Using different rhythms in our playing

Rhythm is an important part of making music. There are various playing techniques we can learn to help us play with a string sense of rhythm. We started off the class talking about developing a basic ‘default’ bowing pattern when we play reels. We’re aiming to be able to play with a down bow at the start of the bar, and to do this without thinking about it. Once it has become a subconscious habit, it allows us to start playing around with rhythms by varying the bowing patterns we’re using.

We started off by going over some possibilities for bowing Roxburgh Castle. We used a ‘one down three up’ bowing pattern to add emphasis to the on beats. We also tried emphasising the offbeats on the B part, where the tune us crossing strings.

Accompanying a tune with rhythm played on the fiddle

We learnt a rhythm accompaniment to the tune, using 3 chords played on the G and D strings. We were using A/E, B/E and C#/E. We tried playing the chords along to the tune on the beat, then we had a go at playing the chords on the offbeat. Once we’d got that, we played on the beat in the A part of the tune, and on the offbeats in the B part. We also tried to play the tune emphasising the offbeats in the B part at the same time.

Using the wrist when crossing strings

We looked at our bowing arm  action when we’re playing tunes with a lot of string crossing. Using a wrist action to move the bow from one string to the other helps us to control the bow’s movement more easily. It will also make playing at speed easier.

Playing in tune

At the end of the evening we went back to playing notes from the A arpeggio, and we wandered around the room while we were playing. We were listening to each other, and working on playing in tune with the people nearby who we could hear.