Now I'm playing a number of G tunes that I haven't played so much. I don't have my list with me so I forget details. But it includes Silly Bill and YZ Hamilton's Special Breakdown. 

I'm on a work trip for a few days where it's very hot (115 F), and although I'm mostly in air conditioning I decided to leave fiddles at home and bring my melodica instead, which is kind of fun. I wish I played harmonica, as it would be even more portable. But I'm fairly sure I would suck at it. Whereas I can actually play a melodica.

Re portable- Yes I envy the whistle players, who just carry their whistle around everywhere in a purse, backpack or pocket…harmonica must be the same!

I had to look up what a “melodica” is…it looks fun to play (especially for people who already play piano).

Blue Moon waltz...absolutely in love with this one.

Tipping Back the Corn...learning by ear so far.

and double stops on Tenn Waltz

In addition to practicing three tunes for the upcoming contest I plan to enter this Saturday, I'm also practicing the tunes I've learned to play this week and last that I've decided not to play in the contest: Arkansas Fiddler, Fiddler's Dream and Echoes of the Ozarks. That'll keep me busy enough.

That Slippery-Hill site is loaded with great, fun tunes to play. Some of those recordings reveal some pretty danged good fiddlers.

Today I worked on the fiddle break to "I don't believe youve met my baby" by the Louvins in the key of Eb.

Lo and behold, it started coming around.

My greatest challenge remains the right hand, but even that seems behaving better these days...

Ol Slewfoot
You ain't going nowhere
House of the Rising Sun
Crazy
Rose Colored Glasses
Every Picture tells a Story
Gentle on My Mind

I was testing a wireless lavaleer mike clipped to the top of a banjer hoop. It sounded awful. I don't know why I kept going. That's a lie. I kept going because the songs kept coming, and I was sort of having a good time.

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Originally posted by farmerjones

Ol Slewfoot
You ain't going nowhere
House of the Rising Sun
Crazy
Rose Colored Glasses
Every Picture tells a Story
Gentle on My Mind

I was testing a wireless lavaleer mike clipped to the top of a banjer hoop. It sounded awful. I don't know why I kept going. That's a lie. I kept going because the songs kept coming, and I was sort of having a good time.

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Love your choices. You're just playin' tunes you like..that have penetrated your brain. It indicates your fluency on the instrument, something I've been trying to develop since Day One. As Bruce Springsteen once sang, "I got this guitar and I learned how to make it talk."

Nobody has bumped this lately…

so whatcha playing these days? :-)

I am learning a doozy called Frank’s Reel. In which I discovered that if I slur into triplets when going fast, I can only do it on an upbow…so I had to carefully work out/practice all the bowing so that I was always heading Upbow into triplets…(I dunno why I just can’t slur downbow into triplets! but probably will have to learn how someday).

And this eerily beautiful jig called “hag at the churn”. I play both melody and guitar chords/backing,…maybe this is the first tune where I backed first (in group) and learned the melody second (at home). Felt kind of weird to learn it that way.

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Originally posted by RB-1

Today I worked on the fiddle break to "I don't believe youve met my baby" by the Louvins in the key of Eb.

Lo and behold, it started coming around.

My greatest challenge remains the right hand, but even that seems behaving better these days...

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Great song, clever songwriting.

I've been playing "Bound to Have a Little Fun" - delightfully crooked but not as difficult to work out as many are. 

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Originally posted by NCnotes

“hag at the churn”

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That made me chuckle...hag

Got a reenactment at the old fort coming up in an couple weeks, so brushing up on the standards--Soldier's Joy, Whiskey B4 Breakfast, Cold Frosty Morning, etc.

Adding more redneck music to our country band set--Waylon Jenning's "Good Ol Boys" (Dukes of Hazzard theme), Jerry Reed "Eastbound and Down" (Smoky and the Bandit), and "Thunder and Lightening", (Lonesome River Band).

Otherwise, been immersing in Scottish:  Niel Gow's laments, Roslin Castle variations, The Warlocks/Witches/Tam's Grey Mare, Ewie with the Crooked Horn, various strathspeys.  Scottish fiddle tunes make the best etudes I have found--even better than Kreutzer, and they are vastly more melodic.  Edit:  and also Bach Cello Suite 1, Prelude.

Good luck with the ornamental bowing--very fun challenge

Cool, Flat!
You are busy - what a wide variety!

On Scottish side over here, been playing “banks of spey” and the reel “Brenda Stubbards.” ( Everybody always knows Brenda Stubbards but I always get dead silence for Banks of Spey, pretty much stopped asking :-)

Bach cello suite no 1 is the best ever!
Yo yo Ma’s version is perfection ( in my opinion) but of course your opinion may differ… I thought about taking up the viola just so I could play those Bach cello suites…maybe in another lifetime, ha! Can at least try to play Bach partitas for this lifetime…

PS  Many Irish tunes have "hag" in the title! You're either a "maid" or a "hag" (eyeroll)...seems like American OT tunes have better names...

NCnotes - Do you mean "Brenda Stubbert's Reel," actually composed by Jerry Holland?

Today I am practising this great fiddler's version of Drunken hiccups:
youtu.be/FCjSOfX050k?

Never heard it played like that. Do you know where he got the idea?
Its often played in "Black Mtn Rag" tuning - AEAc#.
Here's the version I'm familiar with: youtu.be/bDJPnG3RDxU?feature=shared

'The Mocking bird'.......I think I got it down Pat, except for the singing birdy... 

I see that he says: "This is a tune that has been going round in my mind for most of the day, so this evening I decided to try and nail it and get it recorded on a video.
It's very loosely based on the tune Jack of Diamonds and in my mind it conjures up what might be heard being played in a saloon bar during those heady days of the Californian goldrush."
So I guess this is an original tune that he'd been playing for a whole day!
There are a lot of very different versions of a tune with this name (or "Jack of Diamonds," or "Rye Whiskey") but I think I'll stick with Tommy, because thst's how I sing it. I don't really play it much, but when I do its in standard tuning, in G.

buckhenry - Do you do the woodpecker imitation?
Or maybe you mean this one? youtu.be/g47_NI1CWNQ?feature=shared

So, I went to a new teacher last Thursday after picking up my fiddle from the set up shop. It was tough heading to a lesson with what felt like a new fiddle! Long story short, the new teacher idea was brilliant. An hour lesson...he says, "play me something you know" and if that didn't put the pressure on...lol
So I fumbled through some tunes and then we worked on a tune I've never heard or played. Spotted Pony
A and B parts broke down. Notes and bow patterns to learn. I had a great time and learned a new tune. It's been a few days now and I have this song nailed. 1 lesson. Never heard the tune and bam, I have a new tune.

Here's a recording with just banjo and guitar, if you want somebody to play with. Will states the melody pretty clearly too.

Doug, whoops you are right!
“Brenda Stubbert’s Reel” by Jerry Holland. It’s a great one 

Erockin, sounds like a great lesson! If you are feeling confident about playing, must be good teacher...(and that guitar/banjo track by Doug is so good, I may have to leave my genre and learn Spotted Pony too! )

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Originally posted by DougD

Here's a recording with just banjo and guitar, if you want somebody to play with. Will states the melody pretty clearly too.

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IS there a way to download this MP3? I'd love to be able to record fiddle to this! 

Eric, when you click the link and the player appears, doesn't it say "Download MP3" just under the title? I haven't blocked it.

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Originally posted by DougD

Eric, when you click the link and the player appears, doesn't it say "Download MP3" just under the title? I haven't blocked it.

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Ahhhhh! Got it! Now I have homework. Thanks!

quote:

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Originally posted by DougD

I see that he says: "This is a tune that has been going round in my mind for most of the day, so this evening I decided to try and nail it and get it recorded on a video.
It's very loosely based on the tune Jack of Diamonds and in my mind it conjures up what might be heard being played in a saloon bar during those heady days of the Californian goldrush."
So I guess this is an original tune that he'd been playing for a whole day!
There are a lot of very different versions of a tune with this name (or "Jack of Diamonds," or "Rye Whiskey") but I think I'll stick with Tommy, because thst's how I sing it. I don't really play it much, but when I do its in standard tuning, in G.

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He is a genious!  I love the way he gives his own twist to each tune, this version is very uplipfting and has some sense of melancholy in it I love that combination.

No matter what tune you play, Doug has got the Info! :-)

And what a weird coincidence...
At the group on Sunday, a (non-toxic) snake crawled under my guitar case. We all just went on calmly playing tunes for a while, which was surprising. Then the other fiddler told us about how people put snake rattles into their fiddles to make 'em sound better. Then the accordion player said, "Don't believe a word he says!" I really did not know what to think...but the first thing Tommy Jarrell does in the video (linked by Doug above) is put a snake rattle into his f-hole??! 

** Ending: Eventually one of the session members scooped the snake into his hat and carried it away and threw it into the grass!