Thought I would post this here to set a benchmark. Took me 3 months to get this bad and I think, with a little work, I can get up to Awful in another 3 months.
Is this three months from "nothing," from picking up the fiddle for the first time? Definitely not bad.
Thanks, Walt. Yeah, 3 months from zero. Funny thing i noticed, if i learn a tune on the mandolin i still have to re-learn it on the fiddle, but, if i learn a tune on the fiddle i can immediatly play it on the mandolin. I think that the frets are a little forgiving, ya know what i mean?
Nice work! You've got a very comfortable-looking bow hold there. Often when I learn a tune on the fiddle, I pluck it pizzicato--concentrating on the fingering. When I have the tune under my fingers, then I'll pick up the bow.
Catmandu2, thanks! i had no idea that the bow would me such fits. Took some violin lessons and that helped me out quite a bit as far as the bow hold and fingering. It's the stroking that I am still striving to control. I don't seem play a tune twice with the same bowing, heck, I don't play it ONCE the same. but it's the journey, isn't it? always looking for something new, musically, to learn.
Well, that's a good thing. Particularly in Irish-style fiddling, you may not see two players using uniform bowing. Experimenting with bowing is important--since it's so much of the essence of fiddling, it's worthwhile to experiment to find the most efficient and expressive approach. I often practice a tune using two or three different approaches--long strokes, short strokes, perhaps not even what I might normally be inclined to do--and then I'll intermix them. For example, I'll play "Billy in the Lowground" using strokes dividing 3/3/2 - 3/3/2 - etc., starting on an upstroke. Then I'll do this pattern starting on a downstroke. Then I'll bow them in even fours. Then I'll intermix them, etc. Similarly, when practicing classical guitar technique, we practice passges using various combinations of right hand approaches to develop facility. It's a form of independence training--an important technical skill in any playing to develop maximum facility for musical expression. So, this is particularly important to bowing--you want to be able to excecute a number of ways, to find the best approach for the needs of a given piece. Keep it up! Be liberal, loose, free and easy with that bow..
