Today we looked at bowing patterns in a reel, and spent some time considering why we might chose to use particular patterns at any point.
We started the workshop by playing a D scale, using single bow strokes for each note. We could imagine these 8 notes are 8 quavers in a bar of a reel. We tried playing the same thing emphasising the upbow before the main beat in the bar – so emphasising the G and then the D at the top of the scale. We played round the scale a few times doing this, hearing the emphasised up beat connected to the down beat that followed it. We switched to playing all the notes in pairs of notes slurred together. We also tried out playing a down bow on the first note followed by 3 slurred up bows. To do this, we need to move the bow fast on the down bow, and move it slower on the up bow to fit the 3 notes in. Because of the difference in the speed of the bow this 1 down 3 up bowing pattern creates a loud note on the first note, which is on the beat.
We learnt Cooley’s Reel. We looked at various bowing patterns we can use throughout the tune. We started off with a basic bowing pattern that allows us to keep a down bow on the beat. To do this we start the tune on a down bow, and slur the 2 quavers after any triplet or crotchet. Doing this creates a basic ‘structure’ to the bowing. If we learn enough tunes with this basic pattern embedded, it will become a habit which we no longer need to think about. If we allow this basic rhythm (emphasising on the beat) in our playing to become subconscious, it frees us up to think about adding variations into the rhythm, which makes the tunes more interesting.
There are several different reasons why we might choose a particular bowing pattern at any point in a tune:
The main reason is the sound – notes slurred will sound different to notes bowed with individual bow strokes
To keep the down bow on the beat – as the down bow has a naturally stronger sound, this can help to establish a pulse on the beat in a tune
If we play and 1 down 3 up pattern, or a 3 up 1 down pattern, it adds extra emphasis on the down bow (on the beat in the first pattern, and on the off beat in the second pattern)
There might be points in a tune where we find it easier to play the notes if we use a particular bowing pattern
To get the bow into position for the next phrase – if you want to play a particular phrase with a 1 down 3 up bowing pattern, you need to be at the heel of the bow for the initial down bow in the pattern. So you might choose to slur notes on an up bow immediately beforehand to bring your bow into position
When you’re practicing different bowing patterns, start off by establishing the pattern, then try switching to really listening to your playing with the bowing pattern, and see if you can hear what it’s doing to the sound of the notes. This will help establish a connection between the sound and the action. When you come to try out different patterns in a tune, you can work on hearing the bowing pattern in the tune as you play. This will help to get to a point where you can play tunes from your subconscious – fluidly and with confidence.
We worked on the B part of the tune, establishing a basic pattern to get the down bow on the beat. Then we tried out adding in pushes on the up bows in the final run down at the end of the part. We also tried out adding a 3 up 1 down pattern, and then added in a lift on the bow before the down bow. We looked at some alternative bowings we could use in the A part of the tune to vary the sound
In this workshop we focused on techniques that would help us to play tunes faster.
We started out by revisiting our fiddle bow hold. Bow control is an important part of playing at speed, and having an effective bow hold will help us to feel in control of the bow. It’s also important to learn to play with your bowing hand kept very relaxed.
If you struggle with keeping your bowing hand relaxed, put down your bow and give the hand a good shake out. Let the hand drop down by your side and feel how relaxed it is. You’re aiming to get this same feeling of relaxation in your hand when you play.
We learnt a short reel called Al’s Reel
The wrist and forearm
One of the things that makes it difficult to speed up tunes is fast runs of notes that we’re playing on single bows. It becomes important when trying to play tunes faster to have a relaxed wrist, so the wrist action can become an integral part of the action we use to move the bow rapidly. If you are trying to play fast and your bowing action comes from your shoulder and upper arm, you’ll find your arm and hand become very tense as the speed increases.
In order to play tunes faster, we have to be able to play notes using short lengths of the bow, minimising the amount of work the forearm needs to put into bowing. The action comes from the wrist and forearm as we play the tune faster. It’s important that your bow hold keeps the wrist of the bowing hand slightly rotated (anticlockwise) so the wrist is in a plane where it can easily flex at either end of the bow stroke. To get a feel for this action of the wrist, we tried playing long notes on an open A string, letting the wrist ‘lead’ the change of direction of the bowing arm at each end of the bow stroke.
If you struggle to get a feel for how the wrist action works put down your bow, and pretend you are painting a wall using vertical brush strokes. As your imaginary paintbrush reaches the bottom of the brush stroke, you’ll see your wrist naturally flexes as you turn to bring the brush back up again. It will flex again (in the opposite direction) as you get to the top end of the brush stroke. Once you’ve got this action, gradually change the angle of the line you’re ‘painting’, so the top is further over to the left, and the bottom further over to the right. Keep changing the angle until your imaginary line is horizontal instead of vertical. If you’ve done this keeping the same wrist action, you’re now moving your wrist in the same way as you’re aiming for when you make a bow stroke
Creating a pulse
We changed to playing a rhythm of 8 quavers (still on the open A string), emphasising the first and 5th notes. We all instinctively played this with a down bow on the first note, which helps to create that emphasis, as a down bow is naturally stronger than an up bow. While doing this we worked on keeping the bowing hand relaxed and keeping the bowing arm action in the wrist and forearm.
Tapping the foot
We continued playing the rhythm of 8 notes, with an emphasis on the 1st and 5th notes. We then tapped our foot on the the notes we were emphasising. If we imagine these 8 notes are one bar in a reel, we are then tapping the 1st and 3rd beats in the bar – these are the on-beats. There are advantages to learning to tap just the on-beats rather than tapping all four beats in the bar:
Once you have learnt to play tunes with an emphasis on the beat without having to consciously think about it, you can start to play around with emphasising off beats or upbeats to make the tune more interesting. If your feet are identifying the on beats, it is easier to work out where those off beats are
When tunes are played fast there’s a natural tendency for the tempo to speed up. If you’re trying to control the speed you’re playing at it’s music easier to do this with your feet, when you’re only tapping the on-beats
We tried playing a scale of D as 8 quavers. We played the 8 notes with an emphasis on the beat, tapping our foot where we played the emphasis. We worked on using the tempo of our foot tapping to control the tempo of our playing.
Bowing patterns
We looked at how to establish a basic ‘default’ bowing pattern for reels, with a down bow on the beat. Doing this helps to create a structure for our playing so that ultimately we will be able to play with a natural emphasis on the beat without thinking about it
The left hand
We looked at what happens with the left hand as we play faster. Keeping the fingers light on the strings will allow them to ‘dance’ as we play. We played a long note with the first finger on the A string. We started with the finger placed very lightly on the string and gradually increased the finger pressure as we played. What you’ll notice when you do this is that the tone of the note sounds very feeble when you have a very light finger pressure, and that the tone gradually fills out as you add more pressure. It’s not a linear rate of change, though – the improvement in the tone is marked as you first start to add more pressure on the string, but the rate of improvement drops off as the string gets close to touching the fingerboard. So when we’re playing tunes faster we can aim for a slightly lighter touch with the fingers with very little effect on the tone of the notes.
Practice keeping fingers down on the fingerboard where possible – often you’ll find that in tunes you go straight back to a note you’ve just played. Leaving the finger in place on the string after playing the note the first time helps when it comes to playing faster. There’s plenty of opportunities to do this in Al’s Reel
Economy of movement will help us to increase the speed we play at. One other thing you can try is keeping the fingers as close to the string as possible when you lift them off in between notes.
What happens when it goes wrong?
To play at speed, you need to be able to keep the tune/rhythm going even if you play a wrong note. To be able to do this with confidence, you need to hear the tune in your head as you’re playing it. We’re aiming for all the mechanics of our playing to become completely subconscious so we’re not thinking about which way the bow is moving, or which order our fingers need to go down to play the notes. The notes are played because we hear them in the tune. You might hear this referred to as being ‘in the zone’.
Once your playing is happening because you are hearing the tune in your head as you play, you can learn to let that tune continue even when you hit a wrong note – the next finger then goes down to play the next note because we hear that note in the tune. As well as learning to hear the tune as we play, we also need to learn to trust that we will play the right notes when we hear them in the tune.
Playing in the zone
We played through this short phrase (a run of quavers) from the A part of the tune: e d c# d e f# g e
We played the notes using separate bow strokes for each note, and focused on using just a short length of the bow. we tried playing it in a different place on the bow each time – either third near the the tip, or the middle, or the third near the heel. Most of us will find we gravitate towards using the middle section of the bow when we’re playing – it feels easier to play there. When you play towards the heel of the bow, it will feel harder to control the bow – there’s suddenly a lot of it waggling about, on the left side of the strings!
We played the phrase round at a steady tempo 4 times, then then lifted the speed a bit. We aimed to hold the speed steady each time we picked it up. We lifted the tempo again after another 4 repetitions. At the 4th increase in tempo, it was too fast for most of us to play.
We tried the same process again, but this time focused completely on hearing the sound of the phrase as we played. This time, our playing after the 4th tempo hike was much ore under control.
Controlling the tempo
It’s important to learn to control your own speed if you want to play faster. There’s a tendency for tunes to speed up when we hit tricky bits, so playing faster often results in the speed careering out of control unless we understand how to control it.
We can use our foot tapping to driving or control our playing speed. To be able to do this, you need to let your playing follow the speed of your foot tapping rather than the other way round! If your playing is following your foot tapping tempo, you can learn to control the foot tapping speed to control your playing speed.
Learning strategies
The fiddle is a complicated instrument – it’s easy to get into a habit of playing while thinking about what we’re doing physically. There are so many elements to technique that we can become overwhelmed with trying to get everything right at once. I’ve found it much more effective if I decide what aspects of my technique I want to work on, and work on just one thing at any time. So I might play a particular phrase in a tune several times , just working on getting a bowing pattern that works, then I might move on to playing the same phrase but thinking about getting particular grace note where I want it. When I’m going through this process, I’ll start off by trying the technique out a few times in it’s simplest possible form.
So if I’m working on playing a grace note, I’ll try just playing s single note the grace note embellishing it. I start by really focusing on what’s going on physically to make it work the way I want to, than once I have that, I shift to hearing the sound as I play. I’m aiming to hear the sound I want, and noticing whether that’s what I’m achieving with my playing. Once I’m happy with this step, I’ll try the same process, but with the grace note in the tune.
The aim of going through these steps is that I’m working to get the new technique embedded in my playing so it will happen purely because I hear the sound of it in the tune as I’m playing.
In the November workshop we worked on techniques that help with playing reels and jigs up to speed.
We started off by playing the notes of the D scale. We worked on how to control the length of bow that we used for each note, which affects the volume of the note. We focused on emphasising the notes on the beat, playing these on a downbow. Once we’d played the scale round a few times doing this, we switched our focus to listening to the sound of our own fiddle, and the sound the group made together, paying particular attention to the detail of each note. When our focus was on the sound of the group, we played much more tightly together.
To play closely in time with one another, it’s important to be able to control exactly when the bow connects with the string and starts each note. We also have to be in control of exactly when each note stops as this will affect when the following note starts.
We learnt the reel Roxburgh Castle. The B part of the tune involves some rapid string-crossing, which all the workshop participants identified as something they struggle with when tunes start to go a bit faster. We worked on slurring pairs of quavers after each crotchet in the tune, to make sure we were playing with a down bow on the beat. We also worked on tapping a foot on the on-beats (2 taps/bar) to help create a steady tempo.
Using short bow strokes
To be able to pay tunes at speed, it’s important to be able to control how much of the bow you use for playing an individual note. Runs of notes become impossible to play at speed if you’re driving the bow from the arm and
Playing notes from the wrist or the arm
As a tunes speeds up it’s important to be able to play individual notes without involving too much arm movement. We worked on distinguishing between the wrist or hand leading the bow stroke and the forearm leading. To drive the notes from the wrist, playing with you bowing arm rotated slightly anticlockwise on the bow will put your wrist in the plane where it can easily flex as you make a bow stroke.
Have a look at this video of Hanneke Cassel teaching a simple riff. At 2m30s you can see that she’s using her arm to drive the bigger notes, but the small notes are coming from her hand/fingers
This video of Alasdair White playing a couple of reels is a great demonstration of the fluidity of arm movement involved in playing fast reels. You’ll see that a huge variation in how much/little his forearm is involved in the bow strokes for different notes in these tunes:
You’ll also notice in the video above that Alasdair plays with his pinkie completely off the bow.
Which part of the bow to use
We also looked at which part of the bow to use when playing. There’s a tendency when you first start playing to stick to playing using only a small part of the bow. Often people will stick to the centre of the bow, as the bow feels easier to control in that position. You’ll see both of the players above are moving around the bow – the part of the bow you chose to play on at any given time will depend on the sound you want to make, and will also be affected by your next bow stroke.
Analysing your own playing
We played through the reel, speeding it up each time through. Each person in the group focused on the point where it felt to fast for them, and what they were aware of in their own playing that was holding the back. This identified a number of problems such as posture, focusing on the fingers rather than the sound, and worrying that it was all about to go wrong!
Staying in control of the tempo
We worked on how to stay in control of the tempo when playing the tune at a faster speed. Often the problem with playing faster is that we don’t know how to ‘apply the brakes’, and as soon as the tune starts to speed up, it carries on doing so until it’s going at a speed that’s beyond our ability to play. tapping your foot can be a useful way to establish a tempo before you start playing. You might want to diddle the tune in your head, to set the tempo, and tap your foot along, then start to play along with the tempo you’ve set. It’s useful to work out when tapping your foot whether you are playing to your foot tapping, or tapping along t your playing. If your foot is driving the tempo, that’s where your focus needs to be if you want to change the tempo in mid tune.
Playing jigs at speed
We worked briefly on jig time, getting the rhythm of tunes in 6/8 timing. Find out more about playing tunes in jig rhythm. We focused on being able to put the emphasis on the down bow at the start of the bar, and the up bow on the second beat.
We spent the day looking at how to make the most of the time you have to practice playing your fiddle. If you want to make noticeable improvements in your playing, you need to start to become your own teacher. You’re the only person who knows exactly what sound you want to achieve from your instrument.
We started off by looking at our current practice habits. For many people this will involve playing through tunes that we know well, and trying to play them better. Some people might practice scales, or try adding specific bits of new technique into tunes they’re learning.
What else can you do, if you want to improve your fiddle playing, or to learn new techniques and bed them into your playing? There are a number of general points about practicing that can help, methods to help you to become more analytical about your playing, and ways you can structure your practice to help you work on the aspects that you identify you want to improve.
General tips:
Try leaving your fiddle out of its case – you’re more likely to pick it up and play it if you see it. Practicing for 10 minutes a couple of times a day often seems less daunting than having one big long practice session at the end of the working week.
Aim to practice at the times of day when you’re most alert. If you don’t know when this is, try keeping note every hour over 2 or 3 days of how alert you feel. You could do this using a scale of 1 (almost asleep) to 10 (fully alert).
Practice by focusing on any one thing for small chunks of time, then move on to something new. Our brains stay more alert when presented with new things regularly. Endlessly repeating the same thing will probably result in some improvement by the time you reach the nth repetition. But practicing by repeating the same thing endlessly isn’t teaching you to get it right the first time. If you’re practicing for a performance (using that term loosely – it may be that you’d like to be able to start a tune in the session with confidence, or play ‘Happy Birthday’ for your best pal) the best way to do this is to play the tune once, then do something else, and come back and play the tune once. If you want to learn to play it at your best the first time through, that’s just what you should practice doing.So you might identify 4 things you want to work on in a 2 hour practice session. Perhaps you want to A: perfect that performance piece, B: work on your tone, C: learn to play grace notes better, and D: learn a new bowing pattern. You could divide your practice hour into 4 x 30 minute chunks, and devote each chunk to one of these topics. Or you could spend 5 minutes on A, 5 minutes on B, 5 minutes on C and 5 minutes on D, then repeat this cycle several times. Doing it the second way will help avoid your brain becoming bored and switching off. It will keep you much more engaged in what you’re doing.
Get yourself a ‘practice notebook’. Use it for jotting down your observations from your practice sessions. You can start to create a list of things you notice that you would like to improve on
Try practicing something in the evening before you go to bed, and then practice the same thing first thing the following morning. Learning in the evening, then recapping in the morning after you’ve slept results in dramatic improvement of recall compared to learning for 2 sessions without sleep in between. It also results in better recall of memorised items over time.
Visualising yourself practicing (if it’s done mindfully) is as effective as actually practicing.
Mindless practicing can embed bad habits, and undermine your confidence, because you don’t understand the mechanics of playing well, and are therefore not confident you can reproduce them reliably.
Choosing your state
Our mental processes while we are playing will have a big impact on what we can achieve. When you pick up your fiddle it’s important to be aware of what your aim is, and choose the state you need to achieve that aim. We need to learn to choose the state we need for practicing, and become analytical, (rather than the creative state we need for performing). We also need to learn to be able to flip from one state to another, depending on what we’re doing.
When you’re learning a brand new technique, you need to be accessing a ‘thinking state’. Suppose you want to learn how to play chords on the fiddle. You’ll need to be actively thinking about how your bow is positioned, and how you move it, to hit the chord at exactly the time you want. Your brain is pretty much focused on your physical movements, and how those work with the bow to create the chord.
Once you’ve become familiar with the movements, you can move in to a ‘listening state’, where your focus is on listening to the sound you’re making as you execute the technique, and analysing what is happening. Being able to flip between the thinking and listening state easily is an immensely useful skill to help your learning.
Once you’ve embedded the new technique into your playing, and you want to play the tune with chords in a session, or on stage, you need to access a ‘creative state’ where your focus is purely on creating the music. As you play, you hear the music in your head in a certain way, with your own interpretation. Because through mindful practice you’ve been building the pathways connecting sound and action, you can hear the tune in your head, and it comes out of the instrument without your conscious brain needing to be involved. You can be completely relaxed, knowing that your subconscious will direct your movements without your ‘thinking’ brain needing to be involved.
If you want to improve your fiddle playing, it’s easy to see the solution as being simply a matter of learning new techniques. There’s another side to creating the sounds we want, that is about understanding the inner dialogue that goes on while you’re practicing/playing. If you want to know more about this, the book ‘The Inner Game of Music‘ is a helpful place to start. Ultimately our ability to perform in the way we want to is a combination of our technical skill, and our ability to manage our own self doubts, and self-sabotaging talk.
The first step towards managing your inner dialogue is in recognising that it happens, and what your own habits and patterns are. from there you can start to work on more constructive thinking patterns that will support your playing rather than sabotage it.
Making it easy
When you’re learning a new technique you’re more likely to be able to ‘nail it’ if you simplify whatever you’re playing as far as you can while you learn the new physical movements you need to make. So if you wanted to add some chords you’d just been shown into say The Barrowburn Reel, you might start the process by learning to play one chord on 2 open strings.
You might start by choosing to play this on the 2 strings you generally feel most comfortable with, and where you create your best tone. Once you have a feel for this, you could move to different strings, or try a chord with an open string and the first finger on the string below. Once this skill has bedded in, you might move on to chords where you have fingers down on both strings.
With most new skills it’s possible to find a simple place to start, and gradually layer up the complexity of what you’re doing. The aim is to bed in the basic skill to a point where you can play it in its simplest form without actively thinking about what you’re doing physically – your subconscious can take over at this point, freeing up your ‘thinking space’ for working on learning the next level of the new skill.
Learning to listen
We started off the workshop by playing an open D. Each person played and focused on listening to their own sound. We then each noted things about the sound we created that we wanted to work on. We aimed to phrase this in terms of a sound (a goal) that we wanted to achieve, rather than something we wanted to stop. So rather than “I’d like to stop it sounding wobbly” you might say “I’d like to create a smooth sound that’s controlled and even”. We tried to be as specific as possible about this goal.
We then repeated the exercise with our eyes shut. Doing this allows you to listen more closely to the sound of your fiddle, as you’re removing any visual distractions, which allows your brain to be much more focused on the sound. You can move on to a third step at this point, and record yourself and then listen back. This often reveals how little detail we hear when we’re involved in playing!
So the steps to developing your ability to listen are:
Play
Play and focus on listening
Play with your eyes shut, focusing more deeply on listening
Record your playing, and listen back with out distractions
Using recordings:
When you’re learning to play an instrument, it can be daunting to record yourself, and many people shy away from doing it. Feeling ‘under the spotlight’ can make us tense and nervous, resulting in not being able to play at our best. But recordings are a surprisingly useful tool. It allows you to carefully listen, without any distractions, to the sound you make. You can also listen as many times as you like, focusing on different aspects each time you listen. You might listen through once paying attention to the tone of your playing, then a second time listening to the tuning, and a third with your focus on tempo or rhythm, and so on. The important thing in using recordings to improve your playing is learning to listen with a view to diagnosing problems in your playing. You need to have an idea in your mind of the sound you’re aiming to make, and your listening is focused on any areas that you don’t feel are achieving that aim yet.
If you keep your recordings, you can also use them over time to get a sense of the progress you are making in different areas of your fiddle playing.
Structuring your practice:
Practicing mindfully involves several steps. The first stage is the analysis. We start by analysing what’s happening, and identifying possible changes we want to try making.
be clear what sound you’re aiming for – be as specific and detailed as you can about exactly how you want your playing to sound. Think about tone, dynamics, precision, tempo, timing, tuning, bowing, energy etc
focus on listening to your own sound using the steps outlined above
analyse what you’re already achieving and what you feel you still need to work on
identify specific changes you could try to help achieve the goals
test the possible solutions – what works and helps towards achieving the sound you’re after?
Once you’ve identified the changes you want to introduce into your playing, your aim is to get to a point where you no longer need to consciously think about what you’re physically doing for that new technique to be used. It should be possible to use it purely because you hear the desired sound as you’re playing – your subconscious will make the link, and lets you execute the technique naturally.
You can bed new techniques into your playing through mindful repetition, using following steps –
Break any changes you want to make down into the simplest possible manageable chunks.
Focus on one area of technique at a time.
Try the new technique in it’s simplest form (on an open string/single note or simple run, if possible). You’ll need to be in the thinking state to achieve this step.
Once it feels physically comfortable, repeat it, but move into your listening state, and focus on listening to the sound you’re making. Make sure your listening is focused on what improvements you want to make in the sound you’re creating.
Repeat, with your eyes shut, to focus more deeply.
Repeat it and record it. Listen back to the recording. Notice if there are things you didn’t hear while you were playing. Is it helping achieve the desired sound? If not, go back to the analysis stage, and see if you can identify any different changes to work on. If it’s working, go on to the next step.
Put the new technique into a phrase of a tune or riff. Repeat the last 4 steps above
Move on to the next area of technique
Repeat the cycle
Memory
One issue you may have is around managing to remember things. How do you learn a new tune and commit it to memory?
What’s your current method of learning a new tune? For many people, they will play it round and round for some time, going over any tricky bits, and gradually familiarising themselves with the patterns in the tune. it can be disconcerting to find that having done this, an hour later you have no idea how the tune starts, and you therefore can’t play it at all. If you go back to a recording at this point, or find the written music, you’ll usually find that in fact you do remember most of the tune. So what happened?
The issue is not so much about not being able to remember the tune, but more a case of not being able to access the memory we have created. if you struggle with remembering tunes it’s worth devoting some of your practice time to practicing the art retrieving tunes from your memory.
If you want to commit a new tune to your long-term memory, there is evidence that if you can learn it, then play it an hour or so later, and then a day later, it will help lodge it more firmly into your mind.
In today’s workshop we worked on tone and tuning. We started off by looking at our instruments.
Aspects of the fiddle which can affect tone/tuning
Old strings
Quality of the instrument
Set-up of the instrument, esp soundpost
Damage to the instrument
What might cause a fiddle to go out of tune
Passage of time
Change of humidity
Change of temperature
New strings
Fiddle being knocked/dropped
Damaged instrument
If you want to be able to play in tune with more confidence, it’s important to tune your fiddle every time before you play, and to check the tuning regularly while you’re playing as well. Find out how to tune your fiddle.
People who can play confidently in tune have learnt a number of skills:
Hearing what the in tune notes should sound like
The ability to have the hand in the same place on the neck of the fiddle each time they play
Familiarity with different hand ‘shapes’ that will place the fingers in the correct position to play the notes in tune
Familiarity with the sound of the open strings when they are in tune, so they can quickly identify when any string needs to be tuned
Learning to hear what in-tune notes sound like
The first step to being able to play in tune is to learn to hear what an in tune note sounds like. If you’re not sure what the pitch of an individual note should be, it will be impossible to tell if your tuning is OK while you’re playing.
There are several things you can do to start to train your ear to hear pitch more accurately:
Learning to listen while you’re playing. We tried playing a ;long open note, then playing it focusing on listening, then playing it with our eyes closed and focusing on listening. The less distractions you have from listening to your own playing, the more detail you will be able to hear.
Recording and listening back, paying attention to the tuning.
Playing chords with (in tune) open strings to aid hearing in/out of tune notes.
Using a tuner to find the pitch, then playing the note and listening until we have the sound of the note. lift the finger, then try to find the note in tune, using the note you hear in your head. Check with the tuner if you have it in tune. Repeat as often as needed to get the in tune note into your head.
We tried playing up the first few notes of the D scale. When we played the G (3rd finger) we also played the open G string below it, forming and octave chord. It’s fairly easy to hear when a note is out of tune with the note an octave below. What tends to happen when we’re learning is that as the fingers go down, if we play notes slightly out of tune we are unable to hear that they’re not in tune. So imagine someone who is learning to play the fiddle, playing the first 4 notes of the scale of D. They hear the open D, which is in tune (assuming the fiddle is in tune!). The first finger goes down to play the E. If this note is slightly out of tune, they don’t notice it. So their ear hears the E as being in tune, and as the second finger goes down, they’re hearing the F# note relative to the previous note. If this pattern continues, by the time they play the G it can be significantly out of tune, without it sounding out of tune to an inexperienced ear. Plying the chord with the 3rd finger G and the octave-down open G string will help reveal if this is an issue in your own playing.
It’s important to get into the habit of having your left hand in the same place on the neck of the fiddle each time you pick it up. If the hand is slightly further up the neck than usual, you will need to put your hand into slightly different shapes to play the notes in tune. Learning the relative hand shapes needed to get each finger in the correct position to play the notes in tune takes time, but can be learnt through repetition.
We learnt the mazurka ‘Capitaine’ in the workshop.
In the March fiddle workshop we spent the day exploring different areas of the bow, and how to use the bow to create different effects on the sounds of the notes we play on the fiddle.
We used the tune Benachie Sunrise.
Using the tip or the heel of the bow
We tried playing the tune using just the tip end of the bow, and then using just the heel end, while really listening to the sound of our fiddles. We noticed the differences that using different parts of the bow made to the sound of the notes, and also to how we played the tune:
Tip of the bow – creates a gentler mellow sound. it’s easy to play quietly using the tip. The tune tended to flow well. Heel of the bow – creates a much harsher sound, bringing a choppy and rather aggressive nature to the tune.
The position of the bow on the fiddle
We played around with where we placed the bow on the strings, moving from very close to the bridge, to right down over the end of the fingerboard, and again listened carefully to our own playing to hear the differences in sounds created by different bow positions:
Playing with the bow close to the bridge – created a loud and slightly harsh sound. Playing with the bow over the end of the fingerboard – created a somewhat dry whispy sound.
Speed and weight
We also worked on getting a feel for allowing the weight of the arm to transfer onto the bow. Adding more weight to the bow (rather than pushing down onto the bow) increases the volume, and also helps create a fuller sound from the instrument. moving the bow faster also increases the volume of the note.
Learning to listen
We tried playing the tune Benachie Sunrise, listening closely to our own fiddle sounds as we played. Then we tried playing and hearing the tune in our heads as we played – doing this allows us to access a ‘flow’ state, allowing the subconscious to take over control of what we’re doing physically to achieve the end result.We did this twice – the second time we were listening to analyse our own sound, and to identify any areas of that sound that we wanted to work on.
We tried the exercise one more time, this time hearing the tune in our heads as we played, and focusing on hearing it the way we would like it to sound.
Then we moved on to playing the tune in different ways – happy, angry, sad etc. Doing this made a surprising difference to the nature of the tune each time. We stopped to think about what had happened in each version:
Happy – the tune became bouncier, and we played a bit faster Angry – the tune became noisy, clumpy and grungy Sad – the tune was slower and gentle
We finished of the day by playing Auld Lang Syne together, firstly listening to our own tone, then listening to all the players in the group, then listening and focusing on playing ‘as one’. As we listened more to the music we were creating, our tuning and timing became much closer.
In this month’s workshop we looked at issues around the left hand, and how to keep the left hand relaxed, which will help in developing fluid playing.
Avoiding tension in the left hand
The way we support the fiddle neck with the left hand will depend to some extent on whether we use a shoulder rest or not. The neck of the fiddle should be resting on the inside of the index finger. It’s common for tension to build, with the left hand gripping the neck of the fiddle, and the thumb becoming tense and painful. It’s important to find a way to support the neck of the fiddle while keeping the left hand relaxed. There’s more detailed information on supporting the neck of the fiddle in this article.
The palm of the left hand should be kept in a vertical position while playing, with the fingers in a gently curved and relaxed position when not on a string. This allows any of the fingers to be placed onto the strings so that they drop straight down onto the string from above.
It can be tempting to ‘cradle’ the neck of the fiddle in the palm of the hand, as the instrument might feel more secure when holding it in this way. However, if the palm is underneath and supporting the neck of the fiddle, the fingers will be pulled away from the fingerboard, making it necessary to stretch across the fingerboard from the side to reach the strings. This will cause the fingers to touch adjacent strings, which will cause problems when playing tunes that cross from one string to another.
To move the fingers from one string to another, swing the elbow of the bowing hand across. As the elbow moves from left to right, the hand is moved over the finger board from right to left. This allows us to reach the G string easily without having to stretch individual fingers across the finger board.
We looked at the pressure needed on the string when a finger is placed. You can play a note by pressing the finger hard against the fingerboard, but this immediately puts the left hand in a position of tension. We experimented with using different pressures to play an E, using the 1st finger in the D string. Firstly we just rested the finger on the string – doing this creates a note with very little resonance. Then we pressed the finger hard against the fingerboard, which creates a much crisper-sounding note, but also creates tension in the hand. After this we tried finding an intermediate level of pressure on the string that created a sound we liked, but avoided tension in the left hand.
The reality of playing is that the pressure used will be different for different notes within a tune. Ideally you’re aiming to avoid tension building up in the hand, and keeping the hand relaxed and able to move fluidly over the fingerboard. This fluidity is particularly important as you begin to play faster tunes.
We tried playing up a D scale, starting with long slow bow strokes. We gradually sped up the pace of playing, paying attention to using only a gentle pressure with each finger on the string. We also tried playing alternate D/E notes, taking time to fully relax the hand when we were playing the open D.
We learnt the reel Peerie Weerie
Keeping fingers down on the string
In the tune, there are different places where it’s possible to keep fingers placed on a string while playing the next note in the tune, as the tune will return again to the previous note. So in this phrase in the A part of the tune:the first finger can be placed on the A string to play the B, and kept in place while the G is played with the 3rd finger on the D string. It’s then easy to return to the B straight after the G is played.
Similarly, in this phrase in the B part: the second finger is placed and kept down while the top A is played with the 3rd finger on the e string, and then the 1st finger is kept down while the top G is played.
Being able to do this is helpful when working on playing tunes faster.
Playing fast tunes can often lead to a disconnect between the bowing action and the fingers moving on the finger board. We looked at using shorter lengths of the bow as we play tunes faster, and developing our own sense of rhythm and pulse. We also worked on how to create a clear crisp start to each note, so we know exactly where that pulse is in the tune. This helps with keeping our own timing really steady, helping with co-ordination between the left and right hands. You can read more here about how to get the bow to fully engage with the string at the start of each note.
Placing a finger across 2 strings
We worked on placing the finger across 2 strings. This is a useful technique when a fast tune moves between 2 strings, playing notes with the same finger on each of those strings (for example where a tune moves from a C on the A string to a G on the E string, which are both played with the 2nd finger). It’s helpful to place the finger down across both strings as the first of the notes (the C) is played. Try to do this so the finger is dropping down onto both strings from above, rather than by placing the finger down to play the C then flattening the finger across onto the E string to play the G.
Many people find it hard to use the 4th finger with confidence. This may be due to the 4th finger sitting below the neck of the fiddle in the ‘resting’ position. Check what your left hand position is when you’re not using the 4th finger. Ideally the 4th finger should be relaxed, slightly bent, and sitting close to the 3rd finger, above the finger board.
Because we’re not used to using the 4th finger independently, it tends to be naturally weaker than the other fingers. So the first step is to practice using it regularly, to begin to build up strength.
This video gives a lot more detail about the 4th finger:
Playing grace notes
We worked on playing grace notes fluidly. The name ‘grace note’ is perhaps misleading, as the finger playing the grace note barely touches the string before it is lifted again. I tend to think of it as more of a flicking action, so that the finger momentarily stops the string vibrating (imagine what would happen if the string was burning hot when you place your grace note finger on it!). The aim is to create a particular sound when the grace note is played. Ultimately you’ll need to be able to hear the sound you’re aiming to create, as you’re playing the note with the grace note.
We also looked at the different effect on the sound of placing the grace note at the start of the note or at the end.
In December’s workshop we focused on techniques that would help us to play tunes faster.
We started out by revisiting our fiddle bow hold. One of the things that makes it difficult to speed up tunes when we’re learning is where there are fast runs of notes that we’re playing on single bows. It becomes important when trying to play tunes faster to have a relaxed wrist, so the wrist action can become an integral part of the action we use to move the bow rapidly.
We practiced playing a dotted jig rhythm on an open A string, then playing the same rhythm on these notes:
We learnt a 4 part jig called The Duck
In order to play tunes faster, we have to be able to play notes using short lengths of the bow, minimising the amount of work the forearm puts into bowing. More of the action comes from the wrist as we play the tune faster. We worked on the bowing hand wrist action. Remember to keep the wrist of the bowing hand slightly rotated (anticlockwise) so the wrist is in a plane where it can easily flex at either end of the bow stroke.
We looked at what happens with the left hand as we play faster. Keeping the fingers close to the fingerboard when they’re not being used, reduces the time it takes to get them back in place when we next need to use them. It also makes it easier to be precise about where the fingers fall on the strings, making it more likely we will keep notes in tune as we speed up. Practice keeping fingers down on the fingerboard where possible – often you’ll find that in tunes you go straight back to a note you’ve just played. Leaving the finger in place on the string after playing the note the first time helps when it comes to playing faster. It’s also not necessary to push the string down hard onto the fingerboard – the fingers need to ‘dance’ over the strings.
All of these things help with economy of movement which will help us to be able to increase the speed of playing tunes, and keep our playing under control.
To play at speed, you need to be able to keep the tune/rhythm going even if errors happen. To be able to do this with confidence, you need to hear the tune in your head, as you’re playing it. We’re aiming for the mechanics of our playing to become much more subconscious, so we’re no longer having to focus on which way the bow is moving, or which order our fingers need to go down to play that quick run of notes. The notes are played because we hear them in the tune. We tried plucking the first phrase of the tune, and missing random notes out, while still staying in the rhythm. We had to focus on hearing the tune for this to work.
Then we played this riff from the A part of the tune
We started slowly at first, then lifted the speed a bit in stages, working on holding the speed steady each time we picked it up. Everyone in the group focused on their own playing, pinpointing the speed that their playing became a problem, and analysing what issues were contributing to the difficulty.
It’s important to learn to control own speed if you want to play faster. There’s a tendency for tunes to speed up when we hit tricky bits, so playing faster often results in the speed careering out of control, unless we understand how to control it. Work out whether own foot tapping is driving/controlling your playing speed (some people play along to the tempo of their tapping foot, while others tap their foot in time with their playing). If your playing is following your foot tapping tempo, then you will need to learn to control the foot tapping speed to control your playing speed.
If you’re playing in a group, learn to listen closely not only to yourself, but to the others you’re playing with, and work out what’s happening. This is especially important if the group is struggling with playing together well. Playing fast is much easier when you are confident you can control your own playing speed, and keep it steady at whatever speed you are aiming for.
We looked at how to get over performance nerves in this month’s fiddle workshop. There’s a lot of factors that can make us nervous about playing in front of others. Fortunately there’s a lot a of strategies, and tips for overcoming the problem, too!
Building confidence
Part of building confidence is about improving your playing to a level you are happy with. If you’re working on a particular tune that you want to play well (perhaps you want to be able to start a set of tunes on your own in a session), it can be really helpful to make sure you feel completely confident about playing the opening few bars of the first tune.
We worked on developing a confident start to the note, by getting the bow to really engage with the string. There’s a knack to transferring the weight of the arm through the hand and into the bow right at the start of the note. Te weight is transferred through the index finger, with the thumb acting as a ‘pivot’ at the moment where the weight is transferred.
We played long open As, and worked on creating that engagement of the bow hair with the string at the start of the note. We focused on listening to the sound we were making, as we need to be able to feel and hear the moment when the bow hair engages with the string, and instantly relax the hand to let the string resonate fully as the bow stroke continues. Once you’ve mastered doing this, the effect on the sound of the start of the note is obvious. Have a listen to this recording – the first notes are bowed without this effect, and the second with:
Being able to play with a crisp start to the note can be really helpful with tidying up issues with timing – if it’s really clear exactly where the note starts (to both the player and the listener!), it will help define the pulse in the tune.
We learnt the slow air Theid Mi Dhachaig Chro Chinn T-Saile (I Will go Home to Kintail)
Preparation
There’s a lot we can do to prepare ourselves for a performance, or any situation where others might be listening to our playing. It can be useful to have a few tunes that you know you can play really confidently any time, whether or not you’re playing them on your own.
We talked about various things that will affect how confident you feel about playing a tune:
Knowing the notes: Being able to sing through the tune is a useful way to work out if you are certain how it should sound. Singing the start of tune in your head before you start to play can help with reminding you exactly how it goes.
Timing: tapping your foot when you’re playing tunes with a regular pulse can help establish a tempo before you start playing.
Tuning: There are various things you can do to build your confidence with playing in tune. Make sure and check your fiddle is in tune before you play in front of other people. It’s surprising how quickly a fiddle can drift out of tune, so do this even if you tuned up when you first arrived.
Playing with dynamics in the tune: this might be dynamics in a phrase or part of a tune, or dynamics within a single note. Working on the dynamics in your playing will help your music to become more expressive.
Being confident about bowing: being certain that you have a way to bow the tune that sits well, and that you can manage even when you’re not thinking about it will also help.
Practicing recovering from errors: We tried this out while playing a scale. We did so, focusing on the sound rather than thinking about what our fingers and bows were doing. Then we tried throwing in a random wrong note for the third note in the scale, and continuing on with the rest of the scale straight afterwards.
Practice in the performance space: if you’re planning a performance, and can have a run through in the performance space before the event, this can be really helpful, as the space, and acoustics will be familiar to you before you perform. If you can’t perform in the space itself, can you create something similar? If you’re going to be playing with others, can you practice in the same formation that you will use to perform? It’s also helpful to give some thought to any speaking any of the performers might do in between playing, if this is relevant. We tried this in the workshop, lining up and playing to an imaginary audience. It gave us an idea of the importance of ensuring that everyone in the group can see/hear the other performers (particularly someone who is in charge of setting the tempo for a tune).
It can be helpful to simulate some of these ‘symptoms’, and practice playing through them. Try going for a jog, and then playing your fiddle while you’re still out of breath. Or try setting up a camera and videoing yourself playing, to add a bit of pressure! If you do this, it can also be a useful tool for watching your own responses to stress when you’re playing, so you can develop your own effective strategies to combat it.
Dealing with ‘gremlins’
We’ve all found ourselves in that place where we ‘fall off’ a tune we’re playing. Very commonly this happens when we start paying attention to the wee voice that whispers ‘This isn’t going to work’ ‘It’s too fast’ ‘Here comes that tricky bit that you can’t play’ ‘That sounds DREADFUL!’ and similarly unhelpful things.
Part of the trick to getting beyond this is to understand what’s happening when we perform as opposed to when we practice. Practicing as an adult learner, especially with the fiddle, which is a tricky instrument to play well, often happens with our brains very focused on thinking and analysing what we are doing. To perform well, you need to access a different state, allowing your subconscious to take over. This is sometimes referred to as playing ‘in the zone’. It allows our playing to become much more expressive and fluid.
If you’ve never done this before playing in front of other people, it’s unlikely to just happen. So as you are learning, spending time switching from playing with your thinking head on, to playing ‘in the zone’ is an important part of your practice, if you want to play confidently. The gremlin voices interrupting our playing are a sign that we’ve slipped back into ‘thinking’ mode. If you’re aware of this, and able to switch easily back into playing ‘in the zone’, you can take evasive action when the gremlins strike!
Getting in the ‘zone’
There are many things we can do to start playing ‘in the zone’, including:
Practicing while playing something really easy (it can be as simple as a single note!) while focusing solely on listening to the sound you are making.
Focusing on interacting with other players while you are playing
Find a gentle visual distraction (such as watching TV with the sound turned down) while playing something simple
Supposing you’ve decided your goal is to be able to start a tune on your own in a session. It can be a great help to find ways to reduce the level of anxiety about taking this leap into the unknown! So you might arrange to get together with some supportive friends who play, and try starting a tune on your own with them. If this seems too daunting, check before you play if there is a tune that other players on the group definitely know, and will join in with quickly. Once you’ve done this a few times you might find a friendly session where you can try it out. If it still seems very daunting, get familiar with the session, and the people who play there, before you play on your own. Check the etiquette of the session (can anyone start a tune any time? Some sessions are much more structured about who can start tunes, and when).
Are the other players in the session supportive of people who aren’t seasoned session players? If you have any choice about where you go, it makes a huge difference to find one that is open to folk who are starting out with session playing. It can be pretty daunting to stat a tune at a sensible speed, only to find that the regular players take off with it, and speed it up to a point where you’re unable to play!
It can also be helpful to go along to a session with a friend who also plays, especially if you have repertoire in common. If you don’t have anyone to take with you, ask the players near to you if they know the tune you’re about to start, before you play. That way, they are likely to join in to support you.
And it’s also worth paying attention to the abilities of other players, especially the people you end up sitting beside. It can be hard even for a seasoned player to keep a tune going if they have a loud player beside them who is out of tune, out of time, or playing something only loosely related to the tune they’re playing. If you’re making your first foray into starting a tune, pick a time when the players around you are able to play in a way that supports what you’re doing!
In the October workshop we worked on improving tone on the fiddle.
We started off by getting an better understanding of how the bow functions to create a sound from the fiddle. The hairs on the bow have tiny scales along their length (rather like fish scales). When we put rosin on the bow, tiny flakes of the rosin lodge under the scales, along the length of the hair. This rosin creates a slight ‘stickiness’. As the bow is pulled across the string, the hair sticks, pulling the string sideways. At some point, the tension created overcomes this stickiness, and the string and hair part company, which sets the string vibrating.
The bridge transfers this string vibration to the body of the fiddle. The body of the fiddle acts as a “sound box” which amplifies the sound produced from the string.
We worked on getting the bow to fully engage with the string. Playing on an open A, we placed the bow on the string very close to the frog end. We allowed the weight of the bowing hand to rest fully on the bow. Once in this position, we gradually added an increasing ‘pull’ on the bow. At some point, this pull overcame the stickiness of the rosin, and the bow moved, setting the string vibrating (albeit it with a very scrunchy noise!). We were aiming to get a sense of the feeling in the bowing hand, at the moment the string starts to move. When we’re playing notes on the fiddle, the hand is responding to that moment when the bow engages with the string, and immediately relaxing, to allow the string to ring out, and resonate beneath the bow as it continues to move.
We also worked on using the index finger of the bowing hand on the back of the stick, to help really dig the bow into the string at the start of the note. When playing the fiddle, this action feels like a short pulse in the hand. The index finger pushes into the back of the stick, helping the hair to really engage with the string. Doing this helps to add a dynamic to individual notes we play, so the note doesn’t have the same volume throughout its length.
To be in control of the sounds we make on the fiddle, we need to be in control of what we are doing with the bow throughout the bow stroke. There’s a number of things that will affect the tone of the notes we play. Follow the link to find out more about improving your tone on the fiddle.
We worked in pairs, and gave each other feedback about bowing action, noting whether the bow stayed perpendicular to the strings throughout the bow stroke, and also whether it stayed close to the bridge.
We tried playing long bows on an open string, using the action of our index finger on the stick to create a pulse at the start of each note.
We tried playing on different open strings, to get a feel for the effect of using the bow lightly or with more weight behind it. On the G string there’s a tendency to let the hand add weight to the bow, to create a full resonant sound. When doing this, it will feel more natural to add weight when we’re using the frog end of the bow, as the hand is immediately on top of the bow where it’s making contact with the string. As we move towards the tip of the bow, the weight is transferred into the bow by pushing down with the index finger o the back of the stick.
When we’re playing on the E string, we generally need to hold back a bit on the weight of the bow. As we move towards the frog end of the bow, this involves taking a bit of the weight of the bow in the hand, by pushing down very gently with the pinkie on the back of the stick. The thumb acts as a pivot, so pushing on the stick effectively lifts to tip of the bow. This is a very subtle action, as we don’t want to lift the bow off the string.
Then we tried playing a long note on an open string, focusing fully on listening to the sound we were making. Learning to play the fiddle can seem like a pretty complicated business in the early stages. There’s a lot of different aspects of technique to work on, and it’s very easy to get into a habit of always playing while thinking – about whether we are in tune, what note comes next, which direction our bow is going, and so on and so on. It’s important to keep practicing playing while really listening to the sounds we are creating. Ultimately we need to be able to play while hearing the tune we are playing in our head – the fact we hear it, means it automatically comes out of the fiddle. Until we can get to a point where we can play in this subconscious way, our playing is likely to be stilted, and lack a sense of flow or connection with others. We also need to be free to focus on listening to what we and others around us are playing, so we can learn about the quality of the sounds we are making, and learn to interact with others we are playing music with.
We learnt the waltz ‘Valse des Pastouriaux’ (written by Jackie Molard).
We played around with the notes in the arpeggio of the D scale (D F# A and D). We all found these notes on our fiddles (and they can be in any octave, so we could go as low as the bottom A, right up to a top A on the E string). We then played around, creating riffs and drones using any combination of any of these notes. We could chose to follow what another person was doing, and play something that worked with what they were playing, or we could chose to play something that cut against what others were doing. While we were doing this, we were fully focused on listening, both to our own playing, and the playing of the fiddlers around us.
We also tried playing some basic chords, working on controlling the bow position so we could confidently chose whether to play a chord or a single string. We tried playing an open G, followed by a G/D chord, then the open D string, followed by a D/A chord, and so on across all the fiddle strings. Playing chords across 2 open strings, for the full length of the bow, helps us to practice listening, and learning from what we hear – in order to play the chord throughout the bow stroke, we must keep the bow travelling in a straight line (on the vertical axis). We should immediately be able to hear if the bow moves off this straight line, as we will no longer hear both notes playing.
the first finger can be placed on the A string to play the B, and kept in place while the G is played with the 3rd finger on the D string. It’s then easy to return to the B straight after the G is played.
the second finger is placed and kept down while the top A is played with the 3rd finger on the e string, and then the 1st finger is kept down while the top G is played.
