Category Archives: Fiddle Stuff

Whistle while you work

Posted on May 22, 2014 | 2 comments

Practicing for my June 1 fiddle recital, my teacher has been pushing me to use a metronome to keep the rhythm of my two pieces on point. Nobody who uses them likes the damn things and I’m no exception.

I struggled with the metronome for a week before complaining. Okay, he said, how about singing the notes of the tunes as I play them. Uh, then, how about whistling them as I read the dots on the chart?

It works. The only question is why? Perhaps, he said, because like most people I’ve been whistling to music all my life. Nor is it unusual for musicians to do it. Jazz players, he said, whistle or sing along with their work, sounds that usually go unnoticed because they’re lost in the other instrumentation.

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Posted in Fiddle Stuff, Music, Rancho Roly Poly

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The problem of tone

Posted on May 4, 2014 | 2 comments

Working away at memorizing the two pieces for my recital on June 1. Got one down and the other is coming along. My intonation is usually on the mark. An old joke about that goes like this: All fiddlers play out of tune, but the good ones notice and correct it the fastest.

I’ve been listening to YouTube renditions of the pieces, The Blue Jig and Shove That Pig’s Foot A Little Further In The Fire, (both at the link above) to make sure I have the rhythm down. That also seems to be doing well. The only real hassle is my tone. It sucks. Fortunately the pieces, both being dance tunes, are fast and that helps mask it. It would only sound really bad on a slow number.

Tone is the hardest thing to master with the violin/fiddle. As my teacher says you want tone on a piano, you push down the button and there it is. Tone on a violin depends on mastering the bow and that takes years. Two and a half years into it, I’m still struggling with tone. But I just drive on. It’s the only way.

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Posted in Fiddle Stuff, Music, Obsessions

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Practicing for a fiddle recital

Posted on April 12, 2014 | 1 comment

Yep, a 70-year-old (me) adult student of the fiddle playing a recital with a dozen (mainly) middle school violin students. I have seven weeks to memorize and perfect the rhythms of my two pieces: the American hoedown/reel Shove That Pig’s Foot A Little Further In The Fire, and the Blue Jig, a bluesy version of an Irish jig.

Another adult violin student (a former bass player in his 40s) will be dueting with me and our teacher, James Anderson, is trying to get two or four dancers to illustrate the contra dancing that generally goes with these tunes. Just hope that doesn’t force us to raise the tempo beyond my endurance. Stay tuned.

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Posted in Fiddle Stuff, Music, Texana

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Mandolin shopping

Posted on March 26, 2014 | 2 comments

I’m still playing the fiddle and, according to my teacher, and by my own estimation, getting better all the time. Also still playing backup for the LOCO pickup dance band on Wednesdays. Which has helped. Nothing like ensemble work and performance to push things along.

But my teacher says I need to learn chord progressions concretely for a full transition to understanding chords for improvisation—which he contends fiddlers of the future who hope to make a career of music need to know. I’m a little old for a career of any kind but it would be fun to move up to a solo performance now and then.

The mandolin—which he also plays—could be the key, since, unlike the guitar, its notes (and therefore its chords) are fingered the same way they are on the violin. Playing them vertically instead of horizontally could be easier, or something like that.

I’m looking at this mandolin and this method book, thought I may only get the latter. One of the good melody fiddlers in the band, Stewart Rose, has a mandolin for sale which he will bring to the performance tonight for me to take home and try out before I buy.

UPDATE:  Stewart loaned me his A-model Kentucky KM 200S, similar to this one but a dark brown top. Despite the name, Kentuckys are made in China, though I think the 200S is old enough to have been made in Japan. Sounds good and has no cracks or other visible defects. And the $200 price is right.

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Posted in Fiddle Stuff, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

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Rule 5: Ruth Angell

Posted on March 20, 2014 | 1 comment

ruthie

This lovely English fiddler/singer has a toddler to cope with but she’s busy with music, too: “…the…16 piece Jazz ensemble SURGE, my own solo projects and many other artists from time to time. Sid Peacock and myself have recently started our own record company Peacock Angell Records.“

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Austin Piazzolla Quintet

Posted on January 26, 2014 | 2 comments

Enjoyed two forty-five minute sets of our favorite tango/jazz band, APQ Tango, the other night at a Ham Jam House Concert which was just around the corner from the rancho.

These concerts have been an Austin institution since 2010, featuring acoustic acts across the musical spectrum. The audience is limited to about fifty people, asked for a donation of about $10 each and bring their own food and drink.

The intimate atmosphere in Daren Appelt’s beautiful hilltop home—with views from the second-floor balcony of downtown’s faraway lights—adds a lot to the appeal, and the acts are top-notch. My fine violin teacher James Anderson brings the fiddle fireworks to APQ.

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Posted in Fiddle Stuff, Music, Rancho Roly Poly, Texana

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The Waterloo Trio

Posted on December 8, 2013 | Comments Off on The Waterloo Trio

waterlootrioatmedici

The Waterloo Trio is my favorite semi-classical (well, Bjork to Beethoven) Austin ensemble, partly because the fiddler James Anderson (on the left) is my fiddle teacher. But they’re also just fun to listen to.

Other members are Jonathan Geer, at the piano, and Tony Rogers on cello. Their first CD (mostly composed by Jonathan) is worth buying (or at least playing the excerpts at the link to decide which one to buy) and they have a second one in the works.

All three of them also are part of James’s jazz ensemble the Austin Piazolla Quintet. And they are also  freelance musicians, Jonathan composing themes for computer games and Tony and James acting as sidemen for various artists. If you like jazz, for instance listen to James’s beautiful violin lead on singer Suzi Stern’s “Tango for Tina.”

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Posted in Fiddle Stuff, Music, Texana

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