I started thinking about this ~ fiddle . . . violin . . . violin . . . fiddle .. .. they are after all, one in the same thing. The dictionary defines violin as follows; (Mus.) A small instrument with four strings, played with a bow; a fiddle. [1913 Webster]
So before anyone tries to explain to me that a fiddle is not a violin I ask you; do you think I should have to limit myself to that word for the sake of your unhealthy obsession with the word 'violin'?
I can't remember where I heard this, but someone asked an old-time fiddler the difference between a fiddle and a violin. He replied "one is played in tune."
LOL. When I read my dictionary a bit further the terms are in point of fact synonymous. Nice try Whiddler, or should I say Wiolinist?
tacoman, which one?
This weekend I was playing tunes with a fiddler in the back room of a pub; just the two of us (great acoustics). Occasionally random drunks would wander in and ask us what we were doing. One guy started doing magic tricks with a 2p coin and then started dancing and juggling to the tunes (this is not good when you are trying to play and glowing coloured balls are flying at your head and your instrument). Another fella asked the fiddler if he was playing a fiddle or a violin. On being told it was a fiddle, your man said, "What's the difference?" The fiddler answered, "It's how you play it."
Random, your second question may lead us to ask "what does playing in tune" mean? This topic has recently been addressed on this forum in one or two lengthy, learned (and occasionally heated, as befits academia )discussions.
One old-time fiddler whom I play music with says he has a swtich on the back of his instrument so he can change it quickly and easily from a fiddle to a violin.
Good man, Trevor. Glad to hear this discussion meets with the requisite status of academia.
Thanks Emily, 1st thing in the morning here & already I have to shake a disturbing image from my mind.
I heard it this way: Pick up the instrument in question and turn it upside down (f-holes down, facing the floor). If beer spills out of it, it's a fiddle!
Also related to vellum - the skin of a 'uitulus' Latin for 'calf', which gave the word 'uitulari' to the festival at which the calf was sacrificed, and 'vitula' or 'vidula' the instrument played at the celebration, became viula, and viol. Not much of a leap from 'vidula' to 'fiddle'.
I didn't take the time to check those links., but I Think I heard somewhere that they both come from the Latin word "Vitula" which means "Bowed String Instrument" and "Violin" became the Italian word and "Fiddle" the German, or something like that........
A handle I used for a while on this forum some years back was "fidicen" - Latin for someone who plays a stringed instrument. In Roman times the instrument would have been the lyre or cithara, but latterly the application to other stringed instruments is appropriate.
"Fidicen" is derived from "fides" (meaning gut string) and "canere" (meaning to produce musical notes).
Main source: Forcellini's Latin Lexicon.
Well, well, well, Trevor - I didn't know 'fides' meant anything other than faith/trust etc. - and sure enough, my trusty Latin primer actually also defines it as a lyre or stringed instrument.
When asked this question I always tell people that it's the same instrument, but if dance music is played on it it's a fiddle; if classical repertoire is played on it, it's a violin.
I've also heard it said that a violin is a fiddle educated beyond it's level of intelligence...cue the rim shot!
I once went into a music store on an errand for my wife, and asked if they sold fiddle strings, and the boy said, "No, only violin strings."
How do you tell a violin player from a fiddler?
Answer A: At the end of a gig, look at their paychecks, the one with the most zeros at the end is for the violin player.
Answer B: Count teeth, the person with the least is the fiddler.
(Oops, I guess me and Gam did a double post there!)
"Say, old man, you sure play a mean fiddle! Do you play by notes?"
Reminds me of the Bob Wills song "Bring it on down to my house":
Singer 1: "Hey old man, can you play Fiddle?"
Bob Wills: "It's a'mighty cranky, but I can play a little"...... (leads into fiddle solo). I LOVE that part!
I once had a colleague who's job it is to set up violins for music shops etc - hundreds at a time, but he claimed that he set up fiddles slightly differently - different strings, but also a different position for the sound post inside... Don't know if he still holds with this but thought I'd add it in...
farmerboy~
What you said. Yes, it's true.
A well respected luthier I know close to where I live has fixed, repaired, set up, and sold thousands of violins in the 25 years I've known him. He plays classical violin as well as bluegrass fiddle. I bought a couple violins from him over the years, and he sets up violins to be played as fiddles differently from the violins he sells. He told me that fiddlers are looking for a different kind of sound out of the instrument than the sound violinists prefer. He cuts the curvature of the bridge differently for fiddle players, and places the sound post in a slightly different location to get the exact sound the fiddle player wants.
Not that all fiddle players want exactly the same 'sound' out of the fiddle--some like 'darker', 'richer', 'deeper', 'more bass', 'earthier', while some like more 'brighter', 'louder', 'more singing' timbres from their instruments. But enough fiddlers have come to him over the years wanting their violins to have a certain "sound" that he knows exactly what to do to set it up for them.
I have to agree with Lazyhound - all the professionals I've come across in the classical world refer to their instrument as fiddle or violin indiscriminately.
Conversely, the only ones who seem to get prissy about what you call it are pretentious, slightly ropey amateur classical players who insist 'it's not a fiddle it's a violin'. A quick stomp in the head seems to help them see things otherwise.
I call mine Hamish. Or for f*ck's sake, sometimes too.
I gave my bass fiddle (string bass or double bass if you prefer) the nickname of "Fishy" because I have had too many people tell me too many really bad fish jokes or jokes about fish simply because I am a bass player.
No, I give up.
Why do you get lots of fishy jokes if you're a double bass player ?
Incidentally, a friend of mine has one he calls Alison. Don't know why that is either. Maybe it was the name of his last wife, and he likes putting his hands around her neck and giving her a good pluck ?
Because bass as in an instrument looks like bass as in a fish. There's a word for that -- describing two words that look the same but mean different things and are pronounced differently. Can't remember what it was.
Not to be confused with homonym, which is a word having the same pronunciation as another but differing in meaning, origin and sometimes spelling, as in "bare" and "bear".
I get a lot of teasing about having the biggest "toy" at acoustic music sessions because I am a bass player. Also, I have to endure a lot of joking questions about largemouth or smallmouth bass or "If I give you enough fish, can you come up with a good bass line?"
If the person making the really bad jokes about my instrument plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, or bouzouki, I usually retaliate by jokingly telling them to quit being so "picky."
Actually, as I understand it, "homonym" embraces both cases - words that are spelled the same *and* words that are pronounced the same. Homonyms can then be divided into two types: *homographs* (e.g. bass<>bass, wind<>wind, mown<>moan) and *homophones* (e.e. would<>wood, set<>sett, minor<>miner).
Ah you Brits can't let go of that ol' "Revolutionary War Grudge" (when a bunch of farmers with pitch forks beat you guys like a drum....) can you?, so you lash out at us about our spelling.
I think the Americans assume that there is some sort of similar patriotic feeling ‘we Brits’ have for ‘Britain’ in the same sense as the stupid pointless patriotic pride that lots of citizens of the USA experience for their ‘nation’ and that symbolic piece of cloth that mustn’t touch the floor.
There is no such analogy.
I’m a Londoner, three of my grandparents came from London, I don’t even like being called English (England starts outside the M25 orbital freeway/ motorway/ Autobahn), my (out of date) passport says ‘British’ but that’s just a convenient political collection. I’m more ‘European’ than British thank you!
In this set of islands off the North West coast of Europe there is no collective national patriotic pride. We have far too much history for that old nonsense! Leave it for the extremists, the aging ‘old skool’ Monarchy loving population and the various diasporas (Welsh/ Scottish et cetera).
"Revolutionary War Grudge" - ha, ha, ha. Do you think the US is seen as anything other than another bit of the embarrassing 'British empire' that came and went. I've not met one person that could give a sh!t about the US revolution.
yhaalhouse, your post is extremely contradictory. Scots and Welsh are extremists but you're not cause you're a Londoner. ha, ha.
Jwalkert, I have nothing against Americans at all but I for one am delighted the British Empire overstreched itself so much that they're bunch of conscripts and slaves from all over the world lost to " a bunch of farmers with pitch forks". Eventually the stupid Empire collapsed meaning we could pass on the mantle of the most disliked nation on earth.
Bogman, I’m referring to the people living away from ‘Britain’ who still hold on to a overproportional sentimental attachment of the alleged or presumed land of some of their forefathers (or foremothers?!).
I’m an Earthling. I think. Though, there is still the curious fact of my “birth date” coinciding with the first UFO sighting of the Roswell incident. Well, that and the gills...
Yes! I feel more like a citizen of the Earth or Solar System or the Milky Way Galaxy or the universe more than being a Londoner perhaps! All humans are out of Africa and all animals (includoing Homo sapiens) are out of the sea...
And Bob: Are you saying something about the Gills being aliens?!
Yeah, I've never figured out where this American idea that the British never "got over the American Revolution" came from. I mean, who wanted a country full of convicts and religious nuts anyway?
Most this side of the Atlantic don't even particularly know there was an American revolution in the first place.
Famous revolutions here are Russian, French and the 'B' side to Hey Jude.
I'm sorry America but we just don't care.
While we are at it, can I point put that in the long term, the American Revolution was not a good idea. If the colonists hadn't decided to dump Britain in 1776, chances are the US might have stayed part of the Commonwealth, like Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. That means Americans trying to live in the UK would now have the same rights (and be eligible for the same scholarships) as Aussies, Canadians, and Kiwis. They would not have to do things like take a UK driving test.
They will fail you on the most arcane, absurd things you can imagine. And it's forty minutes of driving around with a dour old man saying, "At the next roundabout, first exit," being really stressed out and trying to remember all of those arcane, absurd things so they don't cause you to fail.
The original posting ‘question’ does not make sense talking of pedantry.
‘The fiddle IS a violin? Is not a question. It sounds like it’s being said by someone with an antipodean upturn in their voice as increasingly demonstrated by mainly younger people. The one that frustratingly renders all statements into a question e.g. I’ll have a Guinness? My name is Parakumarthevasreetharan? Turn left at the next massage parlour? My mandolin is wearing a wig?
I’ve never driven a vehicle so I’ve never done a driving test. Do they vary around the globe then?
It's just an absurd way of phrasing a question that's not really a question, since a fiddle is in a fact a violin. It's the same instrument. So back to silly pedantry. A fiddle can also be a hot water bottle if you were to fill it with warm liquid, say urine, and keep it in your sleeping bag to stay warm at night.
Driving tests vary around the globe. They also vary from state to state in the US. UK ones seem especially designed to cause examinees as much psychological pain as possible.
Ahahaha p*ss in the fiddle what a great name for a tune.
The OP A fiddle IS a violin?
Sounds like an exclamation of a sudden realization of something that was previously misunderstood
i.e. "Aha so A fiddle Is a violin?" with need for reassurance by posing it as a question.
The original topic was never about conventional pedantry which is a very serious matter amongst pendant. We have stayed on the course of absurdist pedantry which is serious for humourists but appalling for a devout pedant.
I didn't pass the motorcycle test my 1st time. The driving tester followed in a car driven by a friend. My friend was instructed to honk once for a left turn & twice for a right turn. Unfortunately his horn was working intermittenly. Needless to say we had our signals crossed. I ended up taking a wrong turn getting back to the testing station. He didn't pass me.
When I had my driving test in Alabama, all I had to do was drive around the block and parallel park. This was easy, since it was all pretend, the automobile having not yet been invented.
This just in: Archeologists today discovered a fiddle that is, in fact, NOT a violin.
Oh yeah, plenty of those here in Hawaii, from wee bitty ones to some the size of a frying pan. People from the north
east coast states (New york, Maine etc.) actually eat those, steamed like asparagus.
Back in the day, I distinctly remember my grandpa referring to classical music (as in what the violinists play) as "long-hair music". Guess the term 'long-hair' predated rock and roll by at least 50 years!
My grandfather was a West Virginia traditional fiddler.
I have his fiddle still, and I don't think anyone could use it for classical music.
The entire fingerboard has been filed so as to be flatter, have less of an arch to it. The nut and bridge have been modified both to have less of an arch and also to have the strings much lower.
The middle strings are difficult to play singley.
There's also the rattle from a rattlesnake inside, tied with a little bit of string to the soundpost.
I asked my Grandmother about the rattle, and she exclaimed "wah don't you know that awl fiddles have rattles in em?"
So in my Grandfather's case, a violin isn't a fiddle!
Is it possible to do more musical destruction with a bigger instrument such as my bass fiddle than a smaller one such as a standard size fiddle (or violin)?
A fiddle IS a violin?
A fiddle IS a violin?
I started thinking about this ~ fiddle . . . violin . . . violin . . . fiddle .. .. they are after all, one in the same thing. The dictionary defines violin as follows; (Mus.) A small instrument with four strings, played with a bow; a fiddle. [1913 Webster]
So before anyone tries to explain to me that a fiddle is not a violin I ask you; do you think I should have to limit myself to that word for the sake of your unhealthy obsession with the word 'violin'?
This is random humour.
Cheers & have a great day!
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
FWIW, in the orchestras I play in people at all levels refer to "fiddle" or "violin" without discrimination.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Trevor Jennings
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
That definition only says that all violins are fiddles, but not the vice versa.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Whiddler
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I can't remember where I heard this, but someone asked an old-time fiddler the difference between a fiddle and a violin. He replied "one is played in tune."
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by John Culhane
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
LOL. When I read my dictionary a bit further the terms are in point of fact synonymous. Nice try Whiddler, or should I say Wiolinist?
tacoman, which one?
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
This weekend I was playing tunes with a fiddler in the back room of a pub; just the two of us (great acoustics). Occasionally random drunks would wander in and ask us what we were doing. One guy started doing magic tricks with a 2p coin and then started dancing and juggling to the tunes (this is not good when you are trying to play and glowing coloured balls are flying at your head and your instrument). Another fella asked the fiddler if he was playing a fiddle or a violin. On being told it was a fiddle, your man said, "What's the difference?" The fiddler answered, "It's how you play it."
I think that's as good an answer as any.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
You mean he was actually juggling in time to the tune? That's incredible!
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Exactly, Random_humour.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by John Culhane
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Random, your second question may lead us to ask "what does playing in tune" mean? This topic has recently been addressed on this forum in one or two lengthy, learned (and occasionally heated, as befits academia )discussions.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Trevor Jennings
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Random, I wouldn't quite go that far. c.f. the sentence about projectile glowing balls.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
One old-time fiddler whom I play music with says he has a swtich on the back of his instrument so he can change it quickly and easily from a fiddle to a violin.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Good man, Trevor. Glad to hear this discussion meets with the requisite status of academia.
Thanks Emily, 1st thing in the morning here & already I have to shake a disturbing image from my mind.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
It's a fiddle when you buy it and a violin when you sell it
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by improziv
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
"fiddle" is quicker to say than "violin"
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Trevor Jennings
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Even Beethoven -- a classic composer -- would say ---
'' Fiddle be Damed '' --- OMG ! I know just what he mean's,,
sometimes -- lol.
jim,,,
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by FIDDLE4
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
A fiddle has beer stains on it; a violin does not.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by domhnall.
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
.....or a more interesting perspective:
http://www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/Strings102/masterclass_102.html
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by domhnall.
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Awwww....fiddlesticks.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Jimmy B
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
My switch is broken and I like it that way. I broke it a long time ago, threw the sucker over to 'fiddle' and then snapped it right off.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I heard it this way: Pick up the instrument in question and turn it upside down (f-holes down, facing the floor). If beer spills out of it, it's a fiddle!
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Seosamh Ui Sinan
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
........and if it's pims.......
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by bogman
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
You can fiddle your taxes. You can't violin them.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
ROFLOL, switches, beer out the f holes. You're still playing a violin, or wee fiddle if you prefer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiddle#The_fiddle_or_violin
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I'm a big, scary looking dude. If you saw me in person you wouldn't dare tell me I was playing a violin.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I can't back that up, I go about 5'8", 165 lbs. soaking wet. My allergies can sneeze you onto your backside though, so look out.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
A violin is just a fiddle that went to college.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
A fiddle is a violin that's happy.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Also related to vellum - the skin of a 'uitulus' Latin for 'calf', which gave the word 'uitulari' to the festival at which the calf was sacrificed, and 'vitula' or 'vidula' the instrument played at the celebration, became viula, and viol. Not much of a leap from 'vidula' to 'fiddle'.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by gam
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I didn't take the time to check those links., but I Think I heard somewhere that they both come from the Latin word "Vitula" which means "Bowed String Instrument" and "Violin" became the Italian word and "Fiddle" the German, or something like that........
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Jwalkert
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Like these last two -- is there some sence on the Horizion,,,
'vidula' to 'fiddle'. -- Now I did not know that one -- Good One !
jim,,
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by FIDDLE4
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
A handle I used for a while on this forum some years back was "fidicen" - Latin for someone who plays a stringed instrument. In Roman times the instrument would have been the lyre or cithara, but latterly the application to other stringed instruments is appropriate.
"Fidicen" is derived from "fides" (meaning gut string) and "canere" (meaning to produce musical notes).
Main source: Forcellini's Latin Lexicon.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Trevor Jennings
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
The old chestnut:
A violin has four strings
A fiddle has far strangs
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by Toppish
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Well, well, well, Trevor - I didn't know 'fides' meant anything other than faith/trust etc. - and sure enough, my trusty Latin primer actually also defines it as a lyre or stringed instrument.
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by domhnall.
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
When asked this question I always tell people that it's the same instrument, but if dance music is played on it it's a fiddle; if classical repertoire is played on it, it's a violin.
I've also heard it said that a violin is a fiddle educated beyond it's level of intelligence...cue the rim shot!
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Punter: "Say, old man, you sure play a mean fiddle! Do you play by notes?"
Fiddler: "Not enough to hurt my playin' any."
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
That last one is no joke, Llig actually said that once!
# Posted on May 11th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
tee he
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by ...
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I once went into a music store on an errand for my wife, and asked if they sold fiddle strings, and the boy said, "No, only violin strings."
How do you tell a violin player from a fiddler?
Answer A: At the end of a gig, look at their paychecks, the one with the most zeros at the end is for the violin player.
Answer B: Count teeth, the person with the least is the fiddler.
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by AlBrown
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
(Oops, I guess me and Gam did a double post there!)
"Say, old man, you sure play a mean fiddle! Do you play by notes?"
Reminds me of the Bob Wills song "Bring it on down to my house":
Singer 1: "Hey old man, can you play Fiddle?"
Bob Wills: "It's a'mighty cranky, but I can play a little"...... (leads into fiddle solo). I LOVE that part!
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by Jwalkert
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I once had a colleague who's job it is to set up violins for music shops etc - hundreds at a time, but he claimed that he set up fiddles slightly differently - different strings, but also a different position for the sound post inside... Don't know if he still holds with this but thought I'd add it in...
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by farmerboy
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
farmerboy~
What you said. Yes, it's true.
A well respected luthier I know close to where I live has fixed, repaired, set up, and sold thousands of violins in the 25 years I've known him. He plays classical violin as well as bluegrass fiddle. I bought a couple violins from him over the years, and he sets up violins to be played as fiddles differently from the violins he sells. He told me that fiddlers are looking for a different kind of sound out of the instrument than the sound violinists prefer. He cuts the curvature of the bridge differently for fiddle players, and places the sound post in a slightly different location to get the exact sound the fiddle player wants.
Not that all fiddle players want exactly the same 'sound' out of the fiddle--some like 'darker', 'richer', 'deeper', 'more bass', 'earthier', while some like more 'brighter', 'louder', 'more singing' timbres from their instruments. But enough fiddlers have come to him over the years wanting their violins to have a certain "sound" that he knows exactly what to do to set it up for them.
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Once you sort this one out, you can go on to the related question: What's the difference between a flute and a fluit?
The short answer appears to be: It all depends on how you hold your mouth ....
Terry
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by Terry McGee
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I have to agree with Lazyhound - all the professionals I've come across in the classical world refer to their instrument as fiddle or violin indiscriminately.
Conversely, the only ones who seem to get prissy about what you call it are pretentious, slightly ropey amateur classical players who insist 'it's not a fiddle it's a violin'. A quick stomp in the head seems to help them see things otherwise.
I call mine Hamish. Or for f*ck's sake, sometimes too.
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by rosfrog
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I gave my bass fiddle (string bass or double bass if you prefer) the nickname of "Fishy" because I have had too many people tell me too many really bad fish jokes or jokes about fish simply because I am a bass player.
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I was hanging out with a bass player at the weekend who said he had experienced the same thing. LOL.
I generally don't give inanimate objects names, although my ex decided that my car was called Duncan and that seems to have stuck.
# Posted on May 12th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
No, I give up.
Why do you get lots of fishy jokes if you're a double bass player ?
Incidentally, a friend of mine has one he calls Alison. Don't know why that is either. Maybe it was the name of his last wife, and he likes putting his hands around her neck and giving her a good pluck ?
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by Guernsey Pete
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Because bass as in an instrument looks like bass as in a fish. There's a word for that -- describing two words that look the same but mean different things and are pronounced differently. Can't remember what it was.
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
homograph
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by ...
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Cheers, Michael.
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Not to be confused with homonym, which is a word having the same pronunciation as another but differing in meaning, origin and sometimes spelling, as in "bare" and "bear".
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by Trevor Jennings
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
And not to be confused with that other one where it's the same word with the same meaning but just spelt differently. I think they call it a "yank".
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by ...
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I get a lot of teasing about having the biggest "toy" at acoustic music sessions because I am a bass player. Also, I have to endure a lot of joking questions about largemouth or smallmouth bass or "If I give you enough fish, can you come up with a good bass line?"
If the person making the really bad jokes about my instrument plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, or bouzouki, I usually retaliate by jokingly telling them to quit being so "picky."
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by fauxcelt
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Llig, I believe your humoUr on that is a bit coloUred.
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Spelling doesn't matter until you write it down. Hmmmm.
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
"homograph"
"Not to be confused with homonym"
Actually, as I understand it, "homonym" embraces both cases - words that are spelled the same *and* words that are pronounced the same. Homonyms can then be divided into two types: *homographs* (e.g. bass<>bass, wind<>wind, mown<>moan) and *homophones* (e.e. would<>wood, set<>sett, minor<>miner).
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by CreadurMawnOrganig
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I feel I am being proselytiZed with British spellings.
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Ah, that'll be why it's called English and not American...
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by john knoss
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
These are NOT "British Spellings" - they are the corrrect ones!
# Posted on May 13th 2010 by Ebor_fiddler
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Ah you Brits can't let go of that ol' "Revolutionary War Grudge" (when a bunch of farmers with pitch forks beat you guys like a drum....) can you?, so you lash out at us about our spelling.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by Jwalkert
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I think the Americans assume that there is some sort of similar patriotic feeling ‘we Brits’ have for ‘Britain’ in the same sense as the stupid pointless patriotic pride that lots of citizens of the USA experience for their ‘nation’ and that symbolic piece of cloth that mustn’t touch the floor.
There is no such analogy.
I’m a Londoner, three of my grandparents came from London, I don’t even like being called English (England starts outside the M25 orbital freeway/ motorway/ Autobahn), my (out of date) passport says ‘British’ but that’s just a convenient political collection. I’m more ‘European’ than British thank you!
In this set of islands off the North West coast of Europe there is no collective national patriotic pride. We have far too much history for that old nonsense! Leave it for the extremists, the aging ‘old skool’ Monarchy loving population and the various diasporas (Welsh/ Scottish et cetera).
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
"Revolutionary War Grudge" - ha, ha, ha. Do you think the US is seen as anything other than another bit of the embarrassing 'British empire' that came and went. I've not met one person that could give a sh!t about the US revolution.
yhaalhouse, your post is extremely contradictory. Scots and Welsh are extremists but you're not cause you're a Londoner. ha, ha.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by bogman
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Jwalkert, I have nothing against Americans at all but I for one am delighted the British Empire overstreched itself so much that they're bunch of conscripts and slaves from all over the world lost to " a bunch of farmers with pitch forks". Eventually the stupid Empire collapsed meaning we could pass on the mantle of the most disliked nation on earth.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by bogman
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Bogman, I’m referring to the people living away from ‘Britain’ who still hold on to a overproportional sentimental attachment of the alleged or presumed land of some of their forefathers (or foremothers?!).
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
You said it, bogman, this empire business is for the birds. Like the old Seminole once told me: "You calling yourself 'American' there, paleface?"
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Ah yes, know that one well yhaalhouse, That's a cracker SWFL
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by bogman
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I’m an Earthling. I think. Though, there is still the curious fact of my “birth date” coinciding with the first UFO sighting of the Roswell incident. Well, that and the gills...
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by Bob himself
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Yes! I feel more like a citizen of the Earth or Solar System or the Milky Way Galaxy or the universe more than being a Londoner perhaps! All humans are out of Africa and all animals (includoing Homo sapiens) are out of the sea...
And Bob: Are you saying something about the Gills being aliens?!
But is a fiddle a Vulcan Arse Flute?
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Yeah, I've never figured out where this American idea that the British never "got over the American Revolution" came from. I mean, who wanted a country full of convicts and religious nuts anyway?
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Most this side of the Atlantic don't even particularly know there was an American revolution in the first place.
Famous revolutions here are Russian, French and the 'B' side to Hey Jude.
I'm sorry America but we just don't care.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/rebels_redcoats_01.shtml
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Yes, you can take the Puritans back now please. Age of Enlightenment indeed. Harrumph.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by SWFL Fiddler
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
While we are at it, can I point put that in the long term, the American Revolution was not a good idea. If the colonists hadn't decided to dump Britain in 1776, chances are the US might have stayed part of the Commonwealth, like Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. That means Americans trying to live in the UK would now have the same rights (and be eligible for the same scholarships) as Aussies, Canadians, and Kiwis. They would not have to do things like take a UK driving test.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
I almost feel proud. This thread is still on the topic it began with ~ absurd pedantry.
Is the UK driving test dreadful?
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
It's horrendous.
They will fail you on the most arcane, absurd things you can imagine. And it's forty minutes of driving around with a dour old man saying, "At the next roundabout, first exit," being really stressed out and trying to remember all of those arcane, absurd things so they don't cause you to fail.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: A fiddle IS a hotwater bottle?
The original posting ‘question’ does not make sense talking of pedantry.
‘The fiddle IS a violin? Is not a question. It sounds like it’s being said by someone with an antipodean upturn in their voice as increasingly demonstrated by mainly younger people. The one that frustratingly renders all statements into a question e.g. I’ll have a Guinness? My name is Parakumarthevasreetharan? Turn left at the next massage parlour? My mandolin is wearing a wig?
I’ve never driven a vehicle so I’ve never done a driving test. Do they vary around the globe then?
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
It's just an absurd way of phrasing a question that's not really a question, since a fiddle is in a fact a violin. It's the same instrument. So back to silly pedantry. A fiddle can also be a hot water bottle if you were to fill it with warm liquid, say urine, and keep it in your sleeping bag to stay warm at night.
Driving tests vary around the globe. They also vary from state to state in the US. UK ones seem especially designed to cause examinees as much psychological pain as possible.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Ahahaha p*ss in the fiddle what a great name for a tune.
The OP A fiddle IS a violin?
Sounds like an exclamation of a sudden realization of something that was previously misunderstood
i.e. "Aha so A fiddle Is a violin?" with need for reassurance by posing it as a question.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Sheesh, I better get outta here before my brain completely rots away
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
The original topic was never about conventional pedantry which is a very serious matter amongst pendant. We have stayed on the course of absurdist pedantry which is serious for humourists but appalling for a devout pedant.
I didn't pass the motorcycle test my 1st time. The driving tester followed in a car driven by a friend. My friend was instructed to honk once for a left turn & twice for a right turn. Unfortunately his horn was working intermittenly. Needless to say we had our signals crossed. I ended up taking a wrong turn getting back to the testing station. He didn't pass me.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
a shovel is a banjo, an onion slicer is a mandolin and putting your mistress on expenses is a fiddle.
as an Aussie, I had to do a UK driving test after one year
failed it twice despite having been driving ten years already
or perhaps because of it
SS, you have an inflated idea of the benefits accorded to commonwelath citizens in the UK
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by Bren
*
. . . a very serious matter amongst pedants . . . I'm assuming we have more than one.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by Ben Steen
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Really, Bren? I might well have an inflated idea of the rights accorded to Commonwealth citizens.
But anyway, I win! I failed my UK driving test four times even though I had been driving for ten years.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
well, we can vote apparently
if we are residents
That's about it
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by Bren
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
When I had my driving test in Alabama, all I had to do was drive around the block and parallel park. This was easy, since it was all pretend, the automobile having not yet been invented.
This just in: Archeologists today discovered a fiddle that is, in fact, NOT a violin.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by Bob himself
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
This should clear up any confusion.
This is a fiddle, well part of one anyway, not a violin.
http://www.tomifobia.com/gallerya/pix/fiddlehead_fern1.jpg
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Oh yeah, plenty of those here in Hawaii, from wee bitty ones to some the size of a frying pan. People from the north
east coast states (New york, Maine etc.) actually eat those, steamed like asparagus.
# Posted on May 15th 2010 by Jwalkert
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
My drivin' test in Oregon was a little bit more involved than Bob's, but that's probably because the car had just been invented. Oh well.
And a fiddle is played by folk in comfortable clothes.A violin is played by folk in monkey suits.
# Posted on May 15th 2010 by Pádraig
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
We eat em here in Oregon Jwalkert. Fiddleheads, they are delicious, a prized and sought after delicacy. Yummy.
# Posted on May 15th 2010 by Gone to work
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Y'know, I've never actually had 'em. Had those dandelions in salad and teas and whatnot, but never fiddleheads.
# Posted on May 15th 2010 by Pádraig
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Back in the day, I distinctly remember my grandpa referring to classical music (as in what the violinists play) as "long-hair music". Guess the term 'long-hair' predated rock and roll by at least 50 years!
# Posted on May 15th 2010 by fiddlerdan
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
My grandfather was a West Virginia traditional fiddler.
I have his fiddle still, and I don't think anyone could use it for classical music.
The entire fingerboard has been filed so as to be flatter, have less of an arch to it. The nut and bridge have been modified both to have less of an arch and also to have the strings much lower.
The middle strings are difficult to play singley.
There's also the rattle from a rattlesnake inside, tied with a little bit of string to the soundpost.
I asked my Grandmother about the rattle, and she exclaimed "wah don't you know that awl fiddles have rattles in em?"
So in my Grandfather's case, a violin isn't a fiddle!
# Posted on May 16th 2010 by Richard D Cook
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Johnny Gimble said he flattened his bridge so he could play triple stop chords more easily.
I guess you couldn't call that fiddle a violin
# Posted on May 16th 2010 by Bren
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
When I play a violin it becomes a fiddle.
# Posted on May 17th 2010 by Invincible
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
When I play violin (or fiddle for that matter) it becomes a weapon of destruction.
# Posted on May 17th 2010 by cboody
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
The fiddle I inherited from my granddad had the percussion section of a rattlesnake in it. The original shaky egg?
# Posted on May 17th 2010 by Bob himself
Re: A fiddle IS a violin?
Is it possible to do more musical destruction with a bigger instrument such as my bass fiddle than a smaller one such as a standard size fiddle (or violin)?
# Posted on May 20th 2010 by fauxcelt