tonyelder - Don't know if you read music, but here's "Peter Francisco" as published in Knauff''s "Virginia Reels #2. What strikes me is how similar it is to the Fuzzies recording, and also the second measure of the A part. Today when its played D, the C note is considered a Mixolydian type chord change (like "June Apple" or "Red Haired Boy"), and accompanied by a C chord. But in Knauff's, although the melody goes to Eb, the accompaniment stays on F (a I7 chord) and then goes to the V7 chord.

Whoa that goes pretty high - are y’all shifting into third position for those spots?

I’m gonna go listen to that tune! :-)

edit:
well, 3 videos later and not a single fiddler was shifting, so they must be not playing it like in above sheet music :-). That's a great tune! 

NCnotes - Today its usually played in D, so its in 1st position on the E string. The Knauff's books were arrangements for pianoforte, to be played by well bred young ladies in their drawing rooms (maybe on instruments purchased from his store).
If you haven't, you should follow the link I provided earlier, or just look up the real person in Wikipedia. A fascinating life, and known in Portuguese-American communities all over the country.

Scales.

Just scales...

Went to a Bluegrass Jam Tuesday and felt like such an A**

Well that Peter Francisco certainly deserves a tune! What a Guy!!

Erockin, back in the ole days when I went to the americana/bluegrass jam for a summer, I was asking a good player next to me how he comes up with his breaks, and he told me to practice a lot of arpeggios and scales in the key of the tune! All those scales will pay off...

Worried Man Blues.

I was flipping through my list of Americana songs, which I hadn't done for a while because I'd been focusing on the fiddle tunes. The basic idea is to play twice as many notes that are in the tune while retaining the actual melody, so if the song is written in crotchets and minims, I would need to play quavers throughout the song. To begin I had the bow play this rhythm on the straight melody then I would introduce "arpeggios and scales", then short melodic fragments such as 'motifs', 'turns' and 'runs', etc., still outlining the melody. At the cadences I would go off into a V-I, or an ii-V-I lick, or whatever the chords are/could be. The desired result is to play the song in a different way with each repetition, and the ultimate skill to acquire while playing ALL those notes is to keep the basic melody running in your head. When the flow is lost then you know you're not hearing/listening to the melody.

I love the musical vocabulary in the UK.

For the curious:

Half Note - Minim
Quarter Notes - Crotchet
Eighth Note - Quaver
Sixteenth Note - Semiquaver

Thanks, that always mystified me!
"Crotchets" actually sounded kind of tasty...

This reminds me of miles, yards, feet, inches...
whereas the rest of the world just (logically) uses kilometer, meter, centimeter...
I gotta say, half/quarter/eighth/sixteenth is a lot easier on my brain!

And what about "stone"!

Minims sound quite cute to me

Like the little cartoon characters that have one big eye. Don't know what they are called?

They are called "Minions." I thnk NCnotes is one, although she has two eyes and I think her real name is "Bob."

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Originally posted by pmiller510

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.

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This works for me!! I love it now , playing with the metronome :-D Yay :-D

Wish I had more time to play, I'm working very hard to get everything done before I move out the 29th. Luthier had the flu, old fiddle will be ready next week I hope. Still waiting for it and want to know how it will play next time that I got this instrument in my hands!

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Originally posted by DougD

They are called "Minions." I thnk NCnotes is one, although she has two eyes and I think her real name is "Bob."

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Ahh! i see... You can also bye a bag of Quavers in the UK they are like edible, (Well, semi edible) polystyrene packaging.

I can never eat more than a hemidemisemiquaver.

Good one, Doug... I had to look it up...Sort of like the carpentry term, RCH...

It was time for me to grab another new one so I found "Candy Girl" an enjoyable one. In G and A I believe. There was a point where being able to pick up a tune in 2 different keys seemed like long and distant feat.

Here's the original recording by Uncle Bunt Stephens: youtu.be/y064kgSr0gc?feature=shared He's crosstuned, but down to about Gb - only one key involved (really just one chord).
This tune is all about the "pulsed" bowing, and there are many YouTubers who will offer to show it to you, whether they know how to do it or not. Rayna Gellert has a short video where yo can see what she's doing, and I thought Bruce Molsky had a teaching video, but I don't see it now.
Seems like a good tune for a very cold morning here in Tennessee, maybe with eggs, biscuits and some sausage or country ham.

quote:

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Originally posted by DougD

Here's the original recording by Uncle Bunt Stephens: youtu.be/y064kgSr0gc?feature=shared He's crosstuned, but down to about Gb - only one key involved (really just one chord).
This tune is all about the "pulsed" bowing, and there are many YouTubers who will offer to show it to you, whether they know how to do it or not. Rayna Gellert has a short video where yo can see what she's doing, and I thought Bruce Molsky had a teaching video, but I don't see it now.
Seems like a good tune for a very cold morning here in Tennessee, maybe with eggs, biscuits and some sausage or country ham.

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YUM!!! I did start with him. Def a couple versions going around out there. 

quote:

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Originally posted by DougD

Here's the original recording by Uncle Bunt Stephens: youtu.be/y064kgSr0gc?feature=shared He's crosstuned, but down to about Gb - only one key involved (really just one chord).
This tune is all about the "pulsed" bowing, and there are many YouTubers who will offer to show it to you, whether they know how to do it or not. Rayna Gellert has a short video where yo can see what she's doing, and I thought Bruce Molsky had a teaching video, but I don't see it now.
Seems like a good tune for a very cold morning here in Tennessee, maybe with eggs, biscuits and some sausage or country ham.

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Here is a link to Bruce Molsky's pulsed bowing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kd0DIZ_IOU

That's it. Thanks.
Eric, AFAIK there's only one source for this tune, so its not so much different versions as those who can play it and those who can't. At least that's how I think about it. I do wonder if the tune existed before Uncle Bunt, and if its African-American in origin.

Oh yeah, Candy Girl. I first really heard about what that was on the Bluegrassdaddy web site...John Cockman had a very good lesson on it...this was back when I was pretty new on the fiddle (well, I'm STILL pretty new, or at this moment in time, non existent on the fiddle or anything else, but that's life in a nutshell, ain't it?), and I watched his lesson and listened to what he had to say about it, then tried it...whew...I just remember I had a really hard time with it. It's like...there's really nothing to the tune except for the wielding of the bow...I haven't thought about it for a while but it sure would be fun to try again...

Here's the tune as played by John Cockman...to begin his lesson with.  https://youtu.be/G3SNC1UUKSU?si=Dr64ODScp4kE5FfV  I always figured that "Candy," like in Kentucky-speak...means "Canada," so I figured Candy girl referred to a girl from Canada.  

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Originally posted by groundhogpeggy

Oh yeah, Candy Girl. I first really heard about what that was on the Bluegrassdaddy web site...John Cockman had a very good lesson on it...this was back when I was pretty new on the fiddle (well, I'm STILL pretty new, or at this moment in time, non existent on the fiddle or anything else, but that's life in a nutshell, ain't it?), and I watched his lesson and listened to what he had to say about it, then tried it...whew...I just remember I had a really hard time with it. It's like...there's really nothing to the tune except for the wielding of the bow...I haven't thought about it for a while but it sure would be fun to try again...

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Candy Girl is always a fun crossed tune to play.  One can shuffle, jump octaves, combine octaves.. single note or drones throughout... Great for teaching some of the basic OT fiddle/bow options....

The exact meaning of "Candy Girl" is not perfectly clear, but I don't think it has anything to do with Canada. I think it just means a sweetheart, and possibly one on the side. One might say "Tonight I'm at the dance with my wife, but I can't take my eyes off Brigitte, my candy girl." Or it might just be the girl who sells candy and cigarettes in a club.
In any case, I agree that its all about the bowing.

Well Doug if you're ever in Whitley Co., and you're looking for a small town that says "Canada Town" on the map, you won't get directions unless you ask the locals for help on the way to "Candy Town," lol...so that's all I know about that. "Where'd yer eldest get off to?" "Well he run all the way upt Candy."

Barn in the Bend. My first key of F tune. George Jackson is one of my favorite modern fiddlers.