Hey ladies, fiddle is simply folk violin, a style of playing. A fiddle is a violin and a violin is a fiddle. Therefore, you can play concertos on a fiddle or a fiddler can play a hoedown on a violin.

Furthermore, any tune played on a fiddle or violin is a fiddle tune in the strictest definition. I remember Isaac Pearlman calling his violin a fiddle during an interview.

Violinists are often stuffy and fiddlers ain't. The instrument is the same, but the hands of the fiddler, his bowing patterns, and adherence to structure and musical notation or not, changes the style from a violin piece to a fiddle tune.

Mark O'Connor epitomizes a violinist/fiddler that is superb in both violinistic worlds.