I've been playing for a little over a year now and it certainly has been a tough but rewarding journey towards learning the fiddle. Like most, I started out doing a single bow stroke per note until I was taught the art of slurring. Then of course, I found myself slurring everything from one bow end to the other. Now, I have a new teacher who is going through Matt Cranitch's The Irish Fiddle Book and he insists that I bow the tunes exactly how they are written. This has actually been a huge help to break old habits and start learning ornamentation and I do feel like I am gaining control over my bowing although it is frustrating whenever I'm in the middle of a tune and get stopped because I make one little bowing mistake. With that being said, I find myself hesitant to play all of the old tunes that I once knew since I do not have written music for them with proper bowing mapped out and I am afraid I will be digging up old habits again. Eventually I am going to have to ween myself off of the sheet music and be able to bow tunes properly by ear. Is this a skill that comes in time or should I be doing something that helps me gain the necessary skill?
Figuring out a correct bowing for a tune can be a challenge especially in the beginning, I think that your teacher is right to insist that you learn those tunes as the bowings are marked for now. That will help you get a feel for how the bowing should go.
There's more than one right way to do the bowing but there are lots of wrong ways. I don't know of any hard-and-fast rules for it but the bowing has to be right for it to sound right. If you listen carefully to a recording you can figure out the bowings, but I guess that takes experience too.
I'd say stick with the bowings as marked for now until you get a feel for how it should be done. This is one area where I think that sheet music is very valuable: you don't want to rely too much on sheet music to tell you how to play a tune, but if the bowings are marked the way experience players play the tunes then that is a big help.
There's a two-volume set called Bowing Styles in Irish Fiddle Playing that contains transcriptions of tunes with the bowings marked exactly as well-respected old Irish fiddle players played them. They are intended to document the bowings of different regional styles and players. I have volume 2 but can't find the first volume anywhere, I think they are out of print. But if you can find a copy you will get lots of well-known tunes with bowings marked exactly as master fiddlers played them.
You could also get Kevin Burke's 2 DVD set called Learn to Play Irish Fiddle. He goes into the bowings in detail and you can watch him do it. He doesn't teach that many tunes on the videos but they are generally good ones.
Anyway, good luck, it sounds like you have a good teacher so I think you're in good shape.
Going through Matt Cranitch's bowing as you are may be a good starting point, but it would help if you listen to plenty of other players, try and see if you can hear where they are slurring. Getting out and playing in a session when you feel ready to join in, and trying to pick up on other players bowing should help too.
Jasten,
Bowing is the most important aspect of playing the fiddle/violin. The bow is the instrument, in many ways much more than the fiddle. To be a fiddler or violinist you must make bowing a life study. The more you listen to great players the quicker you will be able to incorporate some stylish bowings into your playing. If you want to have a style of your own than serious listening must be done. You can hear bow change on recordings. Maybe not every change but some.
I think looking at bowing on manuscript can be interesting but I don't thinnk Irish fiddle playing should be taught the way your teacher is going about it. It may be a quick fix to rush you along but in the long-run the time spent on concentrating on memorizing bowing is wasted when considering the positives that could come from listening to good players. MOre listening than practicing was a tip that I got when I was a scrub and I know that it works.
I really don't think that Matt Cranitch is a very interesting bower. If bower is a word. David Lyth's books on bowing might be of interest to you. he highlights the bowing of Bobby Casey and some of the great Clare fiddlers and there's also one of his that's out of print that concentrates on the Sligo fiddlers Coleman, Killoran, and Morrison. You might find it second hand on the web.
I'd say get a new teacher. Such restriction can only be damaging. I don't know for sure, but I'd brt a tidy sum the Matt Cranitch's bowing suggestions are merely that ... suggestions.
Is your teacher a classical teacher by any chance? Who's just got a hold of Matt's book?
Jasten
Along with Cathy's good advice I might add that Cathal Hayden's cd rom is quite decent in this regard -- you can both hear, see AND print out a copy of the music with slurs, sliding notes etc marked.
His bowing patterns are slightly different from Cranitch's in terms of how he treats reels and jigs but learning from both [and maybe Peter Cooper's book as well?] would give you a really good perspective on the way one person approaches bowing patterns vs another person. There's no one right way, but there are "righter" ways. It helps to see how two or three top players approach it. I don't know if the Burke tutorial actually gives bowing mark ups? Does it anyone? I know his cassette tape and book does not. But if you can "hear" the slurs you don't really need the mark up. But that's not always easy for a beginner.
Also, doing any particular bowing, whether it's good or not does not mean that you'll be playing in a traditional style. If a classical player does Matt Sandwhich's bowings they are not going to sound traditional. Listening is the only way, and watching good fiddlers/bowers.
I asked about this early on, and people gave me yourTube videos of duets and trios where the players were all clearly bowing the same thing differently
so the idea that there is more than one way to skin the cat was instilled in me very early
but I have found that if left to my own devices, I put the slurs in all the wrong places.
I think this is because of what they say in Irish music that you "slur into the beat". Seems like American music like rock and jazz slurs into the off beat, so I had to turn myself back around
Custy's music shop sells both David Lyth books [or at least the latest one anyway] in which he's analyzed various top players' bowing...I think Sliabh Luachra players is Vol.2 if I'm not mistaken. It's good for reference if you're curious.
Some people have questioned the accuracy his bowing annotations in Vol.1 [coleman etc], but I've only heard good things about Vol.2.
jasten, is your teacher a classical player or a fiddler? A classical player can teach you to play the instrument, but only a fiddler can teach you how to play the tunes.
PT,
Patrick Kelly may have been taught certain bowings as were many of the great old players, such as the greats from Sligo but they also had fiddlers galore in their communities which gave them an aural advantage. If you live in California then your not exactly going to be meeting up with the local village fiddlers after sunday mass.
Of note, it's interesting in Matt Cranitch's PhD thesis on Padraig O"keeffe and the Sliabh Luachra tradition that Padraig indeed taught by marking bowing and other ornaments [rolls, cuts, sliding notes]. Cranitch has many examples of how O'Keeffe marked up tunes according to his Code [as it's become known]. It's fascinating stuff. Julia and Dennis Murphy would have learned this way to some extent. So learning from "dots" or marked up mss isn't unheard of by any means....of course all of these players would no doubt mostly have learned by ear and Padraig's example....the music was probably there more as a reference since there were no tape recorders etc in those days.
Great advice so far and im happy to learn of a few new books I can pickup. My current teacher is a fiddler but his background originally started with classical. He has been playing Irish style for quite awhile however and plays professionally in a local band. I think he is pretty good at playing the tunes with the right swing and feel and ensuring that I do so as well. Speaking of which, has anyone ever noticed that Matt Cranitch plays everything in that book without any kind of swing what so ever?
1. Don't single-bow everything.
2. Don't slur jigs 3-3 to a measure.
3. Mix it up---the idea is to strive not to bow a particular phrase the same way every time. This is repetitive music---repetitive bowing can become kind of boring after a while.
I think it's good that your teacher is trying to get you to bow a tune one particular way. But if your teacher can't come up with any other good ways of bowing that tune, then that's not good---especially if one bowing is giving you problems, then your teacher should be able to figure out something that's a little easier for you to do right now that still sounds good.
And it's true that you can hear bowings on recordings, but that's not something I would recommend to a beginner. A better way is to sit down with a phrase and figure out at least two ways to bow it so that it sounds good. If you have a teacher or a good fiddler to sit with you and help you do this, that's even better. Write them down if you have to, but memorize them so that you don't have to look at the paper to know how to play them.
And a tip: some bowings can be awkward until you play them over and over and get a feel for them, so if a good fiddler suggests a bowing to you that doesn't feel easy at first (or if you get it from a book like the one you're working with), try it repeatedly until you can play it smoothly---sometimes it will end up being a bowing you use frequently!
"Speaking of which, has anyone ever noticed that Matt Cranitch plays everything in that book without any kind of swing what so ever?"
Jasten, sorry but I would say that's not quite true. In fact, not true at all. There's plenty of swing in his reels for example...esp toward the back of the book. Lucy Campbell's being one that springs to mind.
So, I'm not sure what kind of swing your teacher has [there are diff kinds or styles depending on where your fiddle background came from...say, Cape Breton vs. Blue Grass for example or Donegal vs. Clare for another] but there's plenty of wonderful stuff going on in Cranitch. Check out his version of The Scholar for example...he gives it a nice dotted feel...it's a bit different from the way it's sometimes played [ie, straighter].
So, as kennedy, says you might have difficulty sorting out slurring at the moment through only listening. But no matter. But your comment re Cranitch makes me a bit nervous of your teacher's interpretation....there is such a thing as over emphasis and sometimes [I've seen and heard it myself many times] a *classical* interpretation of what swing is in Irish music which isn't quite what a traditional musicians would class as swing. But that's for you to judge.
In any case, you can't go wrong with Crantich....just listen closely to what he does...and other recognized players as well. It's the real deal.
Bowing is not just about ups and downs and slurs, either. There's speed (how fast the bow goes up or down), pressure (when to apply a little, when to let up a little), which part of the bow to use for certain sounds, and how to put those things all together to make the sound you want.
Like others have said, I wouldn't try to memorize a bowing pattern that someone wrote out for me. This would be too restrictive. Learning to use the bow to make the full range of sounds is what I would recommend. Listening and watching other fiddlers and asking questions about how certain sounds are made, then practicing making the sounds yourself will get you on your way to developing your own sound. Your teacher can probably help a lot with that, but if you can, find some other fiddle players to talk to and play with. Have fun.
never do exactly what anyone tells you to do. they are showing you a way that WILL initially help you learn this technique but soon enough you'll learn to bow your own way and improvise in a way thats comfortable for you.try what these people say and it might help, but don't feel a need to be restricted by their words.
Think of your vocal chords as the strings, your tongue as your fingers, and your lips as the bow. In the colloquial language of everyday use, bits are often missed out, Silent letters, letters being replaced with glottal stops, strings of words often run together to almost make one long word, long words broken up: "exajera'e" "eggs addge er rate" etc etc
What classical actors do with their lines is to fix the articulation. But general speech, everyday communication is not like that. And that's what you should be striving for foe in your music
Llig
by this you mean a musical flow to the tune that's like a conversation with the listener rather than a declamation in the theatrical sense of the word? or am I misunderstanding you here?
interesting analogy.
With the listener being someone you are having the conversation with, ie playing with. Or it could even be just yourself. But not really someone you are talking at, if you get my drift.
Ok, right. that's exactly what I was thinking you were saying. Both contexts.
You know, it's interesting that we don't often think of fellow musicians as "listeners"....Do we? I'll bet we often think of listeners ONLY as those non-players...but there they are among us, beside us. As well as our self too.
great metaphor. it would tie in nicely to Will's idea of a tune as like a sentence....you elide stuff, put in a pause or exaggeration here or there on a word or a syllable....add a comma....I like it...all in the name of as you say, articulation. huh.
of course the frustraton arises when we realize at sessions that people are not listening to the musical conversation but are all off in their own separate worlds...and the result is sh*te.
Who is the "we"? If you don't quite naturally think of your fellow musicians and yourself as the listeners, you've got the whole thing a bit screwed up.
Everbody knows how annoying those people are who, when you are just having a good old blether, project their voice just a little just so the table next to you can hear how funny they are.
Cranitch in his book encourages people to make up their own bowings
after they've been playing for a while. The tunes and bowings he
uses force you into playing with a strong pulse to start out with. A
classical player really needs that 'wake up call', if they haven't been
exposed to the style much. That would be me - I didn't really know what
I was aiming at before trying out the bowing. The fiddler Gerry O'Connor
had some input into the book as well.
He has also puts in a big discography in his covering every irish
fiddle style known to man.
Paul Mcnevins book,has marked bowing,so does James Morrison,in fact on one tune Morrison, uses slurred three three in a jig,so dont dismiss this altogether,occasionally three three works in jigs.
listen to other musicians as well,
Bowing
Bowing
I've been playing for a little over a year now and it certainly has been a tough but rewarding journey towards learning the fiddle. Like most, I started out doing a single bow stroke per note until I was taught the art of slurring. Then of course, I found myself slurring everything from one bow end to the other. Now, I have a new teacher who is going through Matt Cranitch's The Irish Fiddle Book and he insists that I bow the tunes exactly how they are written. This has actually been a huge help to break old habits and start learning ornamentation and I do feel like I am gaining control over my bowing although it is frustrating whenever I'm in the middle of a tune and get stopped because I make one little bowing mistake. With that being said, I find myself hesitant to play all of the old tunes that I once knew since I do not have written music for them with proper bowing mapped out and I am afraid I will be digging up old habits again. Eventually I am going to have to ween myself off of the sheet music and be able to bow tunes properly by ear. Is this a skill that comes in time or should I be doing something that helps me gain the necessary skill?
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by jasten
Re: Bowing
Figuring out a correct bowing for a tune can be a challenge especially in the beginning, I think that your teacher is right to insist that you learn those tunes as the bowings are marked for now. That will help you get a feel for how the bowing should go.
There's more than one right way to do the bowing but there are lots of wrong ways. I don't know of any hard-and-fast rules for it but the bowing has to be right for it to sound right. If you listen carefully to a recording you can figure out the bowings, but I guess that takes experience too.
I'd say stick with the bowings as marked for now until you get a feel for how it should be done. This is one area where I think that sheet music is very valuable: you don't want to rely too much on sheet music to tell you how to play a tune, but if the bowings are marked the way experience players play the tunes then that is a big help.
There's a two-volume set called Bowing Styles in Irish Fiddle Playing that contains transcriptions of tunes with the bowings marked exactly as well-respected old Irish fiddle players played them. They are intended to document the bowings of different regional styles and players. I have volume 2 but can't find the first volume anywhere, I think they are out of print. But if you can find a copy you will get lots of well-known tunes with bowings marked exactly as master fiddlers played them.
You could also get Kevin Burke's 2 DVD set called Learn to Play Irish Fiddle. He goes into the bowings in detail and you can watch him do it. He doesn't teach that many tunes on the videos but they are generally good ones.
Anyway, good luck, it sounds like you have a good teacher so I think you're in good shape.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by Marklar
Re: Bowing
Going through Matt Cranitch's bowing as you are may be a good starting point, but it would help if you listen to plenty of other players, try and see if you can hear where they are slurring. Getting out and playing in a session when you feel ready to join in, and trying to pick up on other players bowing should help too.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by cathycook
Re: Bowing
Jasten,
Bowing is the most important aspect of playing the fiddle/violin. The bow is the instrument, in many ways much more than the fiddle. To be a fiddler or violinist you must make bowing a life study. The more you listen to great players the quicker you will be able to incorporate some stylish bowings into your playing. If you want to have a style of your own than serious listening must be done. You can hear bow change on recordings. Maybe not every change but some.
I think looking at bowing on manuscript can be interesting but I don't thinnk Irish fiddle playing should be taught the way your teacher is going about it. It may be a quick fix to rush you along but in the long-run the time spent on concentrating on memorizing bowing is wasted when considering the positives that could come from listening to good players. MOre listening than practicing was a tip that I got when I was a scrub and I know that it works.
I really don't think that Matt Cranitch is a very interesting bower. If bower is a word. David Lyth's books on bowing might be of interest to you. he highlights the bowing of Bobby Casey and some of the great Clare fiddlers and there's also one of his that's out of print that concentrates on the Sligo fiddlers Coleman, Killoran, and Morrison. You might find it second hand on the web.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by The Sailor on the Rock
Re: Bowing
I'd say get a new teacher. Such restriction can only be damaging. I don't know for sure, but I'd brt a tidy sum the Matt Cranitch's bowing suggestions are merely that ... suggestions.
Is your teacher a classical teacher by any chance? Who's just got a hold of Matt's book?
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by ...
Re: Bowing
Jasten
Along with Cathy's good advice I might add that Cathal Hayden's cd rom is quite decent in this regard -- you can both hear, see AND print out a copy of the music with slurs, sliding notes etc marked.
His bowing patterns are slightly different from Cranitch's in terms of how he treats reels and jigs but learning from both [and maybe Peter Cooper's book as well?] would give you a really good perspective on the way one person approaches bowing patterns vs another person. There's no one right way, but there are "righter" ways. It helps to see how two or three top players approach it. I don't know if the Burke tutorial actually gives bowing mark ups? Does it anyone? I know his cassette tape and book does not. But if you can "hear" the slurs you don't really need the mark up. But that's not always easy for a beginner.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by skin&bow
Re: Bowing
"I don't know if the Burke tutorial actually gives bowing mark ups? Does it anyone?"
Yes, it does.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by Marklar
Re: Bowing
Thanks Marklar. good to know.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by skin&bow
Re: Bowing
Also, doing any particular bowing, whether it's good or not does not mean that you'll be playing in a traditional style. If a classical player does Matt Sandwhich's bowings they are not going to sound traditional. Listening is the only way, and watching good fiddlers/bowers.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by The Sailor on the Rock
Re: Bowing
I asked about this early on, and people gave me yourTube videos of duets and trios where the players were all clearly bowing the same thing differently
so the idea that there is more than one way to skin the cat was instilled in me very early
but I have found that if left to my own devices, I put the slurs in all the wrong places.
I think this is because of what they say in Irish music that you "slur into the beat". Seems like American music like rock and jazz slurs into the off beat, so I had to turn myself back around
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by Nate Ryan
Re: Bowing
Custy's music shop sells both David Lyth books [or at least the latest one anyway] in which he's analyzed various top players' bowing...I think Sliabh Luachra players is Vol.2 if I'm not mistaken. It's good for reference if you're curious.
Some people have questioned the accuracy his bowing annotations in Vol.1 [coleman etc], but I've only heard good things about Vol.2.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by skin&bow
Re: Bowing
jasten, is your teacher a classical player or a fiddler? A classical player can teach you to play the instrument, but only a fiddler can teach you how to play the tunes.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by Marklar
Re: Bowing
PT,
Patrick Kelly may have been taught certain bowings as were many of the great old players, such as the greats from Sligo but they also had fiddlers galore in their communities which gave them an aural advantage. If you live in California then your not exactly going to be meeting up with the local village fiddlers after sunday mass.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by The Sailor on the Rock
Re: Bowing
Of note, it's interesting in Matt Cranitch's PhD thesis on Padraig O"keeffe and the Sliabh Luachra tradition that Padraig indeed taught by marking bowing and other ornaments [rolls, cuts, sliding notes]. Cranitch has many examples of how O'Keeffe marked up tunes according to his Code [as it's become known]. It's fascinating stuff. Julia and Dennis Murphy would have learned this way to some extent. So learning from "dots" or marked up mss isn't unheard of by any means....of course all of these players would no doubt mostly have learned by ear and Padraig's example....the music was probably there more as a reference since there were no tape recorders etc in those days.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by skin&bow
Re: Bowing
Great advice so far and im happy to learn of a few new books I can pickup. My current teacher is a fiddler but his background originally started with classical. He has been playing Irish style for quite awhile however and plays professionally in a local band. I think he is pretty good at playing the tunes with the right swing and feel and ensuring that I do so as well. Speaking of which, has anyone ever noticed that Matt Cranitch plays everything in that book without any kind of swing what so ever?
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by jasten
Re: Bowing
Some rules of thumb:
1. Don't single-bow everything.
2. Don't slur jigs 3-3 to a measure.
3. Mix it up---the idea is to strive not to bow a particular phrase the same way every time. This is repetitive music---repetitive bowing can become kind of boring after a while.
I think it's good that your teacher is trying to get you to bow a tune one particular way. But if your teacher can't come up with any other good ways of bowing that tune, then that's not good---especially if one bowing is giving you problems, then your teacher should be able to figure out something that's a little easier for you to do right now that still sounds good.
And it's true that you can hear bowings on recordings, but that's not something I would recommend to a beginner. A better way is to sit down with a phrase and figure out at least two ways to bow it so that it sounds good. If you have a teacher or a good fiddler to sit with you and help you do this, that's even better. Write them down if you have to, but memorize them so that you don't have to look at the paper to know how to play them.
And a tip: some bowings can be awkward until you play them over and over and get a feel for them, so if a good fiddler suggests a bowing to you that doesn't feel easy at first (or if you get it from a book like the one you're working with), try it repeatedly until you can play it smoothly---sometimes it will end up being a bowing you use frequently!
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by kennedy
Re: Bowing
"Speaking of which, has anyone ever noticed that Matt Cranitch plays everything in that book without any kind of swing what so ever?"
Jasten, sorry but I would say that's not quite true. In fact, not true at all. There's plenty of swing in his reels for example...esp toward the back of the book. Lucy Campbell's being one that springs to mind.
So, I'm not sure what kind of swing your teacher has [there are diff kinds or styles depending on where your fiddle background came from...say, Cape Breton vs. Blue Grass for example or Donegal vs. Clare for another] but there's plenty of wonderful stuff going on in Cranitch. Check out his version of The Scholar for example...he gives it a nice dotted feel...it's a bit different from the way it's sometimes played [ie, straighter].
So, as kennedy, says you might have difficulty sorting out slurring at the moment through only listening. But no matter. But your comment re Cranitch makes me a bit nervous of your teacher's interpretation....there is such a thing as over emphasis and sometimes [I've seen and heard it myself many times] a *classical* interpretation of what swing is in Irish music which isn't quite what a traditional musicians would class as swing. But that's for you to judge.
In any case, you can't go wrong with Crantich....just listen closely to what he does...and other recognized players as well. It's the real deal.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by skin&bow
Re: Bowing
Bowing is not just about ups and downs and slurs, either. There's speed (how fast the bow goes up or down), pressure (when to apply a little, when to let up a little), which part of the bow to use for certain sounds, and how to put those things all together to make the sound you want.
Like others have said, I wouldn't try to memorize a bowing pattern that someone wrote out for me. This would be too restrictive. Learning to use the bow to make the full range of sounds is what I would recommend. Listening and watching other fiddlers and asking questions about how certain sounds are made, then practicing making the sounds yourself will get you on your way to developing your own sound. Your teacher can probably help a lot with that, but if you can, find some other fiddle players to talk to and play with. Have fun.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by John Culhane
Re: Bowing
never do exactly what anyone tells you to do. they are showing you a way that WILL initially help you learn this technique but soon enough you'll learn to bow your own way and improvise in a way thats comfortable for you.try what these people say and it might help, but don't feel a need to be restricted by their words.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by fiddleruairi
Re: Bowing
it's all a means to the end...and there are many ways to that end as fiddleruairi implies. good luck.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by skin&bow
Re: Bowing
I feel I'm coming back to the word articulation.
It's analogy time again:
"how is it going"
"howze i' goin'?"
Think of your vocal chords as the strings, your tongue as your fingers, and your lips as the bow. In the colloquial language of everyday use, bits are often missed out, Silent letters, letters being replaced with glottal stops, strings of words often run together to almost make one long word, long words broken up: "exajera'e" "eggs addge er rate" etc etc
What classical actors do with their lines is to fix the articulation. But general speech, everyday communication is not like that. And that's what you should be striving for foe in your music
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by ...
Re: Bowing
Llig
by this you mean a musical flow to the tune that's like a conversation with the listener rather than a declamation in the theatrical sense of the word? or am I misunderstanding you here?
interesting analogy.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by skin&bow
Re: Bowing
Yes, exactly
With the listener being someone you are having the conversation with, ie playing with. Or it could even be just yourself. But not really someone you are talking at, if you get my drift.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by ...
Re: Bowing
Ok, right. that's exactly what I was thinking you were saying. Both contexts.
You know, it's interesting that we don't often think of fellow musicians as "listeners"....Do we? I'll bet we often think of listeners ONLY as those non-players...but there they are among us, beside us. As well as our self too.
great metaphor. it would tie in nicely to Will's idea of a tune as like a sentence....you elide stuff, put in a pause or exaggeration here or there on a word or a syllable....add a comma....I like it...all in the name of as you say, articulation. huh.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by skin&bow
Re: Bowing
LOL! Great analogy lads. Would you prefer a conversation or a lecture?
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: Bowing
of course the frustraton arises when we realize at sessions that people are not listening to the musical conversation but are all off in their own separate worlds...and the result is sh*te.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by skin&bow
Re: Bowing
swfl
the best lecture is like a conversation! like he/she answers that question you were *just* formulating in your head
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by skin&bow
Re: Bowing
Who is the "we"? If you don't quite naturally think of your fellow musicians and yourself as the listeners, you've got the whole thing a bit screwed up.
Everbody knows how annoying those people are who, when you are just having a good old blether, project their voice just a little just so the table next to you can hear how funny they are.
# Posted on November 17th 2008 by ...
Re: Bowing
Cranitch in his book encourages people to make up their own bowings
after they've been playing for a while. The tunes and bowings he
uses force you into playing with a strong pulse to start out with. A
classical player really needs that 'wake up call', if they haven't been
exposed to the style much. That would be me - I didn't really know what
I was aiming at before trying out the bowing. The fiddler Gerry O'Connor
had some input into the book as well.
He has also puts in a big discography in his covering every irish
fiddle style known to man.
# Posted on November 18th 2008 by Hup
Re: Bowing
Wow - let's try that again:
He also puts in a big discography covering every Irish fiddle style
known to man.
# Posted on November 18th 2008 by Hup
Re: Bowing
Paul Mcnevins book,has marked bowing,so does James Morrison,in fact on one tune Morrison, uses slurred three three in a jig,so dont dismiss this altogether,occasionally three three works in jigs.
listen to other musicians as well,
# Posted on November 18th 2008 by Dick Miles
Re: Bowing
Some tunes in O'Neill's 1850 have phrase marks that make alot of sense when converted into bowings.
# Posted on November 19th 2008 by The Sailor on the Rock