Anyone else have problems at their sessions with people who can't wind up their fiddle properly? It only takes an electronic gismo, some fine tuners and watching the red light turn to green! Is that too much to ask?
Yet what do we experience? Droves of fiddlers who can't tune their instruments, think it's okay to contribute 2 or 3 correct notes in 10? Invariably their bowing arms lose control as they compulsively speed up every tune in the set?
Let me come on to accompaniment: far too many fiddle players just can't join in with an appropriate jig or reel when the bodhran player starts a solo piece! Personally, I often start an exciting, innovatory chord sequence with shifting time signatures on the guitar. What happens? 10 fiddlers join in with no telepathic ability at all or appreciation of where the music is going!
The trouble is, some of these players believe 10 cats screeching at once will somehow average out into something harmonious so they can hide in anonymity: sorry, guys..........!
I'm a diligent student of the Eric Morecambe School myself.
Re your fingers,SC,I can tell you that there used to be a violinist who became known as 'lightning fingers' as his dextorous digits never hit the same place twice.
It's a wonder clockwork fiddles haven't caught on. They'd always be dead in tune and in time and, if anything, they'd slow down during the course of a session instead of speeding up. And they'd come with their own built-in drone.
The problem is, was, and probably always will be, is that too many beginners on the fiddle are far too eager to start playing tunes without the discipline of spending a little time right at the very beginning learning how to tune the instrument by ear from a single sound source (tuning fork, A on a box, etc) - with the usual lamentable and ongoing results so aptly summarised by Rob.
If you can't tune your instrument without the aid of the gismo with the red and green lights, you're not gonna be able to play it in tune. That goes for guitars too by the way.
Absolutely!. As a backer its essential. to tune to the sharpest instrument in the room, and the whole guitar has to be in tune with itself and that other player for it to work right.
winding up a fiddle
winding up a fiddle
Anyone else have problems at their sessions with people who can't wind up their fiddle properly? It only takes an electronic gismo, some fine tuners and watching the red light turn to green! Is that too much to ask?
Yet what do we experience? Droves of fiddlers who can't tune their instruments, think it's okay to contribute 2 or 3 correct notes in 10? Invariably their bowing arms lose control as they compulsively speed up every tune in the set?
Let me come on to accompaniment: far too many fiddle players just can't join in with an appropriate jig or reel when the bodhran player starts a solo piece! Personally, I often start an exciting, innovatory chord sequence with shifting time signatures on the guitar. What happens? 10 fiddlers join in with no telepathic ability at all or appreciation of where the music is going!
The trouble is, some of these players believe 10 cats screeching at once will somehow average out into something harmonious so they can hide in anonymity: sorry, guys..........!
That feels better - apologies, Micheal.
# Posted on May 18th 2009 by Rob
Re: winding up a fiddle
Ha Ha Ha
My fiddle is always perfectly in tune - it's my fingers that are always in the wrong place
# Posted on May 18th 2009 by sashiko calico
Re: winding up a fiddle
I'm a diligent student of the Eric Morecambe School myself.
Re your fingers,SC,I can tell you that there used to be a violinist who became known as 'lightning fingers' as his dextorous digits never hit the same place twice.
# Posted on May 18th 2009 by biggus dave
Re: winding up a fiddle
Dave, is that the same as the Eric Morecambe school of piano playing. "I'm playing all the right notes ..... but not necessarily in the right order"
# Posted on May 18th 2009 by sashiko calico
Re: winding up a fiddle
The very same,lol.
# Posted on May 18th 2009 by biggus dave
Re: winding up a fiddle
The best way to wind up a fiddle is to place him (or her) between two box players...
# Posted on May 18th 2009 by Here Lyeth
Re: winding up a fiddle
It's a wonder clockwork fiddles haven't caught on. They'd always be dead in tune and in time and, if anything, they'd slow down during the course of a session instead of speeding up. And they'd come with their own built-in drone.
# Posted on May 18th 2009 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: winding up a fiddle
I've been wound up plenty of times. My fiddle has never
been wound up.
# Posted on May 19th 2009 by Hup
Re: winding up a fiddle
The fiddles are always perfectly in tune. The problem comes with accompanists using instruments that can only play in equal temperament.
# Posted on May 19th 2009 by skreech
Re: winding up a fiddle
The problem is, was, and probably always will be, is that too many beginners on the fiddle are far too eager to start playing tunes without the discipline of spending a little time right at the very beginning learning how to tune the instrument by ear from a single sound source (tuning fork, A on a box, etc) - with the usual lamentable and ongoing results so aptly summarised by Rob.
# Posted on May 19th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: winding up a fiddle
If you can't tune your instrument without the aid of the gismo with the red and green lights, you're not gonna be able to play it in tune. That goes for guitars too by the way.
# Posted on May 19th 2009 by llig leahcim
Re: winding up a fiddle
Yeah, we always tune to the most out of tune box in the room. (1/2 HA!)
# Posted on May 19th 2009 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: winding up a fiddle
Sense in that. If you have a choice of more than one fixed A, choose the sharpest because higher pitches will project more than the lower.
# Posted on May 19th 2009 by Trevor Jennings
Re: winding up a fiddle
Absolutely!. As a backer its essential. to tune to the sharpest instrument in the room, and the whole guitar has to be in tune with itself and that other player for it to work right.
# Posted on May 19th 2009 by piobagusfidil