his made up. Just copying this note-for-note was an eye opener – it had me putting my fingers into shapes they had never known, and doing some dissonant double stops that sounded like cool mistakes.
He also had some excellent practical advice about different approaches you can take to improvisation. For example, take a tune and play it all using double stops. Or all fifths even. Play it in a different key and see how that changes what you do with it. Play an entire tune using hammer-ons, or the double shuffle, or slide every note. Not that any of these are necessarily going to sound good; they’re just excercises for generating ideas. But my favourite piece of advice was, pick something that you like doing (like a certain way of sliding, a certain shuffle, or whatever) and apply it to the tune. I had a go at Soldier’s Joy using as much double shuffle a possible. It totally works – you can replace those annoying arpeggios at the beginning with a double shuffle on a D chord, and voila! Soldier’s Joy suddenly sounds cool!
I think I might bin off the scales for a month and instead just loop some guitar backup to let loose with. (But let’s get this album out of the way first...)
7 comments on “Bluegrass Improvisation Blog 05: One Small Step for Fiddlin' Kind”
Bart Says:
Sunday, February 13, 2011 @12:12:22 PM
What a great post! Congrats on all of it: the recording, the lesson, the insights, and the perseverance. It's a great post for me, too, because I'm with you! I've always hated soldier's joy. Post us an MP3!!
Thanks for the ideas on applying one technique to a whole tune to play around with it. As you know, I'm also working pretty hard on scales just now, but as my teacher jokingly says, I commit to scales, and the I just keeping going to pieces (literally playing pieces). So, he's helping me build ITM ornaments into my scales. He's also working with me to play with my heart on my sleeve more, and I think the experimentation will help.
Keep posting. I'm fascinated by your journey with the fiddle.
mudbug Says:
Sunday, February 13, 2011 @3:01:27 PM
Hey, Angie! Wow! 5 tracks in one session is quite a feat. You still have to mix them, right? Love your tips on how to change your feelings about a tune.
WoodshopFiddler Says:
Sunday, February 13, 2011 @5:38:18 PM
I will try your techniques with some of the tunes I play that I feel have gone a little "stale".
BoFiddley Says:
Monday, February 14, 2011 @1:55:52 AM
Thanks for your comments, everyone! Indeed, still gotta mix the tracks, but we're not doing any overdubs or anything. Two more days to go and the idea is to do five tracks per day. Phew!
And Liz, I like the idea of building ornaments into scales - I'll try that one. Thanks for the tip and keep on keepin' on!
bj Says:
Monday, February 14, 2011 @11:05:19 AM
WOOHOO! Sounding good, girlfriend!
It occurred to me to suggest something to you just so you can maybe play with it a bit. If you've got a second fiddle, slap some steel strings on it if it doesn't have 'em, and tune the G string up to an A. Now play soldiers joy with the open drone down low. Now switch fiddles and apply what you heard. Or don't switch and become an OT crazed crosstuner . . . ;-)
Listen to Benton Flippen's version of Soldier's Joy. He really puts the joy in it!
BoFiddley Says:
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 @5:06:25 AM
Rockin' good news, bj! Can't wait to try that one!
Charlie The Fiddler Says:
Tuesday, February 15, 2011 @10:41:00 AM
It sounds like the soldiers joy you are playing is the southern or old time US version. If you can find a copy of Cole's 1,000 fiddle tunes, Soldiers joy is in it. It would be more of a New England or Canadian version. Charlie the Fiddler
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