Irish Fiddle Ornaments
When I started playing jigs, my default bowing pattern made a groove like Pop Goes the Weasel: "Long-short, long-short, muberry bush, the long-short, long-short weasel." And that still works for me without having to think about it. The one rule to keep in mind is: Do not slur from one string to another. This is unlike Irish reels. There, you can and do slur from one string to another. But not in jigs.
Getting the hang of ornaments I think of the Irish fiddle ornaments as falling into melodic and percussive categories. The three most common melodic moves are, the grace note, the triplet, the roll. These moves all use "neighbor notes." Any note within one step of the main melody note can be a neighbor note. In Irish fiddling, the neighbor note can be two steps away. Grace notes are typically the upper neighbor, one whole step or half step higher. The grace note is usually played just before the beat. In standard music notation it is shown as a very small note. In my tab charts I follow this convention by making the tab grace note much smaller than the main melody notes. Triplets start with the melody note, go up to the neighbor note, and return to the melody note. The rhythm of this is a substitution of three internal beats for two. Think of a shuffle pattern: dah-duh-duh. Now go: diddally-duh-duh. This ornament is very popular in Texas Contest style also. The roll starts on the melody note, goes to the upper neighbor, back to the melody note, then to the lower neighbor, then back to the melody note. When the melodic note is played with the first finger, the upper neighbor is usually the third above, and is played with the third finger. In the roll, the neighbor notes are very light and quick, almost ghost notes. Percussive finger and bow tricks These next two moves are a lot of fun. They imitate the bodhran drum. I think of them as being rhythmic ornaments, not melodic. The bow shake, (my term), is not intended to make three distinct notes. You should hear an interruption of the melodic sound when you do it.
Yes, it is a triplet pattern, but done so quickly that you just hear the sound of the bow digging into the string. Finally, the cut, which you execute by dragging your finger across the (usually) open string without changing the bow direction. This also creates an interruption of the melodic sound. The violin as a percussion instrument! Slidin' and Squawkin' The first collection I found of Irish and Celtic tunes, way back in the day,was
English, Welsh, Scottish & Irish Fiddle Tunes by Robin Williamson. This was published in 1976 and came with a vinyl recording of the author playing his tunes up to speed. I still play Carolan's Concerto and Off to California, which came from this book originally. Williamson writes about slides as being squawks and smears. A squawk is a quick slide and a smear is a lazy slide. The lazy slide has become a favorite of mine, often replacing several notes of a melody. In slides the object is to start the slide flat to the target note. It can be a half step low or, sometimes, even more. When you slide up the neck, be sure to stop at the desired pitch. Many times in my studio I coach students to do this correctly. The common mistake is to start at the target pitch and slide up. Be very careful to avoid this error. It just doesn't sound right. Quick slides, or squawks, can be done often. You will find some notes are better than others for a quick slide. The third note of the scale you are in, for example, is almost always good. The note attracts a slide, especially if it does not go by too fast. The slower slide, the smear, will often take more time than the usual note allows. So you just steal time from another note. Then you take that note out back and shoot it. (Just kidding. You let the note back in later, when you don't play the smear.) You can find more fiddle tab charts for Irish tunes in the archive at Fiddle Tunes in Tab. Included are: O'Keefe's Slide, Drowsey Maggie, Road to Lisdoonvarna and Tommy People's Reel. Elan Chalford, MM.--Fiddle Coach
Learn to Play Fiddle without Reading Music
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Reaching For The Soul Zone
Every searching artist wants to get there. It's that magical place where something takes over, you know, when something bigger than you whispers in your ear and says "Relax - I'll take it from here!"
Taps; Piping Military Honors: A Ceremonial Guide for Highland Bagpipers
It has become increasingly popular for U.S. military veterans and their families to specifically request a piper to not only pipe for a funeral, but to pipe Taps for the rendering of military honors as well. Funerals for law enforcement and fire personnel in the United States have a long tradition of incorporating pipers and military honors, and most departmental funerary protocols closely follow those of the U.S. military. The following is a brief general outline of what to expect and what will be expected of you as a member of an honor guard when playing Taps.
6 Tips for Organizing Your Music Files
If you're a digital music fan, you probably have problems organizing your music file collection. For me, I used to have hundreds of MP3 files lumped in one folder in my hard drive. Can you imagine the pain I had to go through to find one specific tune to listen to?
Guitar Tuning Tips
Most new guitar players and even some experienced ones have trouble staying and playing in tune. I'll try listing here some of the common mistakes and there solutions.
Avoiding Injuries When Playing Guitar
To avoid any sort of injuries when playing guitar a common sense approach is recommended. Just what do I mean by that?
Everything I Play Sounds the Same
Many students want to create music that has a certain emotional quality. For example, I once had a student ask me to show her how to play something that sounded happy.
How To Make a Fortune Teaching Piano (or Guitar, or Drums, or Singing, or?) To Beginners
"But I'm not in it for the money" you say.
Flaming Guitars! Minarik Fuels The Excitement Of A New Generation Of Musicians
Celebrating an endorsement between G-Man Music and the fiery axe-makers known as Minarik Guitars, Scott G (The G-Man) reviews the Minarik Inferno X-treme.
Music Making as Spiritual Experience
If you've been playing piano for some time, you may come upon periods where you forget yourself and only the music remains. You might even have had a spiritual experience. A phenomenon where emotion and intellect become one and the outside world disappears.
An Introduction to CD Mastering
While many people think that the mixing of the separate audio tracks is the final step, a recording must be mastered well in order to sound good. CD mastering is the last chance for creative input when creating a compact disc. After a disc is mastered, it can be printed, reproduced, and sold.
Improvising On The Piano: Jazz Musicians Do It -- Why Not Other Styles?
Why jazz piano improvisation?
Music Industry Secrets Revealed - How To Become Succesful The Music Industry Without A Record Deal
Before the internet, unsigned music artists couldnt make a living, off the thing they love and enjoy the most: Their music! They would have to send in demos to major record companys, hoping that the CEO's would love their music and actually call them up on the phone offering them a recorddeal! But what they dont know is that the CEO's dont give a f*#% about music!! They ONLY offer recordeals to artists who they know will become succesfull!
A Guitar Lesson to Help You Develop Your Vision
Have you ever done any of the following?
Reasons to Ditch Your Guitar Pick
Lately, I haven't been using my guitar pick all that much. I got this tab book of some good ol' Gatemouth Brown finger picking blues. I've been enjoying myself so much trying to get this fingerpick thang goin'."
Top 50 Music Quotations
Discover the phenomenonal complexity of music and reflect on the way it can positively influence your life with this sound collection of riveting quotes...
Music for Cross Cultural Accelerated Learning
The Search for the Right Music
Zen and the Art of New Age Piano
We all want to be in the moment. That's where real transformation takes place. For some, walking gets them there. Others like to play sports or watch movies. For me, it's playing the piano. When I'm in the moment, letting the music speak, it's like the world is new again.
The Flower Garden and New Age Piano Music
If you've ever looked at a flower garden, not only its beauty may have captivated you, but also its overall arrangement.
The Bagpipe and Its History
You may have heard that bagpipes are a Scottish invention; you may have heard that they are an Irish invention. The truth (of course) is neither one. The bagpipe was invented in ancient Samaria, in Israel. The Bible mentions the instrument in the book of Daniel chapter 3, where it is listed as one of the instruments use to call the people to worship a statue.
This event takes place in ancient Iraq, which was then part of the Babylonian empire.
Top 7 Donts for Successful Improvisation
1. Don't try and make something happen. Trying blocks the creative flow and will result in blocks.
|
