Recapping for the term

For the last fiddle class of the summer term, we recapped a few of the main points we’ve covered over the last 10 weeks.

Techniques for adding dynamics

We looked at the bow hold, and how it works as a mechanism for controlling the bow. we revisited the exercise where we worked in pairs to get a sense of using the weight of the arm, and allowing it to ‘flow’ down the arm and into the bow. We worked on using the index finger and pinkie top control how loudly/quietly we played

We started off by playing long open D drones – using the weight of the bowing arm, plus some pressure through the index finger on the stick of the bow, we made the drones loud. Then using a little pressure from the pinkie on the stick of the bow, we played the drones as quietly as we could. We followed this by playing open Ds in a rhythm,and at the start of each down bow we used the index finger and weight of the arm to create a loud scrunchy start to the note, then used the pinkie to play the reminder of each note quietly.

Playing in tune

Once we’d done this, different people in the room played different notes from the D chord – all playing something different from the people on either side of us, so we could hear more clearly what we were doing individually. This allowed us to also start thinking about tuning & timing, as we all played together.

Playing faster

We moved on to playing up and down D scale, with a faster timing. We worked on not thinking about the mechanics of what we were doing, and allowing the subconscious to take over, so we were just hearing the music as we played, and not looking at our own hands.

After the break, we played through the reel In and Out the Harbour. We played the A part of the tune as a ‘call and response’ with people on one side of the room playing the first phrase of the, and the other side playing the responding phrase, alternating across the room as we played through the whole part. Then we swapped round. Still playing just the A part,  we all played the 1st phrase, and fell silence for response phrases. This meant we had to ‘hear’ the tune in our heads to know where to come back i in time with everyone else. Then we played the whole tune, playing the response phrases only (without having time to try to ‘find’ those phrases first!). We were focusing on hearing the whole tune in our heads as we played.

Finally we worked on playing the reel faster – using short bow strokes for the quavers and triplets. We played through it several times, playing it slightly faster each time we went round the tune.

Fingal’s Cave – march

At the end of the night we learnt the march Fingal’s Cave (here’s a link to some more information about the tune), then most of us headed off to the Diggers for a session to round off the term. The session will continue each week over the summer, and will start at the earlier time of 7.30 pm.

Thanks tpo everyone for your enthusiasm and music!