The fiddle Book Review

  

The FIDDLE MUSIC FOR BEGINNERS-The Fairfield FIDDLE Farm Book is an excellent classic that has worked for me as a first time teacher. The piano accompaniment provided is excellent and makes the piano playing music so dynamic, energetic, and advanced.

This is the book that I teach my students every time they come in and they learn the basics of FIDDLE MUSIC. This book has a beautiful layout and beautiful pictures. It contains instructions on how to play the FIDDLE MUSIC on the piano, where to buy it, and the benefits of learning this particular piece of music. My students have learned so much from this book.

The Fairfield FIDDLE Farm is one of the most sought after book in piano music and piano playing history. The book was written by William J. Fairfield and is his magnum opus on piano music.

If you are interested in learning the basics of FIDDLE MUSIC or learning how to play FIDDLE SHEET MUSIC, this book will give you all the information that you need to play the piece that you want. The book is designed for beginners to intermediate students. The book can be used by anyone to learn how to play fiddle music.

The book is an amazing source of knowledge about the world of music. If you are looking for an excellent introduction to piano playing that includes information on the history of music, how the piano works, and other information about the piano, this book is definitely a great place to start.

The FIDDLE MUSIC FOR BEGINNERS-The Fairfield fiddle Farm Book has been rated as the best book on the market for piano music. If you are a beginner to the piano, this book will be an absolute gold mine of information. It has been described by many people as being like having all the answers about piano playing in one easy to read book.

This book also contains over 100 pages of FIDDLE Sheet Music that you will never again need to have to purchase. The FIDDLE Sheet Music is not included in the paperback edition of the book. The paperback edition comes with over 1 hour of the music as well.

The FIDDLE MUSIC FOR BEGINNERS-The Fairfield FIDDLE Farm is the only book on the market that covers all of the major sections of the piano including music theory, finger and key positions, scales, the notes on the piano keys, and even the fingering of the music itself! It also gives you a complete look at the history of the piano, and its use. The Fairfield FIDDLE Farm book is perfect for anyone that wants to learn the basics of music or those that want to play the piano.

When the book first came out, I was so disappointed. I knew that I was just not ready for the advanced level of learning that FIDDLE MUSIC calls for, but I didn't know how to go about it. The great thing is that if you purchase this book, you will be able to learn how to play FIDDLE MUSIC at any level because this book covers every aspect of piano playing.

Irish Fiddle Ornaments

What are Irish ornaments in fiddle music? This description may help you somewhat in your search. Getting the hang of Irish fiddle ornaments is another matter

When I started playing jigs, my default bowing pattern made a groove like Pop Goes the Weasel: "Long-short, long-short, mulberry 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 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.

Irish Fiddle Ornaments

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updated February 2008

Fiddle Basics

Fiddle Basics: The violin and the fiddle are the same instrument. When a violin is strung up slightly differently and used to play ethnic or folk music, it is generally referred to as a fiddle. The fiddle has four strings, which, in standard tuning, are tuned GDAE and which are played with a bow, generally made of horsehair.

Fiddle - History of the Fiddle - Music Featuring Fiddles and Violins

Related Tags: Fiddle, Fiddle music, violin, viloin music

A Fiddle Or A Violin?

As far as answering the question "Is it a Fiddle or a Violin" I am not sure, but at least it has humor, so on with the fiddle music.

For years man has been struggling with that nagging question, "What is the difference between an violin and a fiddle?" Almost every time I play somewhere I can count on being asked that question.One night in Homestead Florida I was sitting in on a jam session with some old gents that must have each been close to 100 years old. Their instruments were all beat up well worn. The banjo player had a clothes pin for a bridge and the head was well blackend where his fingers had rubbed it, the guitar pickers guitar was split around the edge (I think it was a Kay), the bass had a massive hole in the back and the fiddlers fiddle was almost white with rosin. All in all I'd say those were some very well used and happy instruments.

IS IT A FIDDLE OR A VIOLIN?

Related Tags: Fiddle Muscic, Fiddle, violin

Tablature, Free

Everyone loves somthing for free, so here you go a place to get your self some free music, whether you want to just play or Practice, but it looks like some very good fiddle music.
so have fun and enjoy

This page has been a very popular one over the past few years. Here you will find a 'grab bag' of fun tunes in standard notation and tablature.

Compliments of Jay Buckey

FREE Tablature

More History of the Fiddle

To consider the music of the Fiddle you have to also consider the Violin and the differences between the two, consider also how the fiddle came to be and the different types of music through out history .

Example: Irish, German, Scottish, even in to Old Time Music, Blue grass, Western.

The fiddle is a violin played as a folk instrument. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music. Fiddle playing, or fiddling, is a style of music.

Contents

A violin is sometimes informally called a fiddle, regardless of the kind of music being played with it. The words "violin" and "fiddle" come from the same Latin root, but "violin" came through the Romance languages and "fiddle" through Germanic languages.Historically, the word fiddle also referred to a predecessor of today's violin. Like the violin, it tended to have 4 strings, but came in a variety of shapes and sizes. Another series of instruments which contributed to the development of the modern fiddle was the viol, which was played while held between the legs, and has a fretted fingerboard.One very slight difference between "fiddles" and ordinary violins may be seen in American (e.g., bluegrass and old-time music) fiddling: in these styles, the top of the bridge may be cut so that it is very slightly less curved. This reduces the range of right-arm motion required for the rapid string-crossings found in some styles, and is said to make it easier to play double stops and shuffles (bariolage), or to make triple stops possible, allowing one to play chords.Most classical violinists prefer a more rounded curve to the top of the bridge that allows them to articulate each note more easily and clearly. In practice, most instruments are fitted with a rounded bridge to better accommodate the shape of the fingerboard. (One exception is the 3-string kontra or bracsa, a viola used in Hungarian and Transylvanian folk music fitted with an absolutely flat bridge to allow all three strings to be played simultaneously.) In any case, the difference between "round" and "flat" is not great; about a quarter or half a millimeter variation in the height of one or two strings. A fiddle strung with steel will work best with a bridge as much as a millimeter lower overall. For gut, nylon or other synthetic-core strings, the action may be set suitably higher. As a violin's bridge is relatively easy to replace, modifying the bridge does not permanently make a violin into a fiddle.

Fiddle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Related Tags: Fiddle Music, Violin Music, History of Violin, History of Fiddle, Blue grass Music, Country Music, Western Music

The History Of The Fiddle

Although the fiddle was established in Irish traditional music before the Uilleann Pipes, the references to its predecessors do not date back as far as those of the pipes. Bowed instruments appear in numerous European carvings and illustrations dating from around 900 A.D. However, the interpretation of these carvings is difficult and the names given for the instruments differ and overlap in texts. 

 

The term 'fiddle' itself is somewhat general; it was originally the term for a twelfth century instrument, which was constructed of flat boards for the top, back and sides. This original 'fiddle' developed into the litre da braccio, the most significant predecessor of the violin. The term was later adopted for any member of the classical strings family, but has become particularly associated with the violin in the context of traditional music in Europe and America. The earliest examples of a bowed instrument and of a bow itself date from the eleventh century and were excavated in Dublin in the eighteenth century. The bow is the earliest example of a medieval bow in Europe. According to "The Companion to Irish Traditional Music" ( Vallely 1999, pg 123) The earliest reference to the fiddle in Ireland is from a seventh century account of the Fair of Carman by O'Curry: "Pipes, fiddles, chainmen, Bone-men and tube players ". Also in existence in Ireland was the timpán, a bowed or plucked instrument with three to eight strings. In 1674 Richard Head wrote about Ireland "in every field a fiddle, and the lasses footing it till they were all of a foam ". In John Neal's Dublin shop, there was an advert claiming, "There is fidles to be had". This suggests the abundant availability of fiddles in Ireland. However, these fiddles bore no connection to the modern day fiddle, or violin. Almost all European countries claim the invention of the violin, but none can seriously challenge the prominence of Italy in its history. The oldest surviving violin dates back to 1564 and was made by Andrea Amati, whose techniques have become the blueprints for all violin makers since. The accepted modern form of the violin, with the exception of the shape of the neck, was confirmed by 1710 thanks largely to Antonio Stradivari. It was in the early eighteenth century too, that the modern design of violin was firmly established throughout Ireland. In terms of its accepted construction, then, the fiddle is the oldest instrument in Irish traditional music. However, whereas the uilleann pipes have remained almost unchanged since its establishment in the tradition, the fiddle has undergone a process of continual development, particularly in the area of string and bow technologies. Gradually the finger board has become longer to facilitate moving into higher positions for greater range, and the neck has been made narrower to make this movement easier. In 1820 the chinrest was introduced and, later still, was followed by the shoulder rest. These additions permit the player to grip the instrument with the chin, so allowing the hand to move more freely. However, owing to the nature of the melodies and the social context in which the fiddle existed in Irish traditional music, many of these developments were ignored for many years after their introduction: The dance tunes that were played on the fiddle rarely reached above the notes covered in first position (that is the low G to the upper B") therefore the extended fingerboards and chin rest were considered unnecessary. Many players of traditional music today still play without chin and shoulder rests. Also the fiddle required great skill in making, so the peasantry, amongst whom the instrument was popular, did not have the skill to modify their instruments, nor could they afford to buy new ones. The afore-mentioned John Neal is the first recorded Irish fiddle maker. Along with his brother, William, he began making fiddles in Dublin in the 1720s. However, there is some debate about how the instrument travelled to Ireland. The most common theory is that fiddles, along with reels, were brought into the country by the Ulster-Scots. According to www.scotlandsmusic.com, the fiddle had been an established instrument in Scottish traditional music since the seventeenth century and was thought to have been introduced by the crusaders. The fiddle was an ideal instrument for traditional Irish music, especially for the dance tunes. It broadened the horizons of traditional music, in terms of ornamentation and melodic variations: there was scope for ornamentation with both the fingers and the bow, and, as the notes were not fixed in pitch, as they were on the whistles and harps, there was a greater melodic range available to the players. " The characteristic features of Irish dance tunes make the fiddle a very suitable instrument. Cuts and rolls are easily executed, triplets can be bowed legato or singly to get the same effects as the pipes. " (Vallely 1999, pg 129) I feel that this statement is slightly controversial in that, as previously stated in the same book, the fiddle existed in traditional Irish music before the pipes. Did the single-bowed triplet mentioned here develop after the introduction of the pipes or was it already in existence? Also previously stated in the same book is the fact that much Irish music was composed on the fiddle. So was the easy execution of triplets and rolls an advantage of the fiddle and a reason for its popularity, or were these techniques developed on the instrument, meaning it's popularity was as a result of something else? One school of thought states that these ornamentation techniques were developed on the tin whistle and then transferred across to the fiddle, but that is unlikely, since the earliest tin-plate whistles appeared in Britain only from 1825 and were even later arriving in Ireland. Although the wooden fiddle was long established and readily available in Ireland by the 1900s, a new style of fiddle was adopted by the travelling community and the peasantry: the tin fiddle. This was most popular in Donegal as it was very cheap to construct, was quieter than its wooden counterpart and very easy to mend. This was an important factor when one considers that in remote areas such as Donegal, access to those with the expert knowledge and skill needed to repair a timber instrument would have been limited. The properties also made it the perfect instrument for the children and learners in the travelling and peasant communities where houses were small and a loud timber instrument at night amongst large families and close neighbours would have been objectionable. Many of the great travelling fiddlers played these instruments, such as the Dohertys and their in-laws, the McConnells. Indeed Johnny Doherty was one of the most influential fiddlers in Donegal in the last century. He came from a family of tin smiths, whose " skill in working with thin-gauge sheet metal – typically tinplate – in times of high demand for fiddles was recruited for fiddle construction too. A skilled maker could turn out a fiddle body in two hours, to it was fixed either a home-made neck and fingerboard, or more commonly, a discarded neck from a damaged timber fiddle, with F-hole chiselled in the belly. " (Vallely 1999, pg 127) The tin fiddle was also adopted by sailors and those who emigrated from Ireland as it was able to withstand the horrendous conditions on ships. Many people attribute the dispersion of Irish music in part to this usage of tin fiddles. Some tin fiddles are still produced today in Donegal, but these levels of production do not even come close to matching those of the early twentieth century. Many of the tin fiddles made by the Doherty, McConnell and Irwin families still survive and are held in revere by their owners. Also still in existence is a single brass fiddle, often seen to be the icon of Donegal fiddle tradition, but which was probably popular right across the island. Similar in construction to the tin fiddle, the Stroh or phono fiddle was used until 1926 in wax cylinder recordings. Invented by Augustus Stroh, this metal fiddle had its own acoustic horn and was designed to provide a sharper sound for recordings. However, as discs overtook the wax cylinder recordings, the production of Stroh fiddles ceased, and today they are a rarity. Thanks to Patricia Clark with her source "The Companion to Irish Traditional Music" www.triciaclark.co.uk Related Tags: Fiddle, Fiddle Music, Isish Music, dance, history of fiddle

The Fiddle

First off Let me introduce my self.
My name is John, I surely do not know how to play a fiddle, but I do enjoy the music.
I wanted to do this blog because it sounded interesting, so I hope you enjoy the contents, it also would be nice to see you post comments about the fiddle and the music.
Enjoy
Related Tags: fiddle, fiddle music, music