What the Sam Hill is you talking about? Tucking a stick where? Like the left hand isn;t busy enough?

I’ve never heard of a player using fiddle sticks while playing solo, only of a second person playing them. In performances I’ve seen, the fiddle sticks were played in a spot that wouldn’t be in the area of the left hand to prevent complications. I can’t imagine how a player could hold a fiddle properly and operate fiddle sticks, but if there are real examples (not hallucinations), I’d be interested to see them.

Players can tap the string percussively with a finger while playing, although that isn’t a common technique, and it doesn’t have the same effect as pizzicato or the sharp rap of a fiddle stick.

When the stick of the bow is used to strike the string and play percussively, it’s referred to as col legno, or “with the wood.” This technique shows up in orchestral music, although it’s not used too extensively because players with good bows need to switch to cheap ones to play that way to save the sticks (col legno is not very good for the stick). The technique actually dates back to the baroque era and was popularized by Biber as an effect to evoke the sound of battle. Modern players tend to associate it more with late 19th or early 20th century symphonic music, as composers in that era used it for dramatic effect on a few occasions. It’s also been used in film scores more recently to put the audience on edge in a tense scene.

A slight digression, but on the topic of AI hallucinations, there is a very interesting varnish thread on Maestronet currently. The OP, a beginning violin making enthusiast, asked for a varnish recipe to use. The AI response was a recipe that resembled parts of recipes but recommended a stain (thought to perhaps be a furniture stain) that would actually turn the instrument black. As someone aptly pointed out, the program can’t actually think through the merits of a recipe or reason through the problems of combining different ingredients, it merely scrapes through whatever examples it can find, cobbles them together, and presents a result it has predicted to have the highest probability to be satisfying. That’s how the answers end up being such strange hallucinations.

Maybe you could get some tap dancing shoes and put a timber board under your feet. I’ve seen some Irish players do this sitting down. There is a woman from Donegal does this while she plays a concertina. She’s a great concertina player and a great dancer and she combines the two. There’s no reason why it wouldn’t work for fiddle as well. I think The American guy John Hartford did it standing up playing the fiddle.

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Originally posted by wrench13

What the Sam Hill is you talking about? Tucking a stick where? Like the left hand isn;t busy enough?

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Hahaha, AI pulled my leg I guess lol.

Damn these sticks I want them.

I've seen that around too, Marty...maybe also in the Cape Breton fiddling? But Anja yea, if you like the sound of a percussive tap with your fiddling, I agree that getting it with your feet is going to be a lot easier!

Quincy - Providing accompaniment with your feet while playing is not uncommon. I think you've probably seen John Specker do it. Hillary Klug has made a career out of doing it too. Its a common practice in French Canada and I'm sure other traditions too. You don't really need tap shoes or a board either. This film about New England fiddling begins with Wilfred Giullette playing at home in Vermont: folkstreams.net/films/new-england-fiddles I attended a lot of fiddle contests in Vermont in 1969 and 1970 and he was a memorable presence with his energy and big smile.
As has been mentioned, John Hartford was also known for this, especially while playing fiddle. I'm attaching a recording I made of him in 1979, but playing banjo and singing while accompanying himself with his feet.
I'd suggest you ignore AI as a source of accurate information - YouTube is bad enough.

Today, a sparkle of hope!!!
I asked my rental housing company several times now not to treat the whole case with this very badly constructed appartment as a neighbour conflict. The '70's house that they decided to split into 2 units has concrete ceiling without any sound isolation, and tile floor on top of it throughout the whole building,which makes the noise transfer even more horrible especially for the woman downstairs.
It might a good reason to ask for me to move to a better well isolated and law conform appartment, where I probably occasionally can continue learning this footwork. I tried before, when I still lived in my former rental house, the outcome was rather complex for first attempts lol ( see youtube.com/shorts/t03He73BECo...0BpwJwd8t) That video was last time I attempted to do something with feet while playing. Here I've always avoided fiddle + singing or + tapping.
Anyway, help is on the way regarding the housing / noise problems!! And then finally I can get back to work!!! I miss the routine and the feeling that also I can provide for myself!!! I've never been 'out' for such a long time - no good, too much time for useless worries even with all of my hobbies :-s I prefer to work.

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Originally posted by DougD

Quincy - Providing accompaniment with your feet while playing is not uncommon. I think you've probably seen John Specker do it. Hillary Klug has made a career out of doing it too. Its a common practice in French Canada and I'm sure other traditions too. You don't really need tap shoes or a board either. This film about New England fiddling begins with Wilfred Giullette playing at home in Vermont: folkstreams.net/films/new-england-fiddles I attended a lot of fiddle contests in Vermont in 1969 and 1970 and he was a memorable presence with his energy and big smile.
As has been mentioned, John Hartford was also known for this, especially while playing fiddle. I'm attaching a recording I made of him in 1979, but playing banjo and singing while accompanying himself with his feet.
I'd suggest you ignore AI as a source of accurate information - YouTube is bad enough.

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Doug, what is this genre? Is  this something like country blues??  Great song!!! 

I love the storytelling, IF I had a band let's say in Flandres, I'd never use these authentic storytelling lyrics in tunes, because they describe life as it is elsewhere and that's where they belong and where they should be honored. That's my strong opinion on this matter hehe. For same reason my fav pizzeria just has to be Italian.

Playing while tap dancing is a fairly common thing in Cape Breton, and a lot of stage shows feature it.

Quincy - If you mean "Steamboat Whistle Blues," I couldn't choose a genre for it. Nothing seemed to fit - is it Folk? Bluegrass? Country? John was active in all those, but ultimately he was his own genre, I guess. BTW, I was curious about one reference in that song - "Captain Way, I'm sorry, my hat is off to you." I think it refers to Capt. Frederick Way, the youngest person to earn a river pilot's license, and later a noted historian of steamboats, another big interest of John's. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Way_Jr.
I was asked to record a stage at the Clearwater Festival in 1979, and five of my recordings ended up on the ensuing album, but this is the only one available online. I wish the whole album was still available - it had quite a wide variety of music, including a track I recorded of a lovely piece on the Persian santur.

PS - Here's the information on the "Great Hudson River Revival," lp if you should ever want to track down a copy: discogs.com/release/4330191-Va...W_KHe8tfE

Dam Anja just tried steppin on a rake while playing fiddle to replicate your fiddle sticks sound. OUCHIE ! Right in the noggin. Not doin that no more!

j/k of course.

Hahaha :p

I think I found my thing in plucking while playing, together with bowing or a little separated, there is so much more then just pluck one strong at the same time, I'm surprised with how many options have become reality.

For some reason, foot tapping is still impossible, I feel that it is because my feet don't like to be forced into one and the same pattern over and over again, plus when I try it, my *both* feet want to have something to do or it won't work at all.

I wish I could find a traditional dancer over here. Or a percussionist. Damn. My last attempt ended with 'man obviously interested in me as a woman'. If people would only be HONEST about their intentions.I wanted that guy as a percussionist ffs.