Jig Rhythms

Last week Mairi Campbell came and taught the string Circle fiddle class while I was sunning myself on Mull 😉

Playing jig rhythms

This week we continued to look at playing jig rhythms. We did some more playing with a very dotted rhythm. We tried out practicing the rhythm on its own first, playing a single note to get our bows swinging. Then we moved on to playing the tune.

Bow hold

We tried playing with a very relaxed hold on our bows. It’s important to keep the thumb slightly bent when holding the bow. If the thumb joint stiffens and locks, the muscles up the forearm become tense, which stiffens the wrist. It also hinders a smooth action with the bowing arm.

Using different parts of the bow to change the sound

We experimented with playing using different parts of the bow to see what happened to the sound. Using the tip of the bow gives a lighter more subtle sound. Using the heel of the bow creates a much more powerful scrunching sound.

We went over the first 2 parts of Kenny Gillies of Portnalong again. We’ll carry on working on this tune next week. The written music for the tune is on the website music page.