Last night we learnt Kenny Gillies of Portnalong – a 4 part Jig. We spent some time looking at jig rhythms. We’ll be playing this tune with a dotted rhythm.
Using the weight of the bow to cross strings
We also looked at using gravity and the weight of the bow when crossing strings. When the bow is on a fiddle string there’s a point around the centre where it is very balanced. As the bow moves across the A string on an up bow, there comes a point where the balance of the bow changes. this shoft can can be used to help move the bow onto the D string. Releasing the weight of the arm on the bow allows gravity to tip the bow over onto the D string.
We played round a D scale, listening closely to other fiddlers beside us to help improve tuning. Once we added in a harmony it became very hypnotic!
The written music for Kenny Gillies is on the music page. We’ll be doing some more work on this tune next week.
Tonight we played around with offbeats and upbeats in jig and reel rhythms. While you first start to learn to play the fiddle, there’s a lot to grapple with. You’re learning how to hold the fiddle and bow, how to move the fingers to be able to play in tune, and how to move the bow to create a pleasing tone and keep a steady tempo. If you’re new to learning to play an instrument, there’s also a lot to learn in terms of how you turn a series of notes into something that sounds musical.
So how do you move on from sounding like a beginner to playing in a more fluid and intuitive way? There’s a point at which we want to start to move from playing in a focused ‘thinking’ way, to playing more from the subconscious mind. We’ll gradually achieve this by learning patterns for different aspects of our playing. Once we’ve played as particular run of notes many times for example, it becomes easier to play it without consciously focusing on what your fingers are doing to make it happen.
We’ve talked in the fiddle class a lot about starting to learn a basic ‘default’ pattern of bowing reels and jigs. Getting to the point where different rhythms are also subconscious makes a huge difference to being able to play tunes fluidly while adding interest and colour.
If we start off by always playing reels so that we have a down bow on the beat, it eventually becomes a habit. If in the early stages, every time we play a particular tune we use the same bowing pattern, we gradually give less and less thought to how we achieve that pattern. Ultimately it becomes a subconscious process to bow the tune in that way. At that point, we’ve stopped thinking about it, knowing it will happen automatically, and we’ve establish a strong pulse on the beat. We can then turn our conscious attention to occasionally changing the emphasis to the offbeats or upbeats, to create some variety and interest in the tune.
Jigs and reels
In tonight’s class, we spent some time finding the offbeats and upbeats in some of the tunes we’ve already learnt together in the class. We played a dotted jig rhythm, and then experimented with Shetland ‘3 up one down’ bowing patterns to emphasise the offbeat in reels. We also looked at options for playing upbeats in jigs and reels – we tried them out in Jig Runrig and Da Merrie Boys of Greenland
Tonight we learnt the jig ‘Jig Runrig’ (the music is on the tunes page), and talked a bit about bowing jigs to get a dotted rhythm.
We spent some time at the start of the evening looking at things we can do to help us play in tune. We also started looking at how to use the first finger and the pinkie to control what our bow is doing throughout the bowstroke. We’ll come back to both of these points again during the term.
I had to laugh at this, after our inadvertent brush with a bit of synchronised bow twirling in the class tonight – here’s a video showing a few other things we’ll definitely not be covering this 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.
We also talked some more about common chord patterns within tunes.
We learnt Da Merrie Boys of Greenland tonight – a short Shetland Reel (I’ve added the music to to tunes page).
Once we’d learnt the tune, the class split into two groups, and each group spent some time thinking about double stopping, and chords that they might add into to the tune. We looked at common chord patterns that are easy to play on the fiddle, and talked about various things to think about when you are deciding on where to play chords in a tune.
We’ll come back to this tune a fair bit throughout the rest of the term.
A huge thanks to everyone who has been involved in the String Circle fiddle class over the last few years, and to everyone who has supported us from behind the scenes too. It’s been lovely to have such a busy class this term, I’ve had a ball and absolutely love teaching the group. I’m looking forward to plenty more fun for the coming year.
I hope 2012 brings you whatever you are looking for!
Enrolment has started for the String Circle fiddle class for the January term, which will run for 12 weeks from Tuesday 10th January 2012. Please contact St Bride’s (in Orwell Terrace, Edinburgh) if you would like to enrol. Telephone 0131 346 1405 or email amanda.gray@ea.edin.sch.uk
The class will continue to focused on learning technique. We’ll be learning about tone, tuning, and rhythm, as well as finding ways to help our playing become more relaxed and intuitive.
I’m looking forward to seeing everyone in the New Year!
In the meantime, here’s a site with loads of interesting information on looking after your fiddle/violin, tuning, playing, accessories, music, and a whole load of other fiddle-related things: The violin.com
If you have any questions about the fiddle class, you can contact me for more information.
This week, we spent some time playing through the tunes in our set. Several people are finding the last tune is quite a challenge to play well, so we looked at ways to work around some of the difficulties. We’ll be playing the set together at the Big Seat by the Fire on Sunday 11th December.
…and because it was the last night of term, we had chocolate cake 🙂 Thanks Anne!
Enrolment for next term will open on Monday 12th December at St Bride’s, and the new term (12 weeks) starts on Tuesday10th January 2012
Tonight, we started off by looking at some things we can do to make playing fast tunes a bit easier. We played Bryan the Seasoned Traveller a few times, which is the trickiest tune in the new set to play at speed. Here’s a few of the things that help:
Using only a short length of the bow for each note.
Using the wrist (rather than big elbow movements) to move the bow from one string to the next.
Keeping fingers down on the fingerboard after playing a note, if the tune returns back to that note again shortly afterwards.
We played through the full set a couple of times, and worked out how we wanted to end the last tune (we went for the comedy version!)
The class has been full this term. St Bride’s are hoping to start taking enrolments in December. They will allow a week for the people currently in the class to enrol for next term before they open enrolment up to anyone new to join. I’ll let everyone know as soon as I hear that enrolment is open.
If anyone has ideas of any tunes they would like to learn next term, let me know (I can’t make any promises at this stage about specific tunes, but will try to base next term’s repertoire mainly around suggestions from the class)
When we’re learning to play an instrument, we can be taken by surprise by what happens when we perform in front of others. If you’re not used to performing, how can you learn to overcome the nervous reaction to having people watch you when you’re playing?
Tonight the class was moved into the main auditorium at St Bride’s. We had loads of space, so I thought we could have some fun with it. I thought it would be useful to spend the looking at what happens when we perform, and to investigate what we can do to start to quell the nerves.
Overcoming nerves when playing fiddle in front of an audience
We played through our performance set to warm up, and 3 of us tried out a simple harmony for the Sleeping Tune. We decided that when we play the set at the Big Seat by the Fire, we’ll play the Sleeping Tune twice – once with the harmony and once without.
After this we split into 2 groups. Each group got up and performed the set for the other group. Then the ‘audience’ gave some feedback, and we spent a bit of time talking about how it felt to play together in front of the rest of the group.
There were a lot if interesting things to learn from doing this. Firstly, the sky didn’t fall in! Both groups managed really well with being put into a position of performing in a group that was effectively paying together for the first time. There were feet tapping in the audience, and some good feedback about the interactions between group members when they were playing. People in the groups found it hard to hear everyone, so we talked a bit about how we might stand when we play at the Big Seat, so this isn’t too much of a problem.
After the break we tried playing again, with everyone together. It was much less exposed that way. The group also tried standing in 2 rows, rather than a semi circle, which made it easier to hear each other. When the group came to the repeat of Brenda Stubbert’s Reel, and the rhythm section came in with the accompaniment, the set was swinging along – it was clear that everyone in the class really relaxed into playing at that point, and it had a big impact on the sound we made.
