That was really nice...I'm loving your fiddling! I've never heard this one before but it sure sounds nice. I like the idea of a whispering fiddle...I guess how you came about discovering that must've come about as you gradually got really good bowing control or something. I don't know...I do agree your fiddle sounds like it's gently whispering out a beautiful tune...really nice fiddling.

That's very nice Anja. You always have good tone and intonation, and this tune with its free rhythm suits you well.
As to your question - some people are just slow learners (just kidding). Its more like we all sometimes have "blind spots."
PS - I thought you said recently that no woman needed children if she had a dog; now you're wishing your baby was born. Make up your mind!
PPS - Peggy I think this tune is from the movie "Cold Mountain," which used some retitled traditional tunes. I don't recognize this one either though.

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Originally posted by groundhogpeggy

That was really nice...I'm loving your fiddling! I've never heard this one before but it sure sounds nice. I like the idea of a whispering fiddle...I guess how you came about discovering that must've come about as you gradually got really good bowing control or something. I don't know...I do agree your fiddle sounds like it's gently whispering out a beautiful tune...really nice fiddling.

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Thanks! This one I also got to Know through thé movie Cold Mountain :-) Playing really slow now and thé everytime brings me back to thé basics that I was taught during violin classes ... Also Jason from Fiddlehed strongly recommends this. 

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Originally posted by DougD

That's very nice Anja. You always have good tone and intonation, and this tune with its free rhythm suits you well.
As to your question - some people are just slow learners (just kidding). Its more like we all sometimes have "blind spots."
PS - I thought you said recently that no woman needed children if she had a dog; now you're wishing your baby was born. Make up your mind!
PPS - Peggy I think this tune is from the movie "Cold Mountain," which used some retitled traditional tunes. I don't recognize this one either though.

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:-D I remember when I used to sing in a former rental house where I had neighbours next to me. The young couple was expecting a baby and for some reason one evening I picked this song to sing together with the sound track and I had put myself on endless repeat. The night that followed their child was born. It still feels a bit like it had to do with my singing !

On the subject of "Cold Mountain" and babies, Dirk Powell, the on-location music advisor for the film, is a friend of mine. A lot of the film was shot in Europe, because there are few places in North Carolina without power lines and other modern distractions. At the time Dirk and his wife Christine had an infant child, and he told me that at one point Nicole Kidman asked to hold the baby. Dirk said that her expression was usually somewhat guarded, because people were always asking her for things, but at that moment it all softened and melted away, and her true "normal" self shone through.
Here's a photo of me (playing guitar with my back to the camera) playing with Dirk and some others who played for the film.

Oh these are interesting facts to know! Nicole Kidman is a top actress to me also the role that Rene Zellweger had in this movie was very strong. That movie just has the best soundtrack ever. If it was just the story without the music this movie would not be in my list of favorite films. It's the music in the story that brings it to life.

I'm way behind the rest of the world on movies...I never could sit and watch them...lol. Anyway, I could've used that power to bring on a baby back 45 years ago when I was 2 weeks overdue and pretty fed up with waiting for the child...lol. Finally she decided to come into the world on her own during the June apple season, just while I was in the middle of my huge applesauce operation...lol. We had to borrow a car for the long trip up to the hospital and getting all that together while trying to hurry the canning of the applesauce and big mess cleanup was just about more than i could handle.

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Originally posted by groundhogpeggy

I'm way behind the rest of the world on movies...I never could sit and watch them...lol. Anyway, I could've used that power to bring on a baby back 45 years ago when I was 2 weeks overdue and pretty fed up with waiting for the child...lol. Finally she decided to come into the world on her own during the June apple season, just while I was in the middle of my huge applesauce operation...lol. We had to borrow a car for the long trip up to the hospital and getting all that together while trying to hurry the canning of the applesauce and big mess cleanup was just about more than i could handle.

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Hahaha I am laughing so hard because of the lyrics , they would have fit in  your story so well lol

I ain't ahead
Nor never will be
Till the sweet
Apple grows
On a sour apple tree

LOL!

Meanwhile I am trying to work on playing the tune as it is sung and singing while I am playing it. It works for the first lines, but then my voice is confused when I have to sing the notes of And the green grass growin' o'er my feet. I guess I need a different tuning here.
Now in EBEB. Tried FCFC, same problem there.

You could try the, what I call the Cumberland Gap style tuning. Cumberland Gap being ADAD, which is basically perfect 4th octaves, instead of the usual perfect 5th octaves. So the fingering on the two inside strings is like standard tuning but the fingering on the two outside string intervals is different...but whether it's tuned ADAD, GCGC, something like that...sometimes it's easier to sing the notes if they don't fit your range in the other tunings. You might need to change up fingering some for the fiddle to play along.

My fiddle fun just ended , the A string wore out again and now I start to sound false on that string :-'(
But I will try this ADAD as soon as I have this solved! This time I am going for the titanium A !

Oh gosh. That's lousy. Hope you get it fixed soon. You might wanna try for the lower tuning first, GCGC and see if your strings hold up better.

I recently realized that I was generally playing fiddle too loudly, too. The realization came in part from the beginner violin books that I occasionally dip into - I’ve tended to focus on the fingering, intonation, tone, and bowing, but pretty much ignored the dynamics (“p,” “pp,” “f,” “ff,” etc). Part of my excuse is too long playing mandolin along with a loud banjo, electric bass, and too many loud guitars, so I was always struggling to play as loudly as possible but still not cutting through. When I realized that I needed to think more of dynamics with my fiddle playing, I had to learn that part of quiet playing with good tone wasn’t only playing with lighter pressure on the bow but also playing more on the tip end of the bow and playing farther from the bridge - closer to the fingerboard or even over the fingerboard. I KNEW this, but wasn't using that info. Working on quiet playing has also helped my playing move toward more lyrical phrasing. I’m really enjoying this new phase of my fiddle playing. I’m sure that I would have learned this much sooner if I weren’t self taught!

Goodmorning DougBrock! I pretty much have the same story as you do. I am basically also self taught when it comes to fiddling and there is still so much more to learn. To my delight I saw myself in a recorded video after this discovery and noticed how I was going over the fingerboard now and then even, gone with the previous way of handling my bow and the effect on sound is clearly different from what it was before, I do not sound like a beginning classical player trying to sound like a fiddler anymore. That classical polished and precise clear sound was in my way for a long time, but I had to start off classical here, since there are no true fiddle teachers available nearby. So that is part of my own excuse hahaha.
There is some beauty in being self taught though, I get a kick out of it every time I succeed in doing something very fiddle like <3

My personal feeling is you need to play at a volume so you can hear the other musician(s) you're playing with. To me, it's all about the interaction.

I made a version true to the lyrics:
I wish, I wish
My baby was born
And sittin' on
It's papa's knee
And me, poor girl
And me, poor girl
We're dead and gone
And the green grass
Growin' o'er my feet
I ain't ahead
Nor never will be
Till the sweet
Apple grows
On a sour apple tree
But still I hope
The time will come
When you and I
Shall be as one
I wish, I wish
My love had died
And sent his soul
To wander free
Then we might need
Then we might need
Our ribbons five
Let our poor body
Rest in peace
The owl, the owl
Is a lonely bird
It chills my heart
With dread and terror
That someone's blood
That someone's blood
There on his wing
That someone's blood
There on his feather

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Originally posted by carlb

My personal feeling is you need to play at a volume so you can hear the other musician(s) you're playing with. To me, it's all about the interaction.

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I wish I had people irl to play with...maybe a singer would be an option to.

It seems everyone is whether busy at semi professional or professional level or not at all doing anything.

I watched Cold Mountain after reading the book. If I remember correctly the movie struck me as a little silly in parts. And wild.

Glad to hear you got your key problems sorted (or maybe not). The concept of a different tuning for a diferent key is foreign to me - I usually just play in standard tuning. I think the track on the CD is in C minor, probably pentatonic.
Anja, have you heard the CD "Songs From the Mountain?" It was kind of an earlier version of this, but with music inspired by or mentioned in the book, where the soundtrack was specific to the film. amazon.com/Songs-Mountain-Tim-...000068TJ4 Some people find it more interesting musically.
I'm a little like Peggy - I think the last movie I saw in a theater was "ET," and my favorite soundtracks are "A Hard Day's Night" and "The Harder They Come." I watched a YouTube clip of a scene from "Cold Mountain" but the fake Hollywood accents turned me off.

Seems to me this tune doesn't need anyone playing along...the fiddle does a great job standing alone...but it's pretty hard to sing and play at the same time. Sounding good though.

Here is my own 'rendition' on the very Flemish tune In de stille kempen.
I did it before when I could just play hehe.

I like those kinds of tunes...to me they sound very contemplative. Thanks for sharing.

Re:Playing with other folk acoustically

i found that trying to convince Piano Accordion players that they don't need to play 4 sets of reeds, and a couple of sets in the bass all of the time is difficult.

And Banjo players are usually pumped up and geared up to play at full volume.

Pipes whistle and flute players are pretty much tied to one amplitude.

Guitarists usually play hard enough to be heard.

Bassists usually follow guitar volume wise

Percussion....Who knows?

That usually leaves fiddles and vocals struggling to be heard, let alone being able to use any dynamics or expression. Which is what they are extremely good at.

The only answer i can think of to the conundrum of being able to play, or sing expressively, is amplification or sound re-enforcement, or playing with experienced and sensitive musicians. Other than that it is hard work, busting bow hair, and frustration.

....Or play solo, or in a duet with a sensitive friend.

Anja, all that sounds great. You're on to something!

The tone of many of the old Cape Breton fiddlers was often described as 'whispering' - here's an example of what was meant:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX6iYOEL418

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Originally posted by pete_fiddle

Re:Playing with other folk acoustically

i found that trying to convince Piano Accordion players that they don't need to play 4 sets of reeds, and a couple of sets in the bass all of the time is difficult.

And Banjo players are usually pumped up and geared up to play at full volume.

Pipes whistle and flute players are pretty much tied to one amplitude.

Guitarists usually play hard enough to be heard.

Bassists usually follow guitar volume wise

Percussion....Who knows?

That usually leaves fiddles and vocals struggling to be heard, let alone being able to use any dynamics or expression. Which is what they are extremely good at.

The only answer i can think of to the conundrum of being able to play, or sing expressively, is amplification or sound re-enforcement, or playing with experienced and sensitive musicians. Other than that it is hard work, busting bow hair, and frustration.

....Or play solo, or in a duet with a sensitive friend(s).

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My experience is just this. If you want a more expressive situation, best to be selective about who you play with and avoid anything considered open to the general public. But there are plenty of people out there who possess this sensitivity, one just had to find them.