A Page for Guitarists who want to learn to fiddle: Sessions

[caption id="attachment_181" align="alignleft" width="165"] Sessions are an integral part of trad music[/caption]

Trad Sessions

Unfortunately even among trad music circles there is an increasing intolerance for those who are not “up to the mark.” Where once, even only thirty years ago, sessions would be happy to let people join who were obviously just learning, perhaps quietly whispering an aside to sit out for a moment while a particularly difficult piece was tackled or someone took a solo, it’s obvious that today many sessions are seriously intolerant of people who can’t keep up to speed. In Scotland you could often be at a ceilidh and find that in the early part of the evening there were children sitting in and the tunes would be simpler; as the night progressed the young ones would be off to bed and the more demanding reels and strathspeys would begin to ring out.

I believe that this is mainly due to the fact that we have lost the close cultural tradition of family and friends playing together at ceilidhs in the home that was the nurture of so many great players in the past. Together with this is the issue of payment; it is common now for the session leader and often several other musicians to be paid by the venue, and the venue owner rightly has an interest in the quality of the output. However the session tradition began in the home, where nobody got paid and everyone was connected by family and friendship. It was in the interest of older players to see younger ones learn because they were teaching their own families, in effect.

A Page for Guitarists who want to learn to fiddle Part 4

Once we have the grip of the fiddle under the chin sorted out, the next thing we have to address is the left hand.

Holding the fiddle under the chin can cause a great deal of trouble though in my opinion it's not as tricky as the left hand. Again, the secret is to avoid tension; the hand must be relaxed. To do this, all four fingers and the thumb must be in contact with the stick, and all must be curved. This is hugely important. The most common errors are for the little or pinkie finger to lock and become straight and rigid. Do not allow this to happen. Another is for the pinkie to lift off the stick, which is also wrong. More subtle and harder to see but just as damaging is for the thumb to become stiff.

The back of the hand should lead in a straight line from the forearm, even perhaps drooping a little and the bow should be gripped lightly. The wrist should be completely loose and able to move the hand from side to side quite freely; this is vital in order to play strathspeys and other music that uses rapid bowing forms.

A Page for Guitarists who want to learn to fiddle: Tablature

While we’re here we might spend a moment considering tablature.

This method of notation is much older than the ubiquitous dots we know today as “Standard Notation.” It seems to have first appeared in the Renaissance with the arrival of the Oud from Arabia, which was quickly transformed in Europe into the Lute. This has a lot to do with the social changes that were going on at that time. It became fashionable for wealthy people to learn to play instruments. Before that, being a musician had been a professional career and music was something to be enjoyed by the elite, not actually indulged in. Once the Lute became a popular parlour instrument for the wealthy and idle it was necessary to have a simple system of explaining how tunes sounded, and tab was invented. Lute players still, invariably, use tab rather than Standard Notation.

A Page for Guitarists who want to learn to fiddle Part 2.

Now that your fiddle is tuned and the bow tightened, you're ready to try a first few notes, but first you have to get to grips—literally—with the fiddle.

I found, and I think most others will find that the biggest single challenge confronting the person who takes up violin later in life is simply finding a position to hold the violin which is at the same time comfortable for the left hand and allows for good bowing with the right.

(I am going to assume right-handedness throughout, since unlike guitar it is usual for left-handed people to play right-handed. This is because the sound post and bass-bar, the two vital internal structures of the violin, would have to be swapped to play the instrument left-handed, and I have never seen a violin to which this has been done. Maybe they’re out there.)

Guitarists should learn to play Fiddle Part 1.

Guitarists often think playing the fiddle is very difficult, but it's not.

Most guitarists are immediately intimidated by the absence of frets on the violin, but learning to play is easier than you might think. It's fun and will help make you a better guitarist. I will improve your overall musicianship alongside the pleasure of playing a very lovely and expressive instrument.

Any competent guitarist should find the act of bowing a pleasure and easy to get to grips with, though if you are one of those whose guitar technique involves habitually resting the heel of your palm on the bridge or your fingers on the soundboard, then you may find the loose wrist required for smooth bowing more of a challenge. However frankly if you do fit into this category I think you should consider developing your guitar technique before tackling another instrument.

On reefs and monsters

I wrote this piece about a sea-monster in 2008  and always liked it. It was aimed at children and those with young minds. I hope you enjoy it.  It's about the right length for a bedtime story too.

The monster Geewaha-nalior cruises the endless blue sea once again.

Long, long years he had slept, resting on a coral beach. His head lay on the sand and his body and tail stretched for miles out into the sea; and as men began to navigate the world, again and again ships crashed into the scales of his back, wrecking themselves. Indeed, in the the time that some humans called the nineteenth century, by which time Geewaha-nalior had been lying on the beach for several hundred years, smart young men in peculiar hats and tail-coats, with pale skins, came to visit. The monster was duly measured, identified, surveyed and even named, although, I have to say, completely misunderstood. Soon he was drawn upon the maps that these men made, as a rocky reef, extending far out into the tropical sea from an island, and ships were warned to steer well clear.