Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle

Subject: Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle
From: HiHo_Silver
Date: 14 May 06 - 09:54 PM

In the following tune: what is the easy and proper way to finger these notes? In the first part the notes BEB. Do you move the index finger or simply cover the D and A strings at the designated point?
3rd Bar B2GB EBGB

T:Saint Anne's Reel
M:C|
L:1/4
R:reel
Z:Originally French Canadian, now firmly adopted in Ireland. Madison.
K:D
de|fedf edcB|A2 FA DAFA|B2GB EBGB|A2 FA DAFA|fedf edcB|A2 FA DAFA|BGBd c
Ace|d2 dc d2:|
ag|fdfa fdfa|aggf~g3f|edcB Acea|baa^g a3=g|fdfa fdfa|aggf~g3f|edcBAcec|d
edc d2:|
% ABC2Win Version 2.1 12/6/2000

% ABC2Win Version 2.1 5/14/2006

Subject: RE: Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle
From: John O'L
Date: 14 May 06 - 10:11 PM

HiHo, your abc file doesn't seem to want to convert.

Subject: RE: Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 14 May 06 - 10:19 PM

John, Add a line X:1 at the start.

Subject: RE: Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle
From: Paul Burke
Date: 15 May 06 - 09:50 AM

Bridge across the twos trings with your finger. You'll probably have to adjust where the finger goes slightly as it's not flat at the end, but your ear feedback should soon see that right without thinking.

Subject: RE: Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle
From: GUEST,greg stephens
Date: 15 May 06 - 11:51 AM

I dont play fiddle, but I back a fiddler, and while away the time watching her fingers. In the passage you are asking about, she definitely presses one finger on the two strings simultaneously. It looks very difficult to me, but I'm sure practise makes perfect.

Subject: RE: Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle
From: Grab
Date: 15 May 06 - 01:11 PM

From my classical violin days, I seem to remember being taught that "barring" across two strings was a no-no. Since I started playing fiddle, after having learned guitar, I figured that was the natural way to do it. Most people I've seen do it that way.

Graham.

Subject: RE: Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 May 06 - 12:01 AM

Well, Grab,

Many 'schools' and teachers froth at the mouth about 'right and wrong ways' to do many things. There IS a simple guideline for the pragmatic among us: If it works (and doesn't create any long term limitations in technique or damage***) - do it!



*** Ah - there's the rub....

Subject: RE: Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle
From: Al
Date: 16 May 06 - 12:35 AM

If I were barred (ahem) from bridging across two strings with one finger, I think I would have to quit playing the fiddle. Being a chord based fiddler, I do it all the time without thinking about it. The classicalists who call it a no-no can bite me.
Al

Subject: RE: Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 May 06 - 12:57 AM

Al,

it actually ENHANCES, not damamges your technique for the style of music you mostly play.

thus "GOOD!" :-)

Subject: RE: Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle
From: Pauline L
Date: 16 May 06 - 02:20 AM

I was trained as a classical violinist and self-trained as a fiddler. Put one finger on two strings. Fifths occur frequently in violin/fiddle music of all kinds: the opening bars of Swallowtail Jig, Morrisson's Jig, the B part of Devil's Dream or De'il among the Tailors, works by Bach and Mozart, etc. It's also the only way to play fifths as double stops, and they make great ornaments.

Subject: RE: Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle
From: Scrump
Date: 16 May 06 - 03:50 AM

Interesting thread, particularly the bit about whether you should or should not use a finger across two strings.

I'm not a fiddler, just a guitarist, and I originally taught myself to play by ear, with no books or anything (at least, I worked out a few basic chords etc. on my own). Then later on, I bought a "teach yourself guitar" book, and one of the things it said was that using the thumb to hold down the 6th string (as I often did, e.g. in the D chord) was a no-no. By then I'd got into the habit of doing it, and I couldn't get out of it, and I worried about this for a while. But then I saw Eric Clapton live, and noticed he was using his thumb to hold down the 6th string - I figured if it was good enough for him...!

I sometimes wonder if these "rules" about what you should and shouldn't do can do more harm than good, and hamper creativity - what do others think?

Subject: RE: Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle
From: GUEST,Tom Bliss
Date: 16 May 06 - 04:43 AM

I think the best approach is to try to learn to play both ways - for different effects on different occasions. I double-stop strings on the fiddle and mandolin, but sometimes you may need a more separated sound, and then it may be better to move the finger over. Likewise on the guitar: A lot of my own songs would be impossible without using the thumb, specially those in non-standard tuning (which the classical people never envisaged), but being able to shift into classical stance with the thumb in the 'correct' place is useful when working up the neck. Actually this applies to wrist position on the fiddle too. Flat hand is handy for fast tunes, but if you can also arch back into the classical position you can introduce vibrato if that seems approppriate on, say, a song.

Subject: RE: Tech: Playing specific notes on fiddle
From: John O'L
Date: 16 May 06 - 05:11 AM

Thanks Jon. I agree with most here. Two strings, one finger. No harm done.