another version of Whiskey Before Breakfast

Somehow we got on the topic of Whiskey for Breakfast - it was the first tune I learned, and I commented that the version I found on the Hetzler midi website was not like any I later heard on Youtube. She asked me if I'd like to learn another version... why not? Maybe it will be an entertaining party trick someday to play 10 different versions of the same tune, at least it will entertain me while learning them. Besides, I don't ever get tired of the tune, so I'm still motivated to work with it.

I was used to down-up-down up-down-up for playing jigs, and down-up down-up slur-down-2 slur-up-2 for reels, these are all eighth notes. Very predictable patterns, which were good for me as a beginner.

The version of Whiskey Before Breakfast that she gave me has a different bowing than I was used to. It has a down bow, then maybe 3 slurred up-bow notes. It's a bit harder to remember, but the down bows are placed to give a syncopated accent, eighth notes 3 and 7 of a 4/4 bar, so once I got going, my brain recognized the pattern and as long as I knew the tune, my brain went into auto-pilot and took care of the bowing pattern. The sheet music is hard to follow at first though for sure.

So I ran into an issue where the bow sounds scrapey when I play like this, because the down bows are longer than the individual slurred notes.

Turns out that with my bow hand, I had my pinky finger stretched out straight and the joints locked, and that was interfering with my flexibility. So I am trying to play now with my pinky curved, with the fingertip right on the bow. It's hard to unlearn an ingrained habit, but I'm going to work at it, it will only benefit me in the long run. In order to play notes closer to the frog of the bow with more control, the pinky becomes important.

double-stop notes

We added double-stop notes to Cattle In The Cane. It's hard to keep track of - it should be simple, because the bow has less work to do, you're not crossing from one string to the other, but you are playing with the bow midway between 2 places that you have trained your muscle memory to find on its own. It's a big, exciting sound, so it's fun to do. Most of the time the 2nd string is played open, so you are getting more sound for not too much more effort. I did end up fretting some of the open stop notes, but with practice it sounded okay.

I don't mind playing things that aren't the Irish style, as long as it's a fiddle style, I'm fine with it. Many fiddle styles are derived from Irish fiddling, there is a lot of crossover between Irish and Metis and old-time fiddle styles, so there is a large area of fiddle music within which I feel comfortable. It's nice to be well-rounded though, it's nice to pull out an exciting piece of music at a party or something.

basic tuning

So I learned to tune the fiddle - start with the A string, tune the the D string down then up, then tune the G string down then up to match the D string. The E string gets tuned down. I had never tried tuning like this, I guess I had it easy with the guitar, you are playing the same note. However I was able to hear the beats of the 5th interval while tuning the fiddle.

My teacher asked me if I minded learning something that wasn't Irish, I was like fine by me, so she assigned me Cattle In The Cane. It's a bit weird learning something that isn't a jig or reel, it takes me a bit longer to "get" the tune but that's not a big deal.

new teacher!

I have a new teacher! I have to go on a long subway ride for lessons, but it's worth it - she seems to be an experienced teacher, so things are going pretty well. She seems to be knowledgeable in a range of fiddle playing styles.

She has told me to play jigs with the 1st and 4th notes of each bar (6/8 time) with more emphasis - to play those notes using more bow, and harder, so as to not play each note with equal loudness.

I'm playing Boil Them Cabbage Down, with various rhythms - I guess this I'm doing a bit of Suzuki method, and is the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star of fiddle playing? I'm not bored doing repetitive stuff so it's okay.

Classical lessons

I found a teacher on Craigslist and had a few lessons. However this teacher had a classical background and I quit after about a month.

I had been starting to work on The Musical Priest. So I came to a new teacher learning a new tune, which looking back, created a lot of misunderstanding.

He told me things that my other teacher told me to do, but in a more roundabout way. That they were the same things I was told before, which was encouraging, for example, to keep my left elbow well under the fiddle.

However things began to fall apart for me when he started tinkering with how I should hold the violin. He wanted me to try getting rid of the shoulder rest - using the shoulder rest helps, I find - I have the legs screwed out as far as they will go without falling out of their holes, I'm pretty tall. Then he wanted me to move my left thumb so that the pad of my thumb was not against the fingerboard, like fretting guitar chords, but more so that the side of my thumb was against it, also moved down more towards the scroll. That would mean that I would have to re-learn where all the notes were. I could see the benefit in having more of my fingers over the fingerboard, but I wondered if I had managed alright so far because my fingers are pretty long.

The good things were that this teacher started me thinking about the mental parts of playing - for example, to visualize where my fingers should go next. Also he said that overall, my arms should be curved, from the shoulder to elbow to fingers. I learned that I do not know how to play quietly - I am not going to try to learn, but I learned a little bit about the classical world that is out there.

What was not encouraging, was that he asked me how the dynamics of my tune should go. I thought, "I just give'er!" but I said was "it's music meant for dancing so it should be fairly rhythmic". I didn't think I could learn fiddle-specific bowing tricks and tips from someone who had to ask me how the tune should go.

I finally gave up when one day, I started playing other tunes that I knew better, and I straightened up my posture and everything fell into place and they sounded better than the Musical Priest was sounding, and he brightened and said "what did you do? Keep doing that" I said, "I stood up straight" and then I realized that he was trying to make my tone sound better with his changes, that we were on the wrong track. It was no longer fun. So I emailed him and said I was going to stop coming for lessons. I had tried to forget some of what he taught, I was trying to settle my fingers back where I had them before - my brain was a bit confused.

After a couple of months went by, I picked it up and played, and it sounded great for a few moments, and I realized that what he had taught me, was what I was doing automatically now - my arms relaxed and curved as I played.

So I guess I have to take more of a mental-state approach to playing, and not force it, not be tense and trying hard.

And after all that, I never did learn how to play any new scales, which was kind of the point of my going to a classical teacher. He did mention "fiddle lessons" in his ad which I think was a bit misleading.

The first teacher is still on tour. :(