Blogging along...

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Posted by groundhogpeggy on Thursday, May 14, 2015

1 person likes this

I've thought of blogging, but somehow, weirdly, my thoughts do not turn into blogs. I thought about starting up my old blog again, but somehow, weirdly, everything I ever wrote on it is still there-- knitting observations, walk blogs with photos, guitar thoughts...stuff from way back before I even had a fiddle! So...now I'm thinking of fiddle blogging, mainly because the fiddle will consume about 94.2078643% per cent if your wakeful thinking, causing much of your wakeful thinking to be sleepy thinking...just thinking. No blogging yet, but it might be easier to use this blog spot here at FHO. And I guess one if my first blogs might be about double stops. I spent a year, the last year, working hard at emulating double stops of some famous, great double stop fiddlers-- Bobby Hicks, Johnny Gimble, Randy Howard-- in any of my spare moments here and there where I could. Thanks to John Cockman at Bluegrassdaddy, who gives excellent lessons in these things plus other types of fiddling. But that year us up...here I am busted flat and done emulating. Oddly enough, as much effort as I put into that, I feel I will never play those again. I'm done emulating...that IS a real word, I hope. Maybe I should say I'm done imitating. I might go back to the tunes/sings, but from my own style. But I feel that I have spent the year very well, because I crawled into a small part of the thinking of these great fiddlers, with John Cockman's help. That's the part I want to keep. That's the part I hope t wrestle down and make sense of. I love double stops, but I'm still wondering if they are a natural occurrence in my fiddling. And so that discovery will be something for me to work at this year, all on my own. Also, after having dropped out of the Bluegrass Band, where emulating was also king...lol...I hope now to explore the inner workings of my fiddling-- why do I play? Easy to see when you're not preoccupied by trying to sound like someone else. And so, if I can get the time to think, to play, to mess around with what I want, to utilize my experiences by getting to know a handful of great fiddlers over the past year, I might just figure something out.

7 comments on “Blogging along...”

groundhogpeggy Says:
Thursday, May 14, 2015 @6:21:35 AM

I seem to not be able to hit the o on this iPad keyboard...no time for editing now, though.

EricBluegrassFiddle Says:
Thursday, May 14, 2015 @7:44:26 AM

I think with the old time fiddling, you know like what we both heard in Kentucky, there's alot more personal expression in that. You know the old folks wouldn't teach you anything, you watched, then you went and did it as best as you could, or saw it, or heard it....and then did it your own way ( that's the old time Kentucky way of teaching and learning LOL. I think you should just listen to the tunes, pick up your fiddle and just work it out on your own in your won way. You like the old time fiddling and as long as the melody's there and people can hear it, recognizze it and maybe even other can follow it, it'll be ok. You'll no doubt plug-in a little of what you've been learning into your own intepretations. So I say just play and go with it. Let it come out as you feel it, as you play. With Bluegrass, it's a bit more complex in that, there's not as much room for expression as one might think. The melodies, licks and the intepretations have a littlw wiggle room, but you still have to kinda keep it close to the way at leastr one of the founding father fiddlers played it. Especially with hardcore Bluegrass purists. If you try to through in a little "Tommy Jarrel" sound or Lewis County up-bowing licks, Bluegrass folks are not gonna understand it. I think that's what pushed you away and your just used to learning and playing and intepreting stuff in your own way.

groundhogpeggy Says:
Thursday, May 14, 2015 @9:19:38 AM

Yeah...and finding our own path is always an adventure!

ChickenMan Says:
Thursday, May 14, 2015 @9:33:50 AM

I stumbled upon a post of yours over at banjo hangout. In it, you mentioned you were GETTING a fiddle! I knew it was you by your writing style. Here you are, several years in and making real nice music on the fiddle. I will say, it seemed outside your general interest to be doing all that fancy fiddling, just based on the content of your posts. I figured you must have had some itch, now it turns out those double stops were in your head. I bet it will spill out into your playing in the future after it's festered in you system for a while. I look forward to your musings on this beast called the fiddle. And yes, emulate is a word :‹)

groundhogpeggy Says:
Thursday, May 14, 2015 @10:38:55 AM

Ha...it is a word after all!!! Thank you, Chickenman...wise words from an experienced fiddler!