after playing ITM on first mandolin and then concertina, I decided to pick up the fiddle. I play in a small group, and as we already have a banjo-player, I want to drop the mandolin and switch between concertina and fiddle instead.
I started playing in june, and I’m starting to get the hang of intonation and eliminating most of the squeaking from poor bowing technique. The first couple of weeks were hard on my ears, my roommates and my neighbours…
Anyhow, I’m looking for websites with instructions on how to make it sound more… Irish Traditional Music. Can’t find any good videos on YouTube that explains the technique behind rolls and such. I use alot of triplets on the mandolin, and it can sound good on the fiddle at times but a bit too one-dimensional if I don’t use many other ornamentations. Have any of you stumbled upon such guides? I’m currently working on my “slow rolls”, on one note at the time, but I don’t see how I’d interpret that into “fast rolls”, and where to work that into the tunes. As I know very little of fiddle playing, I find it hard to understand what’s going on when I’m listening to good players. It’s usually very fast, and I hear lots of ornamentation, but I can’ figure out if it’s a cut, a roll or a grace note, or if they bow a triplet and work in a cut in the middle. It’s a true joy to study this, as it requires me listening to really wonderful players, but it’s frustrating to be unable to mimique it.
I will eventually take a couple of lessons for a folk music-oriented teacher, but as I live in Sweden I’m afraid I have to work on the irish ornamentations myself. I’m progressing quickly enough on my own for now, so I’m waiting another month or two before seeing a teacher. That’s just the way I am, I prefer to learn on my own. If I see a teacher, I quickly feel restrained with how I play and what I should practice on, and grow bored. That’s one of the main reasons I quit regularly practicing both piano and trumpet, so I try to keep the irish music “my own” as much as possible.
So - long story short - any advice on websites that explain ornamentation (preferably with a video instruction, and on a very basic level) would be very much appreciated!
Thank you!
The only web-based instruction I have seen on fiddle ornamentation has been stuff on YouTube and the like, and it’s been dreadful. Sorry, about this, but, if you don’t want to take the next twenty years trying to figure it out, I reckon you’re going to have to bite the bullet and find a teacher, somehow. There are teachers around who do internet teaching - James Kelly is one, I believe. I guess you’d need Skype or something (haven’t got it myself, so I dont know). You don’t necessarily need one for all that long, but you do need to be set in the right direction.
As for direct advice - it’s a tricky subject, as advice could range from a single sentence to a series of huge treatises.
One thing I would say is that, if you’re working on slow rolls, on your own, without having had any guidance from a trad fiddle player, you’re probably just building in bad habits. You need a little bit of guidance, or you won’t know where to start. It’s not that they’re all that difficult, but so many people simply do them wrong, and then, once you’ve developed them that way, it’s the devil’s own job to change them.
Yeah, I nearly mentioned Kevin Burke. Does he do live tutorials over the net (Skype maybe?) as well? I haven’t seen his tutorial DVDs but would think they’re likely to be like his playing - precise, structured. Would probably be good I guess, but, for a total beginner on fiddle, there’s nothing like the guidance you can get from a teacher, even if it does have to be over the net. IMO.
Oh, I’m glad to see some life in this post! Thanks all for helping out here!
I live in Sweden, and I’m scheduled for my very first lesson now. It’s a traditional swedish folk music teacher, but still - trad is trad, and teacher is teacher. I won’t be learning any irish ornamentations, but at least some basic bowing technique.
I have a rather poor internet connection, so I’ve never regarded online lessons as an option. An instructional DVD though, don’t know why I haven’t thought of that before. Thanks for the advice, I’ll definately look up Kevin Burke’s DVD. (Listening to my iPod at the moment, and listened to his playing just three tunes ago.)
