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Originally posted by pete_fiddle

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Originally posted by farmerjones

I'm creating soundtracks for serious cinema:

Tiger Destroys TP

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Is that your own tune? i like it.

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Yes, just a little something I threw together quick. Thanks!

I got it all wrong yesterday night haha :-p Now working on the B part of Liza Jane, listening to the recording at 85%, then I repeat the same first two lines very slowly, paying attention to the 'correct' bowing in the video and now I am slowly heading towards the next two lines and then I have to find the exact way to link it to the A part and keep it going.

Seriously, whoever claimed that learning how to play fiddle might be easier than learning how to play classical violin , is 'dead for the effort' as we would say it here... No idea how to correctly translate the expression we got for this. But it means : Whoever claimed fiddle is easier than violin has no use trying it or might find out it is a lot of work for no return :-D
Good thing is that this time I am doing it right, I don't give up where it gets difficult or just invent something, but I work towards solutions. When I finally have this tune in my fingers I will get back to Jimmy Johnson.

(Still don't have my old fiddle back , I hope the luthier will call me soon. He said I could pick it up this week probably. I really miss that instrument and cannot wait to find out the output !)

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Originally posted by farmerjones

I'm creating soundtracks for serious cinema:

Tiger Destroys TP

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Now you sound like Flemish with a serious swing to it haha. That background track that starts the tune sounds so old time Flemish LOL. That is like the music we would hear on traditional Flemish fairs.  The only thing missing would be a singer who sings about life and love :-D

Hey wait a minute, there IS a singer! Listening now to Swinging Doors,  that is the next video <3 That is also so cool! 

Yesterday was the 9th of January down under, but for you guys in the US of A Twas the '8th Of January'. Tis one of my favorite tunes to mix up on the fly.

The Judy Hyman interview got me into effects, like delay, flanger, phaser, etc. This morphed into Copperhead Road, and Little Liza Jane.
Then I routed the fiddle into the looper, and was playing along.

I discovered Cripple Creek in G this morning. I just always thought from the Bluegrass world this was always in A...I glanced at it in G and was like, "No, A is more fun." Well, I tried it in G today, took me a second and bam, I was playing it in G. Happy Friday!

Still practising Liza Jane but I just cannot decide on the way I am going to bow this one nor where to play double strings nor how to orden the tune (I like variation instead of AABB)...there are just so many options! 

When I use my good/new fiddle in the living room, the sound when recording is way too sharp and loud, but upstairs I get the reel sound of it when recording, but a good device is needed to play it. This recording has a lot more depth when I play it on my JBL speakers than when I cast it to my tv or when I listen through my external laptop speakers:

https://youtu.be/SVn_zfy2E_k (that grin at the end is because I end with an upbow :-p)

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Originally posted by Erockin

I discovered Cripple Creek in G this morning. I just always thought from the Bluegrass world this was always in A...I glanced at it in G and was like, "No, A is more fun." Well, I tried it in G today, took me a second and bam, I was playing it in G. Happy Friday!

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I'm going out on a limb, and say Cripple Creek is to Banjer, what Bile the Cabbage is to fiddlers. On a banjer I would play CC in G. But typically tuned to open G, a banjer can be capo'd up to A, easy enough. I can't remember the last time I played CC. Thanks for the reminder!

Tom and Jerry.... one of just about a zillion versions available.. Seems that there really isn't a TUNE called Tom and Jerry.. it is just an Idea of a tune and everyone plays their own idea of it!!! I have my own. As is usual, it has nothing to do with the notes..it is all about the BOW

It is the same with another tune I'm playing with...Peter Francisco.. the tune is only easy if the bow user has control of their bow....

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Originally posted by TuneWeaver

It is the same with another tune I'm playing with...Peter Francisco.. the tune is only easy if the bow user has control of their bow....

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I need to sit down with this one. Our banjo player likes it and plays it every once and a while. It would be a good thing to learn it so he can enjoy "us" playing it when it comes up again. I haven't really done "good by it" on the fly.

This evening I am just playing for fun , I can shuffle in Shove that Pig's foot :-D It seems that when you want to be able to do something on the fiddle, and try to study it , it just won't work at first, but when you then leave it alone for a long time suddenly it shows up in a spontaneaous way :-s

Been working very hard to prepare everything for the 29th, then a moving company will move all the heavy stuff and furniture and rest of the boxes to my new appartment with an elevator.  I will receive the keys of our new place the 23rd. But today Ziva and I had a 7.45 miles walk in the snow today and now it's fiddle time ... with my wooden mutes on :-D

tonyelder - This is the recording of "Peter Francisco" that introduced the tune to the "revival" generation: youtu.be/44IrLgkp-tE?feature=shared
Did you know he was a real person, with a very interesting story, and a hero of the Revolutionary War? I`d forgotten the tune was published (in F) in Knauff`s "Virginia Reels," almost during his lifetime.

Here`s the Wikipedia article about Peter Francico: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Francisco

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Originally posted by TuneWeaver

it is all about the BOW
 

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You said this more than once, and I couldn't get this statement out of my head for a long time. I found out yesterday that  a certain part of Liza Jane ... has single bow strokes , no slurring or fancy stuff! I was thinking it had to be something complicated but the solution was so simple, if I play that part with single bow strokes (almost forgot that is a possibility too!) the whole tune follows as it should follow. Sounding better now :D

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Related to this , lately I just wonder , can one  switch the bow direction for certain phrases if it's covered by an additional note/ a note  that is repeated / a note that is made longer or shorter ? I suppose so, as long as the rhythm still makes sense... I find bowing the different parts all of the time the same way kind of boring and always try other options the next repeating of the part, sometimes it works out fine, but more than often you hear that  it gets me into trouble also  :-D 

I think for the first time in my fiddling life I start to look forward to .... a METRONOME!  A very classical one, the kind my sister used for playing the flute, one that goes tic-tic-tic and loud enough. That might be a way to fully experiment with trying other ways of bowing in the repeated parts.

Must not fall out of the carousel!

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Originally posted by Quincy

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Originally posted by TuneWeaver

it is all about the BOW
 

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You said this more than once, and I couldn't get this statement out of my head for a long time. I found out yesterday that  a certain part of Liza Jane ... has single bow strokes , no slurring or fancy stuff! I was thinking it had to be something complicated but the solution was so simple, if I play that part with single bow strokes (almost forgot that is a possibility too!) the whole tune follows as it should follow. Sounding better now :D

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Related to this , lately I just wonder , can one  switch the bow direction for certain phrases if it's covered by an additional note/ a note  that is repeated / a note that is made longer or shorter ? I suppose so, as long as the rhythm still makes sense... I find bowing the different parts all of the time the same way kind of boring and always try other options the next repeating of the part, sometimes it works out fine, but more than often you hear that  it gets me into trouble also  :-D 

I think for the first time in my fiddling life I start to look forward to .... a METRONOME!  A very classical one, the kind my sister used for playing the flute, one that goes tic-tic-tic and loud enough. That might be a way to fully experiment with trying other ways of bowing in the repeated parts.

Must not fall out of the carousel!

 

 

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It was years of trying fancy bow stuff before I discovered the value of a simple, rhythmic, saw stroke..Now, I do a lot of what I call a ''saw-shuffle'', that is, saw two notes and then on the third note give it either emphasis or pick up a second string and then saw the fourth note....Sawing with intent!!

OMG playing with a metronome on since last comment here... This is great fun with the tune Liza Jane ! It helps me not to run to te end or slow down where I should not. Found a nice one online: virtualsheetmusic.com/metronome/

There,  it happened. I just befriended the metronome hahaha. Gone all fear and disgust. Oh beautiful beats always right!

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Originally posted by Quincy

OMG playing with a metronome on since last comment here... This is great fun with the tune Liza Jane ! It helps me not to run to te end or slow down where I should not. Found a nice one online: virtualsheetmusic.com/metronome/

There,  it happened. I just befriended the metronome hahaha. Gone all fear and disgust. Oh beautiful beats always right!

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Befriending a metronome is having a friend you'll never regret having.. Once I lived with a metronome for a solid week of playing  (it paid no rent.. I covered all expenses ), my skill level as a fiddler improved a lot and once I got the metronome beat INTERNALIZED  the bells and whistles went off.. I now have my own internal metronome.. I"m possessed by it! .. No, I still speed up on a tune from time to time but not because I have bad timing.. because I just like to sometimes play faster...I'm SO happy for you..   There are always those musicians who don't understand this because for one reason or another, they don't seem to ever had a timing problem...but I wasn't so lucky..I struggled...until 'that' day.....

Lauging out loud here Lee and thanks for sharing my happiness , it IS a wonderful discovery!
There is a time for everything they say and I am starting to believe that is very true, certainly for the fiddle adventure: it is pointless to try to force things ( that won't work, tried that several times).

Anja, as long as you are still playing with good timing, bow however you feel it. I constantly change up my bowing, it's very freeing once you gain the control needed.

Anja, when you go for walks with Ziva do you hear tunes in your head that you can "march" to to feel the beat and meter? Maybe that wouldn't work with her gait, but that is the biggest weakness in your playing (and it sounds like you're aware of it enough to describe it).

Ok I wrote a big ol' thing here and it just disappeared...so, in a nutshell...because I don't have much time for actual thinking and writing, what I was saying is a metronome has always been a distraction from the actual music for me personally. I found backup tracks to help me a lot more...I can actually enjoy myself playing along with somebody (some online somebody or my own tracks when I made them) a lot more than the click click or clang clang of the metronome...that's just me personally, just throwing it in, in case it would be helpful to anybody else. I remember when I first started playing the fiddle I really enjoyed playing along with Oldtimejam.com and the free backup tracks there...also found some on YouTube to play along with. I know metronomes help a lot of people but I never could get into playing with them.

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Originally posted by DougD

Anja, when you go for walks with Ziva do you hear tunes in your head that you can "march" to to feel the beat and meter? Maybe that wouldn't work with her gait, but that is the biggest weakness in your playing (and it sounds like you're aware of it enough to describe it).

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Yes well aware of it, and to be more precise: while my melodic musical hearing is just fine, my rhythmic musical hearing is not something I can blindly trust on. However, after a lot of listening to the same tune over and  over again , slow it down , break it up into parts, listen again on normal speed, even  I start to notice where the critical points are regarding rhythm , where my rhythmic hearing made a different interpretation. Then I try to find a way to correct my misinterpretations.

March while walking ... funny haha. My dog is not the easiest dog I had to walk (understatement), she is so enthusiastic and such a fierce character that I HAVE to lower my standards for on leash walks , otherwise I would become frustrated.  Others might think or even laugh out loud :"where is that dog going with its owner?" , but I know better, she is in fact very well trained but I just cannot get the enthousiasm out of this dog and  I wouldn't want that either :-)

My little guy (18-ish lb / 9-ish kg?) likes to go go go too. Not an issue for my to walk with him in time with the music I'm hearing in my head. Rather than think of it as marching exactly (my visual is always kind of high knees when I think marching), try just moving forward in time to the music. Unless the dog it's constantly stopping to sniff, you should have no problem. Doug is right on with his advice, you'll internalize the tempo flow by moving with it.

I can now work with a metronome OK, but it was rough at the beginning.
Weirdly had to change the beats to 2 beats per measure rather than the 4 beats per measure that I thought I needed because it was in 4/4 time. And yes, I know most fiddle stuff is probably played in cut time which is two beats per measure, but it took me awhile to figure it out. Anyway, when I was struggling with getting used to the metronome I found some online drumming programs that I could set up. Playing in sync with them was a piece of cake. Possibly remnants of the old rock and roll life coming to the fore? who knows? Anyway finding something like that might be helpful.

I tried bodhran tracks but they get bad when they don’t match the rhythm of the tune! I mostly play along with slowed-down YouTube and album tracks. Next week I start a weekly zoom class with Patrick Mangan on ornamentation, bowing and variations…fun! I thought it would help to get through the grey winter doldrums here…Jan and Feb are usually kind of a blah time of year…

Tunes I am working on: Crickets March over the Saltbox, Pipers Despair, Tarbolton set

PS My dog was quite the sniffer! No chance of falling into any rhythm with him on the leash! On the other hand, he was quite a good tracker...what a good Nose!