Gonna be working on a tune played by a good friend - Old French

Over here, contemplating whether to join Martin Hayes Patreon lessons…the main hitch is that I’m not sure I can stream well from Ireland, and I’m also worried that due to the time difference between Europe/USA, stuff will be held at really odd times, hahaha…
“Excuse me dear, I didn’t mean to wake you up…have to go for my group Irish fiddle lesson at 2am!”

About today's fiddle playing blackout:  To be honest , it all started with another silly attempt to figure out Yew Piney Mountain.  Before I knew it all lights went out!
I started to listen to several other versions of this tune this evening to do something useful and I just discovered the following (and now I can't get over it how cool this sounds):

youtu.be/2xAh9_wQjZo

Ok, it's a banjo version, not a fiddle version...But that moderated tempo and the expressive rhythm with sudden strong emphasis at the end of different phrases combined with that one echoed/ repeated note fading in and back out again .... that is just downright attractive if you ask me and it gives me a whole other idea of how a tune like this one could also sound.

Jam day:
Carolina in the Pines
Bottle let me down
Angelina Baker
C' Breakdown
Traded fiddles with my luthier. Traded back. No, he's not getting this one back.
We have so much fun it's probably illegal. (Coffee & cookies!)

Tunes AND coffee and cookies! Yea that should be illegal :-)

quote:

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Originally posted by farmerjones

Jam day:
Carolina in the Pines
Bottle let me down
Angelina Baker
C' Breakdown
Traded fiddles with my luthier. Traded back. No, he's not getting this one back.
We have so much fun it's probably illegal. (Coffee & cookies!)

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We (Full Sail) used to play this version of Angeline - my favorite - by Blue Moon Rising.  We used to play Carolina in the Pines too (great tune).

For the past WEEK , and off and on over several years, I've been trying to get a good handle on Scott's Return, Civil War area tune.. Take a listen: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HSYwTqcJs    

Ky. Waltz
Deep Elum
CDB
Little Liza Jane
Cherokee Shuffle
Rubber Dolly

Does that sound the same as . . . .?
Well, it sorta is.

Lately, I've been playing "clean up", that is, trying to NAIL tunes that I just played around with in the past..
Three lately, Rocky Pallet, Elzic's Farewell and Scott's return... I'm getting Sooooo close...

Friday and Saturday I played 4 and 5 hours straight, respectively. Music festival. Tremendous fun while it's happening. When it's over, I found I was bit up by chiggers. Oh Boy! !
But I really found myself again. Or rediscovered my love. Being a side-man. Doing fills and breaks. Come what may.
Some folks collect tunes. That's what they love. God bless them.
Some can lead. I just don't enjoy it. But again, power to 'em.
Gimme a good solid guitar person. A bass person. Even a banjer, dobro, and mandolin. That's a six piece band! That makes quite a noise if it's going well!

Chigger bites are the itchiest, ugh!
I guess for music, maybe worth it…:~)

Learning lately…
Fermoy Lasses/Sporting Paddy
Lad O’Beirne’s (aka Josephine Marsh’s, the one with a B flat, such a cool tune)
Liam Childs (slipjig by Liz Carroll)

Plus…
Rolls practice. (up and down the scale with slow rolls, because mine are so unreliable! My rolls are Random … sometimes I fire off a beauteous one, and sometimes it’s a total flop…and I dunno why! :-D

Various people have begun commenting that our sesh is getting too big/crowded… I haven’t been for a few weeks (travel) but will see this Sat! I still remember arriving at the very first one, and guitar friend (host/founder) was standing at the empty table and was happy to see me, and said anxiously, “I dunno if anybody is coming.. “ He was worried before every session…I’m happy for him - Seems like it is now very well-established and popular!

No tunes here, I put down my fiddle, might take a long while before I will pick it up again. Meanwhile enjoying all the great stuff I can find on FHO. Burl Hammons and then Maggy tapping these wooden sticks onto the fiddle .... that was about the most amazing old school fiddling I have ever seen/listened to. Over here I sometimes proudly wear my FHO shirt hehe. I was offered a chance to play in nature on music walks organized by the nature protectors here, but didnt't respond to it.
I just walk and train the dog these days.... Sometimes in life one has to set priorities.

Whilest packing the fiddle for tomorrow I had to pull a tune or two. What I learned from Saturday: Work on G tunes. Seems simple but we did 70% more G tunes than D or A. Must be a banjer thing? Anyway, I made a Blues loop in G, and played along. Not even getting too jazzy. I was just glad to hit the double-stops. Remember kids, the world doesn't stay in D key.

If I can find a replica of the loop, I may post it.
Goodnight, Sleep tight, FJ

quote:

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Originally posted by Quincy

...

Meanwhile enjoying all the great stuff I can find on FHO. Burl Hammons and then Maggy tapping these wooden sticks onto the fiddle .... that was about the most amazing old school fiddling I have ever seen/listened to. 

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I had the great fortune to visit Burl and Maggie in the summers of 1979 and 1980, and to hear Burl play a tune (I don't remember which tune) with Maggie playing fiddlesticks! I remember asking her about what kind of sticks she used, and her talking about how she selected them. I still have about eight hours of tapes that I made at their house from August 1979 that I still have not digitized. I realtt need ti do that!

Been playing Marching Through Georgia. It's one of those tunes I "just know" as it has been a popular one around where I grew up. All the older fiddlers played it. Big dance tune in West Virginia. Just trying to refine it a bit, make it my own.

Checked out Clark Kessinger with the Kessinger Bros. he played it in a nice easy going way which is cool to hear because he was such a hot-dogger most of the time

I recon Junky Blues was Pinetop Perkins? If it ain't, blame Dr. John.

youtube.com/watch?v=goRhQKHeMvs

Three times my take on Napoleon's Charge from the playing of Alva Greene. How I adore this tune! And tuning! I first wanted to stop fiddling for a couple of years but I changed my mind.

Fiddle for the world!

I just can't get enough of Flander's Dream. This tune is teaching me a lot and seems excellent for my focus and is good for concentration on the details. I don't even feel the need to switch to 'freestyle mode'.

Tara Nevins' Nine Days in Bethel.......Gold Rush........Golden Chain Tree.

I've been playing some Schubert on my piano. Sight reading it from a beginning Schubert book, but still inexcusably difficult for this perennially underachieving/under-practiced pianist.

Yeah, I’m going to play some classical next weekend…reading music is sure going to feel weird! Visiting my old classical guitar teacher … there will be 2 classical guitarists and me (on violin now)…and we’re going to play some stuff she composed. Fun!

And learning Irish reel “The Old Bush”.

Just found myself playing Flander's Dream together with Salyer himself at half the speed, but the last three measures are still a puzzle. When solved I can try 3/4th of the tempo.
Enjoying myself this morning.

(How could I think a not so long ago to put down my fiddle for a job as a dog handler? It really felt so wrong if I think about it now, because all of a sudden it was like the universe was working against me. Glad everything relatively quickly turned back to normal )

quote:

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Originally posted by TuneWeaver

Tara Nevins' Nine Days in Bethel.......Gold Rush........Golden Chain Tree.

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Gold Rush! Haven't played that in about 15 years. Used to play it in the bluegrass band, will have to dust it off and get them playing it again. 

Have a look at Old Dangerfield, a Bill Monroe tune, 3 parts played twice each, only one repeat of the 3rd party is crooked. I think you'll enjoy it, covers some A minor, A major then A mixolydian tossed in at the back half of the third part. 

I've been playing so much guitar lately, since figuring out how my pick hold was triggering arthritis pain and relearning how to hold it. Unfortunately the fiddle hasn't been played since last Saturday's gig.

Playing on guitar "Buckaroo," Garcia's "Deal" and "Dire Wolf," "Long White Line," and some random fiddle tunes when they strike me, while also leaning the nuances of hybrid picking, a new technique for me. I had no idea some of the licks I learned back in the day, using a flat pick, were actually played with pick and fingers! It has been a game changer.

Noone ever said it was going to be easy...

I like where I'm heading to with Flander's Dream .
Maybe it's best to keep concentrating on these tunes I really cannot resist at all. One tune a week is a strategy as well. Better for my focus.
I changed the name of my own playlist on YouTube to The Dog's 'n Bows Distorted Practice Files.

Sounded only fair.