Chords and harmonies

Playing chords and harmonies on the fiddle

Tonight we spent some time working on finding chords and harmonies to play with a tune. We put some chords into Charlie McKerron’s tune ‘Fionn’s. We also looked at some of the grace notes we can add. We talked about making the drone notes into an accompanying rhythm. The way that we bow the tune will have a big impact on this. Using different bowing patterns will vary the rhythm of the ringing strings as they accompany the tune. We also learnt a harmony for the third part. The written music is on the website’s music page.

After the break we learnt the first part of the Gordon Duncan tune ‘Break Your Bass Drone’. This is a lively driving reel in A. It’s a good tune to put at the end of a set of tunes, as it adds a real lift.

Putting tunes into sets

Tonight we started with a recap of the 4-part march Inverkeithing Bay. We also played through the other tunes we’ve learned this term.

We spent some time putting some of the tunes into a set, and ended up with:

Captain Campbell’s

The Islay Rant

Jenny Dang the Weaver

High Road to Linton

How do you know which tunes work in sets together?

We talked though some of the things to think about when putting tunes into sets. There are a lot of things that might influence your decision! There are no hard and fast rules about putting sets together, but some things are likely to work well, so if you’re new to combining tunes into sets, it’s useful to think about these as a start point.

* What is the set of tunes for? If you’re putting together a set of tunes for dancing, there are particular timings to use for different dances, such as reels for a Dashing White Sergeant. If your set is a performance set, you might be thinking about ways you can vary tunes, with harmonies etc. If you’re in a pub session, you might be more concerned with thinking about tunes that you know other people in the session are likely to be familiar with. So the ‘pool’ of tunes you chose from is likely to be different, depending on what the set is for.

*There are some combinations of keys that work better than others.

Putting tunes into sets — Photo ©Ros Gasson

Fiddle playing techniques

Fiddle playing techniques to add bounce to tunes

Tonight we spent some time working on fiddle playing techniques to introduce a controlled ‘bounce’ in our bowing action. This helps us to start to play notes more cleanly, which in turn helps with keeping a very steady pulse to the tunes we play. We started off by playing single notes. As we started the bow stroke, we used our index finger to apply a bit of pressure to the back of the bow’s stick. This has the effect of pushing the bow in towards the fiddle strings. Further into the bow stroke, we released the pressure on the bow. This allows the bow to almost bounce out of the note, creating a small space between one note and the next. It’s a useful technique for helping to play the start and end of individual notes with complete control.

Double stopping

After this we learnt ‘Fionn’s’, a tune written by Charlie McKerron. We looked at options for double stopping in the tune. We developed the chords by creating some different rhythms, placing our chords on either the onbeat or the upbeat.

There will be no class for the next 2 weeks. We’ll be coming back to Fionn’s and Inverkeithing Bay (the march we learnt last week). The class resumes on Tuesday 12th June. There are 3 more classes left this term.

Inverkeithing Bay

Tonight we learnt the four part march Inverkeithing Bay, by the Fife fiddler Jock Ritchie. I first learnt this tune from Kevin Ritchie (Jock’s Grandson) when we were at one of Mairi Campbell’s wonderful Lismore Fiddle Retreat weekends, and it’s been one of my favourites ever since.

At the end of the evening we spent some time experimenting with double stopping, practicing placing chords on the beat, on the off beats and up beats within a bar.

I’m impressed by all the folk who braved the hailstorm to get to class tonight!

More tunes

Tonight we started off working on playing chords in Jenny Dang the Weaver. We then learnt the strathspey Captain Campbell.

And here’s a link to a wee gadget with endless possibilities – great fun for messing about with creating riffs and rhythms! http://mandaflewaway.tumblr.com/post/2057242738

Playing reels on the fiddle

Techniques for playing reels on the fiddle

We worked on a number of techniques for playing reels on the fiddle tonight. We spent some time going over Jenny Dang the Weaver which is a well known reel in D. We looked at methods we can use to help with phrasing a tune. It can be seen as similar to punctuating a sentence. Playing a tune without phrasing sounds like someone talking without stopping for breath. It’s hard to listen to!
We tried out techniques to help us to play percussive chords using the D string in the B part of the tune. We used the chords to play around with the rhythm. We experimented with the dynamics in the phrase in the B part that goes up to the high A, and found different ways to reach a crescendo as we hit the top A. We also tried out some chords in the A part of the tune, using the open D as a ringing string. We talked about the possibilities for emphasising different beats in the tune to help to change how we’re phrasing it. It can be easy to lose control of timing when playing reels at speed. Emphasising the beats or offbeats can help with learning to keep a steady tempo in our playing.

We talked about what everyone in the class wanted to be able to do with their own playing in two years time.

We played through the waltz ‘My Cape Breton Home’, experimenting with getting more expression into the start of the tune, then played it through again, all playing as if we were our favourite fiddler.

We ended the class with playing a short phrase of a tune in different ways, and then Anne led us off in a set of reels we’d learnt last term.

Learn techniques for playing reels on the fiddle in the String Circle fiddle class — Photo ©Ros Gasson

Oh…and tonight we discovered there was an elephant in the room. I think he enjoyed listening! 😉

A Breton polka

Photo - still life - fiddle and whisky — Photo ©Ros Gasson

Tonight we learned the Breton tune Polka Bagnolaise, which is played by the Breton band Skolvan. The music is on the tunes page.

We spent some more time experimenting with playing in a bouncy style, using the spring in the bow to lift it just clear of the fiddle strings in between notes. And we rounded off the night playing a whole heap of tunes we’ve learnt in the class (and smiling too!).

It was the last night of term tonight. St Brides will be taking enrolments for the summer term from the 10th April. The class starts back on Tuesday 17th April.

So who knew it was world whisky day today?

Learning about bow control

Fiddle bow control

Learning to control the bow is partly about creating a relaxed and confident bow hold. Tonight we learnt the second half of My Cape Breton Home. We looked at how to start playing more from our subconscious, rather than concentrating on exactly what our fingers are doing. Ultimately we’re aiming to be able to play what we are hearing, rather than consciously remembering learnt finger patterns.

We tried playing the waltz down an octave without learning the finger positions first, and alternated playing up and down the octave.

Learning about bow control — Photo ©Ros Gasson

We also spent some more time playing individually, repeating the exercise where individuals listened to a phrase and then tried to play it back exactly as they heard it.

And to round off the night, we practiced playing and smiling at the same time 🙂

Playing with rhythm

Playing with rhythm in reels

We went back to the tune Da Merrie Boys of Greenland tonight, and had a go at playing with rhythm in different ways.

We played around with several things, with individuals listening to a phrase and then trying to play it back exactly as they heard it. We looked at:

How to make notes louder or quieter, experimenting with bow speed, pressure on the bow and double stopping. We put pressure on the bow by ‘digging in’ at the start of the bow stroke with our index finger on the back of the stick of the bow.
Playing on the beat really loudly, and all the other notes in a bar as quietly as we could, to really make the notes on the beat stand out. We were using very small bow strokes for the quiet notes.
Getting bounce and definition into individual notes by using the weight of our arm through the index finger on the bow to ‘dig in’ to a note and give it a clean start. The spring in the wood helps the bow to ‘bounce’ out of the bow stroke when we do this.

Learn fiddle technique - playing with rhythm — Photo ©Ros Gasson

Adding emphasis to help with phrasing

We tried playing the first part of Da Merrie Boys of Greenland with the emphasis in different places.

And we learnt the first part of a new tune – the waltz My Cape Breton Home, by Jerry Holland. We’ll learn the B part next week.

This term runs until the end of March (the last night is on Tuesday 27th). The summer term will run for 10 weeks starting on 17th April.

Working on jig rhythms

Jig Rhythms

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

Playing jig rhythms

Learn jig rhythms in the string Circe fiddle class in Edinburgh — Photo ©Ros Gasson

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.