Fiddle bowing patterns

The Glencoe March

Tonight we learnt the Glencoe March by Dan R MacDonald. It’s a popular session tune, and goes well with the reel ‘Iggy and Squiggy’ which we learnt in the class recently. We’ll be playing the two tunes together. It’s possible to change the timing and tempo of the end of the march, so that you’re playing the last 2 bars of the march as a reel, before changing into playing the reel itself.

Bowing patterns

After the break (and the chocolate eggs!), we tried playing some different bowing patterns for Spootiskerry. If you’re not used to thinking about what direction your bow is going, this can be quite a challenge. It’s well worth beginning to work on this, as different patterns of slurs and single bows can make a huge impact on the way a tune sounds, by changing the emphasis from

the beat to the offbeat or upbeat. Once you’ve mastered some different bowing patterns, you can use them to help bring tunes to life. They’re great for adding lift and swing to reels, in particular.

We tried using a ‘one down three up’ pattern in the B part of the tune, which helps top add emphasis on the beat. It’s important to play the downbow faster, using more length of the bow, so there is space to fit in three next three quavers without running out of bow on the up bow. We also tried out a ‘three up one down’ bowing pattern in the A part of the tune, which adds emphasis to the offbeat in the tune.

At the end of the evening,we played around some more with the Aird Ranters, playing it in smaller groups, and performing to others in the class. Here’s a link to an interesting article about dealing with stage fright.

The new term will start on Tuesday 16th April. Enrolment starts on Monday 1st April. Details of term dates and costs are on the website home page.

Bowing patterns and rhythm

Tonight we spent some time thinking about different bowing patterns and how they affect the rhythms in tunes we’re playing. We started off by playing through the Jig we learnt in the first week of term – The Road to Banff. When we first learnt this, we played it with a dotted rhythm, emphasising the 2 main beats in the bar. Tonight we looked at changing the emphasis to the upbeats in the first phrase. It adds a real lift to the tune, and gets peoples’ feet tapping!

We learnt the strathspey The Aird Ranters (by Fred Morrison). It’s a short and straightforward tune to play on the fiddle. Once we’d learnt the notes, we tried playing it down an octave. We spent some time thinking about our bow holds, getting a relaxed hold on the bow, and keeping our thumb slightly bent to avoid building any tension in the forearm. We talked about using the thumb as a pivot. Adding a bit of pressure with the pinkie can be used to take the weight of the bow when we lift it off the fiddle strings. If we want to really ‘dig in’ with a note, we can do this by adding a bit of pressure with the first finger as we play the start of the note.

We tried out playing some long slow open strings, thinking about tone. Keeping the bow perpendicular to the strings, and the bow hold relaxed helps to create a full tone. Then we tried playing as quietly as we could manage, by using a little pressure with the pinkie to take some of the weight of the bow off the strings.

We tried out a couple of different ways to bow the opening phrase to the strathspey. Using a down bow at the start of the tune, and playing single bows, results in a big emphasis on the 3rd note. we also tried out playing a down bow followed by 3 up bows, which gives a much lighter feel to the start of the tune.

Bowing patterns and rhythms — Photo ©Ros Gasson

At the end of the night we played Captain Campbell’s, and tried out playing the Aird Ranters while adding in some dynamics, by dropping the volume in the B part of the tune.

Fiddle bow hold and bowing patterns

Relaxing the bow hold

Tonight we looked at our fiddle bow hold, and how to keep the hand really relaxed while we’re playing. It’s particularly important to keep the thumb relaxed and slightly bent, to avoid tension creeping into the muscles in the forearm. We tried out using the pinkie and first finger to help us change the pressure of the bow on the strings. With a relaxed hold on the bow, they can be used along with the thumb, which acts as a ‘pivot’ for the bow. We also worked in pairs, helping each other to work on keeping our bows perpendicular to the strings while playing long bow strokes.

A fiddle player's bow hold, seen from underneath, showing the thumb slightly bent — Photo © Ros Gasson

We played through Campbell’s Farewell to Redcastle several times, and looked at possible chords we could play throughout the tune. The chords can be placed to emphasise either the onbeats or the offbeats in the tune. We also looked at playing some grace notes in both parts of the tune.

It’s important to keep the left hand really relaxed when playing grace notes, to allow the finger to effectively flick on and off the string really fast. We’re aiming to turn this into a fast fluid movement.

Bowing patterns

We spent some time towards the end of the evening playing with different bowing patterns. While we played up and down a D scale we tried mixing up single bow strokes, slurring pairs of notes, and a one-down-three-up pattern. We discovered that it’s much easier to emphasise the note on the up beat when you’re playing single bow strokes than when you’re slurring notes together.

We finished off the evening by playing a few tunes together.

“Without music, life would be a mistake”
Friedrich Nietzsche

Second fiddle class of the term

Tonight we spent some more time working on Da Merrie Boys of Greenland. We played through more options for chords in the tune, and looked at how to play chords where the tune is swapping from one string to another and back again. We tried keeping the bow as close as possible to both strings throughout, and using the wrist to move the bow. I’ve uploaded a new copy of the music to the tunes page, showing a couple of possible options for playing different chords throughout the tune.

I’ve also added a separate page with chords that work in the key of D. Once you’ve learnt these chords, you can transfer the same finger patterns onto other strings.

Then the class split into two and looked at some possible ways of bowing the tune.

Photo - view from above of a hand on the neck of a fiddle

We also talked some more about common chord patterns within tunes.