Support for QuickTime media players

For folks on broadband internet connections who have trouble with the video and audio files, click the post title to see an installation step-by-step explanation. This document describes older versions of QuickTime, but should still be helpful. NOTE: the free download is all that's needed. No need to get the 'PRO' version.

Here's some troubleshooting tips as well.

Folks on dial-up, it takes quite a long time to download. You might want to give a try on a high speed connection at a friend's house or library.

Are you a fiddler?

I can almost recall... was it registering for something or paying to get into a festival? Something involving standing in line with my fiddle slung over my shoulder. I've got a hard shell case with an old brief case strap hooked to it. The person dealing with me asked if I was a fiddler. I stammered something to the effect that I was trying to fiddle. Liz said of course I was a fiddler. She pointed out how much time and effort I'd put into fiddling. But, I lacked the confidence to cross over from student to fiddler. And, from time to time the same question would come up. What an encouraging moment to answer back, 'Yeah, I'm a fiddler." A change from what one does to what one is. Instead of not much response (because I said basically that I didn't know how to fiddle), now I get questions about what sort of music do I play, what's the difference between a fiddle and a violin, or information about folks in the area who play similar music.

I'm thinking that most any adult can direct their own learning. It is helpful to be able to state your goals and method. So, if you still think of yourself as a student, do you think about what steps you need to take to move yourself to the next level? If you think of yourself as a fiddler or (insert your instrument's name here:_________) player, what sorts of things are you doing to keep always learning something new?

Groups of musicians are very helpful in this regard. When you play with others, you can observe new techniques up close and personal. Asking questions will help you to learn new ways of talking about the steps that you're learning to take.

Lots of tunes...

... on YouTube.

Search for fiddle, old time, stringband, or whatever you're interested in. Here is a clip from the Hobart Old Time Stringband.



After the first few moments of still shots, you'll hear "The Black Cat Piddled in the White Cat's Eye. Then, "Up Jumped the Devil". Then, I can't recall the name of the dance tune, sorry. Anyone?

Tuning for tunes in the key of D

Just to put it down visually here:

Standard = G D A E

D tunes   =  A D A E

Just one string change.

Release the G string peg slightly, then raise one whole step.

That will pull the tail piece ever-so-slightly to the left, generally flattening the D A E strings a tad.

So, truth be told, all of the strings will need a little tweak to get them all in good tuning.

But, you'll be happy with the sympathetic ring of the low A and the handy open drone.

Go ahead, you know you want to. :-) Give it a try with some easy old standards. Some may or may not even use the low A string for melody. If you do need to use the low A for melody, your brain will adjust after awhile to the fingering. I bet ya!

Try some of these:

Angelina Baker

Black Eyed Susie

Bonepart Crossing the Rhine

Golden Slippers

Liberty

Mississippi Sawyer

Soldier's Joy

Sugar Hill

Hey, no peeking at the dots, eh? Dots will only cause you to have to translate. Without the dots, you only have to perceive finger positions.

See my February 3rd post below, for cheerleading and tuning tips.

Fiddle-L

A few posts back, when I was describing how I researched the tune Chattanooga, I mentioned that I had trouble viewing Fiddle-L with the Mac Safari browser. Well, looks like they've done some work on it and now it views just fine.

Besides correcting that impression, I'd like to put another good word in for that list-serve. All the posts are archived and searchable. There is a wealth of information and opinion there. I found it very helpful when I was first starting out. And, I still do. The other thing that I like about it is the folks who join in the discussions. There's a big variety of styles, but there's a particular clarity concerning old time music, playing by ear, and jamming. There are upwards of 500 people who subscribe (no charge.)

There are a number of options so you can tailor your views to suit your likings. For example, you can get individual posts or you can have the posts in a digest format, so you only get one email per day. This is what I do. That way, I don't have to clutter up my mailbox with (sometimes) many posts per day. Once a day, I get a collected batch of posts and I rather quickly scan through the posts to zero in on the topics that I'm interested in.

There are so many resources on the web to use when looking for things to learn about fiddling. Add Fiddle-L to your list to see if it is something that will help you along at your particular stage of progress.