Well, if your practice routine seems to be getting dull, just enter a contest and your whole perspective will change a bit and make it exciting again. The Fla Folk Festival hosts the Fl State Fiddle Contest, and unless you are performing as an act in the Festival the only way to get a camping spot is to compete in the Fiddle Contest…so I’ve just decided to compete.
Yeah, I’m beginner, but the more I’m thinking about it is very exciting and an extra challenge…a challenge to be there for the right reasons…to have fun, to push to excel, but to not get caught up with trying to win the actual contest or pay attention to where I actually place in the contest. I remember reading about Kyudo, the Japanese art of bowmanship, and that the novice must be trained not to be concerned with hitting the target, but with the art of drawing and releasing the bow…one master said “it is a banal action to shoot at the target a hundred times, but if you shoot a hundred times it is a sacred act to complete a hundred perfect shots.” There is a difference, and it applies to many things in life, including music. I’m excited about bringing this concept as a beginning fiddler to the fiddle contest, to explore the surreal experience of performing on a stage in front of a microphone in front of perfect, albeit sympathetic, strangers.
I also am excited about getting a camping spot…late at night, to hear the music from all corners, groups of people comfortably sitting around bright warm campfires and sharing the gift of music.
Uh, didnt mean to wax poetic, but I’m running a fever of 102.7, so that may have something to do with it.
Good luck and feel better! Wish I could go to it, but the last time I held a fiddle was in seventh grade music class. Keep us posted on other Fla. events!
The contest is in May, so that gives me time to prepare a few sets of tunes.
Funny, as a classically trained person I remember what competitions used to be like…submit your sheet music to the judges, etc. Somwhat different with fiddling…I asked if this was a requirement and was told no of course not, since half of the judges cant read music anyway.
I do the odd classical competition - violinists are so bitchy! I think you’ll find fiddlers a lot more relaxed and friendlier, without the rest of the competitors sitting there and you can see them thinking - her vibrato isn’t very controlled - those octaves and sixths were a bit out of tunes - shes not keeping a constant tempo - I’m better than her, so that puts me at least in 3rd place etc. In orchestras, aswell, they’re just as bad. That’s why I prefer the viola.
good luck in the competition, glad you’re feeling better, and I’m sure they’ll be a friendly bunch. Enjoy yourself.
Wow, you may be right. I just remembered at last year’s competition…four ten year old girls were sitting offstage with their fiddles, smiling and laughing and stuff…and then the girl who was performing camed down from the stage and they all hugged her and another one of the girls got up on stage. They were all friends, having a good time playing their fiddles, not competing against each other. That was nice to see!
Yeah, I got a huge shock when I first started playing viola in orchestras. I didn’t expect the people on the desks in front of me to actually speak to me or anything…
Well, Viola is very cool. Its always interesting to hear the perspectives of the “classically” trained trad fiddlers…some of them still havent shaken the bitchiness that they apparently were conditioned with whenthey were young, impressionable kids. So sad.
Keep us posted on other Fla. events!