The Session >> Discussions >> ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
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ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Ok, other than the obvious ones (mostly by J.S.Skinner) namely 'The President' and Madam Neruda, what tunes do you find especially tricky on the fiddle?
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
In my experience on other instruments it's usually the one you're trying to learn. In my family the tune you're struggling with is known as the Tourette's Reel, because there's a lot of swearing going on......
There are also some tunes that just sit much better on one instrunment than another.
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Leaving aside the party pieces and show-off tunes, and looking at purely traditional tunes, I think the Sally Gardens reel is up there, certainly for beginners, because of the crossing to the E-string and back in the first few bars. It needs quite a bit of woodshedding before it can be done cleanly. Dusty Windowsills is another, for much the same reason. As with Sally Gardens, once you've sorted out the technique cleanly you'll always have it there for other tunes.
Leaving aside the Scott Skinner tunes as a special case, most of Ed Reavy's tunes are difficult, both technically and musically, and consequently need that much more work before they're ready for performing.
And, of course, slow airs are THE special case - each one needing months of work and background study before it's ready for presentation to the listeners.
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I gave up on the string crossing to E on Sally Gardens, I just throw down a pinky on the A string. Life is too short to worry about such things.
I think that Drowsy Maggie is a hard tune to really make sound good, especially if you try to do a bowing pattern with slurs rather than just playing each note with alternating up/down strokes.
Doing the rolls I would like to do on Legacy Jig is difficult.
Playing the B part of St. Anne's Reel with good intonation and pleasing bowing is hard.
Some other ones that I find difficult are the Donegal Reel and the Galway Rambler. At the last session I played at, during Galway Rambler I noticed the fiddler woman next to me wasn't playing it . I stopped playing it halfway through and muttered to her "I hate this damned tune" and she said "yeah me too"
I suppose that "whatever tune I am currently learning" is often one of the hardest. Eventually they all seem to get easier.
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I know nothing of fiddling but I dare say some tunes out of the Highland and Northumbrian pipe repertoire could be a handful, with octave and other high / low jumps in a quick succession of notes.
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Hmm.
I've thought about this one before. Strangely, some 'easy/beginner' tunes are difficult on the fiddle eg - "The Irish Washer Woman" has some tricky string crossings.
Having played a few sessions with tin whistlers at the local music school, who can belt out certain tunes that are much harder to play fast on the fiddle, I decided that some tunes must have been written on instruments other than the fiddle, thus making them harder to play (on the fiddle).
Probably sounds obvious, but worth thinking about.
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
For instance, Father Kelly's is easier for the fiddle player if it's played in A rather than the usual G. I found that out earlier on this year when I was one of the "and friends" in a ceili band playing for set dancers. The tune also sounds a lot brighter in A, which is helpful when you're playing for dancers.
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Hangman's Reel.
I have had a hard time figuring out The Red Crow for some reason, at least from sheet music. I have the Altan CD on my Amazon.com wish list. Maybe if I'm able to hear it several or many times, it will come easier.
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
It's been said plenty of times already - but J.S.Skinner's definitely have to be the hardest. There is one hornpipe - called 'The Acrobat' and you need to be one to play it!!!!. Another - 'Jumper's Hornpipe' has a first part made up almost entirely of descending arpeggios - Easy? NOT!!!!! TherE are some interesting position changes and extended 4th fingers - and the second part is worse - it switches into the minor with accidentals being cancelled every other bar! (CONFUSING)
One of the nicest but tricky(and perhaps over attempted to be played) Irish tunes is the reel 'The Mason's Apron'
If you want any Skinner books to try the tunes the best are 'The Harp and Claymore' and 'The Miller O' Hirn Collection'
ENJOY!!!!!
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I thought President Garfield was hard enough till I met a Shetlander who played it in D. He looked t me as if I was nuts when I said I'd learned it in Bb.
The Acrobat isn't so bad on the mandolin. I gues frets help in some cases.
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I'm not going to attempt it in Bb - not even on the harp!!!! I'll stick to playing it in D.
Irish music aside, I'm working on Grade 8 violin at the moment and one of the pieces is 'The Bagpipe Player' by Henri Wieniawski! If you thought that listening to the bagpipes was bad enough - try playing like on on the violin. No onder the neighbours are trying to get the police to give me an ASBO!!!!!
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Coming from a hammered dulcimer perspective it drives me crazy to play a tune like Wizard's Walk, working all over the HD like some crazy man, wapping one string in the northeast corner only to try to catch the odd D# on the south forty then watch as the dern fiddler moves his finger a quarter inch to rip away at the same tune. One dulcimer friendly tune was Jump at the Sun a tune I always thought started in E minor. The odd note was a Bb, not too hard to find at the murderous speeds we tend to play tunes at. Imagine my chagrin to find out it's native key is D minor, therefore the odd note is E sharp. . . again because the string orientation on a dulcimer was designed by Moe, Larry and Curly makes it almost impossible to keep up with the fiddlers. I guess we all have our advantages. For Hangman's Reel almost every note is tight together and we really fly through that one.
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Banks Hornpipe is pretty nasty. Eb is just a nasty key.
Some other tricky ones are The Mathematician, King Robert the Bruce (both Skinner tunes), Jean's Reel, American Rifle Team, and Dickie Rogers' Pedestal. There are the obvious ones like The Contradiction. And most Ed Reavy tunes are trickier than they look- it took me forever to get The Shoemaker's Daughter to sound right.
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I hope you've managed to conquer "The Dean Brig", also in Eb and often played before "Banks". It's a really beautiful slow Strathspey - unless your tastes are different. I feel - tho' not a fiddler - that that tune alone justifies the key's existence!
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Only... "Orange Blossom Special" isn't really a session tune. It's a concert platform piece intended for a band with a minimum of a red hot fiddler, banjo likewise, and assorted backing. It really needs that fiddle/banjo combination if it's going to make sense.
If you can get hold of it, look and listen to Jim McKillop's VHS/DVD "The Floating Bow Hand" (listed here in the Recordings section), where Jim and his band perform it live as almost the last item on the tape.
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
listen to "The devil Came Down To Georgia". it's daunting enough listening to it in the first place, but what a great song. In it there is a bloke called Jonny, and down my local pub Jonny Evans, the local sheepsales man always puts it on on the jukebox when he's drunk. The whole pub stops to listen to him sing, and it's great fun!
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
The problem is, if you are ever going to play "The Devil Came Down to Georgia," you first have to find the music, I searched for it and can't find it, and you have to have a lot of bows ready at hand if you're going to perform it, and bows alone cost a good bit. Also, if you think that a lot of those pieces are really hard, try playing classical violin music, it will change your mind...most likely.
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
While I play (or attempt) several of the Scottish tunes listed above, they don't come up in my session. The dangerous one for us is Blarney Pilgrim: the A music is easy, so it often gets off to a rip roaring start. The B music is full of nasty string crossings and is very much harder than the A music. The C music is easy again.
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Arnold Schoenberg was a pretty good fiddler so he knew what he was doing when writing for it. He once had a violinist complain about his violin concerto being too difficult, and answered:
"I want the left little finger to grow longer. I can wait..."
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I remember watching a telly programme with paul McCartny writing a piece for orchestra. He turned up to a rehearsal and there was this little bit of a violin solo from 1st violin, quite high up the dusty bit. McCartny turned to the conductor and asked what he thought of that bit, whether it was hard to play. The conductor said it was fine. And McCartny said, "No no, I wanted it to be really memorable, challenging."
So the silly fecker stopped the rehearsal and rewrote that part, the same, but two octaves higher, so it was right on the edge of the finger board. What a t w a t
ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Ok, other than the obvious ones (mostly by J.S.Skinner) namely 'The President' and Madam Neruda, what tunes do you find especially tricky on the fiddle?
Slow airs can be just as tricky, mind ...
Cheers
Iain.
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by Iain Anderson
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
The High Level Hornpipe maybe? ...
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by Iain Anderson
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
The Slow Air 'Back to the Hills'?
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by Iain Anderson
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I've to actually atempt it, but the Morning Thrush seems pretty damn hard with uncomfortable string crossings.
Cheers,
Armand
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by armandale
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I've yet*
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by armandale
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
The ones you try to play after too many pints. ;>}
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by John Galt
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
"I've to actually atempt it, but the Morning Thrush seems pretty damn hard with uncomfortable string crossings."
But it's the most gorgeous tune, ever.
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by DrSilverSpear
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
The Mathematician (and I am one!).
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by seanblackstone
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Pretty much anything I'm trying to learn!
Lots of stuff from J. Scott Skinner and Wm Marshall are very challenging.
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by ismisepol
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Tommy's Turbakas (or something like that) by Alasdair Fraser, though it's scottish, not irish. That's gotta be one of the hardest tunes out there.
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by Nathan G
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Come west along the road has terrible string crossings!
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by jfiddlerh
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
In my experience on other instruments it's usually the one you're trying to learn. In my family the tune you're struggling with is known as the Tourette's Reel, because there's a lot of swearing going on......
There are also some tunes that just sit much better on one instrunment than another.
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by Guernsey Pete
Try this...
I've posted "wynding the hay" from Liz Carroll today.
Maybe you'll love that... Difficulties are not in the strings crossings, but it's not so bad.
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by protz
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
And the gold medal goes to .......
Congratulations, you are the best. you are the winner.
Strongest, fastest, highest, longest, farthest.
Hang on, I thought we were talking about music?
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by llig leahcim
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Leaving aside the party pieces and show-off tunes, and looking at purely traditional tunes, I think the Sally Gardens reel is up there, certainly for beginners, because of the crossing to the E-string and back in the first few bars. It needs quite a bit of woodshedding before it can be done cleanly. Dusty Windowsills is another, for much the same reason. As with Sally Gardens, once you've sorted out the technique cleanly you'll always have it there for other tunes.
Leaving aside the Scott Skinner tunes as a special case, most of Ed Reavy's tunes are difficult, both technically and musically, and consequently need that much more work before they're ready for performing.
And, of course, slow airs are THE special case - each one needing months of work and background study before it's ready for presentation to the listeners.
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by Trevor Jennings
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I gave up on the string crossing to E on Sally Gardens, I just throw down a pinky on the A string. Life is too short to worry about such things.
I think that Drowsy Maggie is a hard tune to really make sound good, especially if you try to do a bowing pattern with slurs rather than just playing each note with alternating up/down strokes.
Doing the rolls I would like to do on Legacy Jig is difficult.
Playing the B part of St. Anne's Reel with good intonation and pleasing bowing is hard.
Some other ones that I find difficult are the Donegal Reel and the Galway Rambler. At the last session I played at, during Galway Rambler I noticed the fiddler woman next to me wasn't playing it . I stopped playing it halfway through and muttered to her "I hate this damned tune" and she said "yeah me too"
I suppose that "whatever tune I am currently learning" is often one of the hardest. Eventually they all seem to get easier.
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by timmy!
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Conlan Nancarrow's "Canon-X" is pretty hard on the fiddle. Brurvals efter Per Sodermans is a bugger too.
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by LastToFinish
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I know nothing of fiddling but I dare say some tunes out of the Highland and Northumbrian pipe repertoire could be a handful, with octave and other high / low jumps in a quick succession of notes.
# Posted on August 22nd 2006 by nicholas
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Hmm.
I've thought about this one before. Strangely, some 'easy/beginner' tunes are difficult on the fiddle eg - "The Irish Washer Woman" has some tricky string crossings.
Having played a few sessions with tin whistlers at the local music school, who can belt out certain tunes that are much harder to play fast on the fiddle, I decided that some tunes must have been written on instruments other than the fiddle, thus making them harder to play (on the fiddle).
Probably sounds obvious, but worth thinking about.
# Posted on August 23rd 2006 by richrua
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
For instance, Father Kelly's is easier for the fiddle player if it's played in A rather than the usual G. I found that out earlier on this year when I was one of the "and friends" in a ceili band playing for set dancers. The tune also sounds a lot brighter in A, which is helpful when you're playing for dancers.
# Posted on August 23rd 2006 by Trevor Jennings
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
My vote's on Tam Lin.
# Posted on August 23rd 2006 by Fiddlephilia
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Hangman's Reel.
I have had a hard time figuring out The Red Crow for some reason, at least from sheet music. I have the Altan CD on my Amazon.com wish list. Maybe if I'm able to hear it several or many times, it will come easier.
# Posted on August 23rd 2006 by cathrynb
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
It's been said plenty of times already - but J.S.Skinner's definitely have to be the hardest. There is one hornpipe - called 'The Acrobat' and you need to be one to play it!!!!. Another - 'Jumper's Hornpipe' has a first part made up almost entirely of descending arpeggios - Easy? NOT!!!!! TherE are some interesting position changes and extended 4th fingers - and the second part is worse - it switches into the minor with accidentals being cancelled every other bar! (CONFUSING)
One of the nicest but tricky(and perhaps over attempted to be played) Irish tunes is the reel 'The Mason's Apron'
If you want any Skinner books to try the tunes the best are 'The Harp and Claymore' and 'The Miller O' Hirn Collection'
ENJOY!!!!!
# Posted on August 23rd 2006 by Harping McCartan
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I thought President Garfield was hard enough till I met a Shetlander who played it in D. He looked t me as if I was nuts when I said I'd learned it in Bb.
The Acrobat isn't so bad on the mandolin. I gues frets help in some cases.
# Posted on August 23rd 2006 by Bren
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I'm not going to attempt it in Bb - not even on the harp!!!! I'll stick to playing it in D.
Irish music aside, I'm working on Grade 8 violin at the moment and one of the pieces is 'The Bagpipe Player' by Henri Wieniawski! If you thought that listening to the bagpipes was bad enough - try playing like on on the violin. No onder the neighbours are trying to get the police to give me an ASBO!!!!!
# Posted on August 25th 2006 by Harping McCartan
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Coming from a hammered dulcimer perspective it drives me crazy to play a tune like Wizard's Walk, working all over the HD like some crazy man, wapping one string in the northeast corner only to try to catch the odd D# on the south forty then watch as the dern fiddler moves his finger a quarter inch to rip away at the same tune. One dulcimer friendly tune was Jump at the Sun a tune I always thought started in E minor. The odd note was a Bb, not too hard to find at the murderous speeds we tend to play tunes at. Imagine my chagrin to find out it's native key is D minor, therefore the odd note is E sharp. . . again because the string orientation on a dulcimer was designed by Moe, Larry and Curly makes it almost impossible to keep up with the fiddlers. I guess we all have our advantages. For Hangman's Reel almost every note is tight together and we really fly through that one.
# Posted on August 27th 2006 by jrathbun
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Banks Hornpipe is pretty nasty. Eb is just a nasty key.
Some other tricky ones are The Mathematician, King Robert the Bruce (both Skinner tunes), Jean's Reel, American Rifle Team, and Dickie Rogers' Pedestal. There are the obvious ones like The Contradiction. And most Ed Reavy tunes are trickier than they look- it took me forever to get The Shoemaker's Daughter to sound right.
# Posted on August 27th 2006 by wordnerd129
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I hope you've managed to conquer "The Dean Brig", also in Eb and often played before "Banks". It's a really beautiful slow Strathspey - unless your tastes are different. I feel - tho' not a fiddler - that that tune alone justifies the key's existence!
# Posted on August 27th 2006 by nicholas
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Another one that's hard to play (and perhaps the bane of fiddlers) is 'Orange Blossom Special' (Need I say any more about it?!?)
# Posted on August 29th 2006 by Harping McCartan
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Only... "Orange Blossom Special" isn't really a session tune. It's a concert platform piece intended for a band with a minimum of a red hot fiddler, banjo likewise, and assorted backing. It really needs that fiddle/banjo combination if it's going to make sense.
If you can get hold of it, look and listen to Jim McKillop's VHS/DVD "The Floating Bow Hand" (listed here in the Recordings section), where Jim and his band perform it live as almost the last item on the tape.
# Posted on August 29th 2006 by Trevor Jennings
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
listen to "The devil Came Down To Georgia". it's daunting enough listening to it in the first place, but what a great song. In it there is a bloke called Jonny, and down my local pub Jonny Evans, the local sheepsales man always puts it on on the jukebox when he's drunk. The whole pub stops to listen to him sing, and it's great fun!
# Posted on November 16th 2008 by jack.rowe
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
The problem is, if you are ever going to play "The Devil Came Down to Georgia," you first have to find the music, I searched for it and can't find it, and you have to have a lot of bows ready at hand if you're going to perform it, and bows alone cost a good bit. Also, if you think that a lot of those pieces are really hard, try playing classical violin music, it will change your mind...most likely.
# Posted on March 26th 2011 by an fidleir
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
While I play (or attempt) several of the Scottish tunes listed above, they don't come up in my session. The dangerous one for us is Blarney Pilgrim: the A music is easy, so it often gets off to a rip roaring start. The B music is full of nasty string crossings and is very much harder than the A music. The C music is easy again.
# Posted on March 26th 2011 by fiddlentina
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
Arnold Schoenberg was a pretty good fiddler so he knew what he was doing when writing for it. He once had a violinist complain about his violin concerto being too difficult, and answered:
"I want the left little finger to grow longer. I can wait..."
# Posted on March 26th 2011 by Jack Campin
Re: ATTENTION FIDDLERS ...What are the hardest tunes to play on the fiddle???
I remember watching a telly programme with paul McCartny writing a piece for orchestra. He turned up to a rehearsal and there was this little bit of a violin solo from 1st violin, quite high up the dusty bit. McCartny turned to the conductor and asked what he thought of that bit, whether it was hard to play. The conductor said it was fine. And McCartny said, "No no, I wanted it to be really memorable, challenging."
So the silly fecker stopped the rehearsal and rewrote that part, the same, but two octaves higher, so it was right on the edge of the finger board. What a t w a t
# Posted on March 26th 2011 by llig leahcim