Fiddlers roll call

Our first forum for instruments you don't blow.
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ennistraveler
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Fiddlers roll call

Post by ennistraveler »

Any more fiddlers out there?
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fel bautista
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Post by fel bautista »

there's moi-but I tend to inhabit the Uilleann pipe side a lot more
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Bill Reeder
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Post by Bill Reeder »

I used to play fiddle until the pipes came on the scene. I still get it out now and then just to keep my bowing arm from completely withering away.
Bill

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Post by BrassBlower »

Yup. Me, too! :D
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JS
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Post by JS »

And me. Just getting back to it after a semi-sabbatical to get started on the flute.

So what tunes are you fiddler's working on? I'd forgotten how much fun "Whiskey Before Breakfast" is, until a friend suggested trying it at our lunch jam on Friday. I'm trying to get "Loch Laven Castle" down as well.

I could be wrong, but I think practicing the flute did some good things for my fingering on fiddle.
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Post by Guest »

Bill Reeder wrote:I used to play fiddle until the pipes came on the scene. I still get it out now and then just to keep my bowing arm from completely withering away.
Until?

When did you first hear the squalinpipes? maybe that should be when did you first hear the Chieftains?

Yup I am into Irtrad on anything including fiddle, but exclusively on Flute and Violin into eastern European music but not that good at it, eg I listen to it and think how hard it is to play.

BTW I also make flutes for fun.

:0)
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Post by greenspiderweb »

Bill Reeder wrote:I used to play fiddle until the pipes came on the scene. I still get it out now and then just to keep my bowing arm from completely withering away.
Yes, me also. I dig out my fiddle about once or twice a year, and give it a go for a little and it's back to flutes and whistles or guitar and dobro for me. That's right, I'm all mixed up! But, anyway, a well played fiddle is a joy to hear!

I got my fiddle roots in Old Timey music, which is a direct descendant to the ITM, for the most part.
Last edited by greenspiderweb on Wed Sep 28, 2005 9:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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jsluder
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Post by jsluder »

Well, I have a fiddle, but I don't seem to have the time to learn to play it. Same with my guitar. It's depressing, really.
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Post by Guest »

jsluder wrote:Well, I have a fiddle, but I don't seem to have the time to learn to play it. Same with my guitar. It's depressing, really.
You could use 20 mins a day on Suzuki Books 1 and 2 - dont fuss if you dont get it all ...nobody does :0) Later use the tried and tested mirror method for 'squaring' you bowstroke, some time spent with a metronome also pays big dividends at that stage.

The Irtrad will fall out of the fiddle after the courtship of about a year.

Guitar, again you need to follow some plan. There used be some great books based on Jazz which illustrated the easiest way to make a person a good picker - which I assume most folks want in Irtrad Guitar. Anyways it is the same thing.

Isntrumental skill is quite like sports skill, you have to train doing tune-UNRELATED things for some time before you can get off the ground. BTW thats how I learned the TW as well but I had one great cheat! a native showed me a few 'shteps' off of the bench I was sitting on and huffed a bit on his TW and Flute to start me playing rhythm from day one - That saved me years of fooling about with the dots - a waste of time IMHO for the first couple of years-. Learn the basics by ear as much as you can - even if that means paying a teacher for it.
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Post by Joseph E. Smith »

fel bautista wrote:there's moi-but I tend to inhabit the Uilleann pipe side a lot more
What he said. /\
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Victor Dols
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Post by Victor Dols »

I don't think I can consider myself as fiddler because I started learning on my own yesterday, but I'll do my best, though I'm flute player (I've been playing for about 3 years)

Victor
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ennistraveler
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Post by ennistraveler »

Don't worry Victor, if you play the fiddle you're a fiddler! (at least that's my opinion) I have taught myself for a year and now I've started taking lessons, only for Swedish trad though, my teacher doesn't know any irish music or how to play it, so that I'll have to teach myself in any case.

I'm working on some Swedish trad tunes, and I'm trying to get the hang of playing Irish, I'm working on three jigs, Walls of Liscarrol, Old Joe's jig, and My darling asleep, and a hornpipe, Harvest home. I use Peter Cooper's book The complete Irish fiddle player, and Paul Mc Nevin's Teach yourself Irish fiddle, both are good but I prefer Cooper because he shows the bowing patterns.
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fel bautista
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Post by fel bautista »

Joseph E. Smith wrote:
fel bautista wrote:there's moi-but I tend to inhabit the Uilleann pipe side a lot more
What he said. /\
I didn't know that!-Joseph-out of the closet! Now, young man! :party:
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jsluder
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Post by jsluder »

toasty wrote:
jsluder wrote:Well, I have a fiddle, but I don't seem to have the time to learn to play it. Same with my guitar. It's depressing, really.
You could use 20 mins a day ...
Yeah, well, there's the rub. We're in the middle of a house remodel.

I do have the Cranitch book, which I hope to get started with some day (after I finish installing the new floors and baseboard trim and window trim and...).

Thanks for the tips, though. It's always nice to learn what has worked for other folks.

Cheers,
John
Giles: "We few, we happy few."
Spike: "We band of buggered."
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mikk
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Post by mikk »

toasty wrote:
ennistraveler wrote:Don't worry Victor, if you play the fiddle you're a fiddler! (at least that's my opinion) I have taught myself for a year and now I've started taking lessons, only for Swedish trad though, my teacher doesn't know any irish music or how to play it, so that I'll have to teach myself in any case.

I'm working on some Swedish trad tunes, and I'm trying to get the hang of playing Irish, I'm working on three jigs, Walls of Liscarrol, Old Joe's jig, and My darling asleep, and a hornpipe, Harvest home. I use Peter Cooper's book The complete Irish fiddle player, and Paul Mc Nevin's Teach yourself Irish fiddle, both are good but I prefer Cooper because he shows the bowing patterns.
Peter Cooper is an Englishman and the nearest he ever got to Irish music is a listening to Library CDs in Enlgland- he is a joke amoung the Irish who call him the 'Oirish Fuddler'- IOW he hasn't a clue, so his book is not a good idea esp for a cold newbie, you should take it back to the store/library and instead get Matt Cranitch's tutor. In addition Cooper's bowing is ENGLISH TRADITIONAL or more exactly ENGLISH MORRIS bowing of misheard Irish tunes. It is very very very WRONG and you are acquiring some nasty habits from doing it that way.

Tis like learning Chinese from a Russian who cannot speak Chinese and teach's through Mongolian from a book.
ennistraveler I have a lot of fiddle playing friend's and they have no problems at all with Pete Coopers teaching ability and style and he is very well respected. This is not the first time toasty has slammed Pete on this board http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php ... c&start=15 and it won't be the last.
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I can expect the situation to improve not worsen !!
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