Re: Playing the violin like a mandolin (Champ Hood)
I've seen many fiddlers pick a tune on the fiddle, using fingertips but not a pick. I've done it myself. However, I've never seen anyone strum chords on a fiddle, as Champ Hood does. It's not easy to do. As Annieka pointed out, fiddle strings aren't on a plane. The middle strings are higher than the outside strings. While bowing, we usually play one string at a time, sometimes two. There's a tricky and high-speed way of playing a chord by racing the bow across four strings, but most styles of fiddling don't incorporate that (French-Canadian does). I thought that Hood must be playing only two strings, but I see that he covers at least three, making the performance even more impressive. He must be using a pick, but, as tree suggests, a soft one. Fiddlers don't put fingers on the strings between the bridge and fingerboard, where he's playing, as fingers get sticky, and sweat mixes with rosin which is not good for strings. This and his hand position suggest he's using a pick. I suspect Hood plays mandolin as well as fiddle. A fiddler wouldn't likely come up with this style of playing.
Robert Johnson's mother, describing blues musicians:
"I never did have no trouble with him until he got big enough to be round with bigger boys and off from home. Then he used to follow all these harp blowers, mandoleen (sic) and guitar players."
Lomax, Alan, The Land where The Blues Began, NY: Pantheon, 1993, p.14.
Bookmarks