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Thread: Fiddle tunes that sound great slow

  1. #26
    Middle-Aged Old-Timer Tobin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle tunes that sound great slow

    One great tune that works both fast and slow is Old Daingerfield. Like many Monroe tunes, it is really bluegrassy when played at lightning speed, but when you play it at a really slow tempo it takes on a very bluesy groove. Any fiddle tune that uses a blues scale is a good candidate for slowing down and playing it with some real feeling.

    (I guess it's debatable whether Old Daingerfield should rightly be called a "fiddle tune", but humor me.)

  2. #27
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    Default Re: Fiddle tunes that sound great slow

    Quote Originally Posted by Tobin View Post
    Any fiddle tune that uses a blues scale is a good candidate for slowing down and playing it with some real feeling.
    Agree!

    Also

    Devil's Dream
    St Anne's Reel
    Arkansas Traveler
    Turkey in the Straw

  3. #28

    Default Re: Fiddle tunes that sound great slow

    Not sure if it passes for oldtime but Maiden's Prayer is a beautiful tune and always played slowly. Jethro and Tiny Moore did a great all mando version.

    Someone mentioned Goldrush earlier. A friend of mine said the slowest version of Goldrush he ever played was when he got the chance to play it with Byron Berline, who wrote the tune. Byron did not intend for it to be played so fast.

  4. #29
    Middle-Aged Old-Timer Tobin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle tunes that sound great slow

    Quote Originally Posted by CarlM View Post
    Not sure if it passes for oldtime but Maiden's Prayer is a beautiful tune and always played slowly. Jethro and Tiny Moore did a great all mando version.

    Someone mentioned Goldrush earlier. A friend of mine said the slowest version of Goldrush he ever played was when he got the chance to play it with Byron Berline, who wrote the tune. Byron did not intend for it to be played so fast.
    Maiden's Prayer - I love that tune. It's a great one for being expressive. It works a little better on the fiddle where slurs can be used, but it still sounds great on a mandolin with tremolo and double stops. I would even argue that it really shouldn't be played without both of those techniques.

    And I agree on Goldrush. I had always heard it and played it fast until one day I heard a slow solo banjo version of it that really changed my opinion on the tune. I won't say that I play it slow, but more at a medium tempo now. On that subject, though, maybe if he didn't intend it to be played fast, he shouldn't have named it anything with "rush" in the title!

  5. #30
    two t's and one hyphen fatt-dad's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle tunes that sound great slow

    With my duet partner, we play most of our, "Fiddle Tunes" at a moderate pace. We are playing arrangements of rehearsed music. As an example, the following:

    Campbells Farewell to Red Gap
    Rye Straw (Mandolin fakebook)
    Swinging on a Gate
    Maggie Brown's Favorite
    Jack Broke da Prison Door
    Waynesboro
    The Morning Dew/King of the Fairies
    Home with the Girls in the Morning
    Chinquipen Hunting
    Off She Goes
    The Maid Behind the Door
    Harvest Home
    Sally in the Garden
    Falls of Richmond/Goodby Liza Jame
    Congress Reel
    Cold and Frosty Morning/Kitchen Girl
    Panxty George Brabazon
    Dubuque
    Midnight on the Water

    When you hear these tunes at jams many will speed up, beyond what anybody practices at home. You see. . . to me, we all practice our own expression to the melody. Dude with Coleman's March did a great job showing his expressive approach to that tune - well done! Nothing to do with jam pace. The jam must strive for consensus. Otherwise, you are hoping beyond hope that everybody else will accompany YOU! It will never work like that. So, each of us needs to learn to control tempo and be prepared to dial into the will of the mass.

    At home, I play most everything slow, intentional and as accurate as possible. i strive for dynamics and expression. I'm happy with my progress. Nobody really can sense any of that in a 20 person old-time jam - and they're fun!

    f-d
    ˇpapá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!

    '20 A3, '30 L-1, '97 914, 2012 Cohen A5, 2012 Muth A5, '14 OM28A

  6. #31
    Still Picking and Sawing Jack Roberts's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle tunes that sound great slow

    King of the Fairies
    Ha, ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is,
    When time is broke and no proportion kept!
    --William Shakespeare

  7. #32
    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle tunes that sound great slow

    Banish Misfortune is a great tune. We do it slow and then fast.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
    funny....

  8. #33
    Registered User foldedpath's Avatar
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    Default Re: Fiddle tunes that sound great slow

    The Morning Dew -- no, not the Americana folk song, the Irish reel also known as Giorria Sa BhFraoch, The Hare Among The Heather, etc.

    It rocks as a fast tune, which is how you usually hear it on recordings and in sessions, but I was turned on to playing this slowly by the version John Doyle plays (on guitar) on his 2001 "Evening Comes Early" album. It's a 3-part reel. Sheet music for various settings including the Doyle version here on thesession.org tune page, but you should listen to the Doyle version as a reference for taking it slow:

    https://thesession.org/tunes/69

  9. #34
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    Default Re: Fiddle tunes that sound great slow

    I have been playing Dusty Miller super slow and as bluesy as I can and I must say I'm really digging the groove and vibe. Fun in a jam as well
    It doesn't matter . . . I'm going to WINFIELD!!!!!

  10. #35

    Default Re: Fiddle tunes that sound great slow

    I don't know about slow, but I like to play fiddle tunes sometimes with a lilting rhythm, rather than with the even spacing that is mostly used by bluegrass bands. Lilting rhythm = long-short long-short, etc. Here is an example on piano (not me). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqUaiXm44Ag
    "Those who know don't have the words to tell, and the ones with the words don't know so well." - Bruce Cockburn

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