I play the flute and whistle mostly and find the physical nature of how you play the flute and the fiddle are so different I end up slurring way too much, long bows that depend on rolls or taps to make the notes. I would love to find an idiot’s guide where bowings are marked so I don’t end up having to second guess myself and the patterns. I have seen a lot of books that have beginning bow and a couple of slurs marked. But most have nothing at all. It would be great to have something that “explain this to me like a 5 year old” in a series of different tunes. The only place I have ever seen this sort of instruction is in my kid’s private lessons with a teacher and a pencil. But I don’t have the option to take lessons right now. And sadly enough, can’t find those pages. I know they are here somewhere. HaHa
David Lyth’s ‘Bowing styles’ books could fit the bill, so to speak.
Three volumes looking at various styles of different players. I seem to recall at least one volume ( the third) was available as a free download.
[Add : it is and it’s Here : vol 3 ]
“Mel Bay’s Complete Irish Fiddle Player” by Peter Cooper is a fiddle instruction book with bowings specified. It contains 80 tunes of a wide variety of types. It also discusses why you might choose one bowing over another for different tunes.
I don’t know any fiddlers who like this book. They seem to think it is too, um, inflexible. Like “I bow the way I feel”.
It’s true that it goes into what many people would think is an insane amount of detail. Plan to spend several hours per tune.
If that’s what you’re looking for, this may be the book for you.
I don’t know if it’s still in print, but all Mel Bay books can be purchased as an e-book from their site, or you can look at used book sites like abe.com.
I would think it would be helpful for fluters to study the way fiddlers bow tunes. Just this morning I heard a flute and fiddle duet on the radio, and they were slurring exactly the same. It sounded very effective.