Learn to Play Old Time Fiddle

Since I've been sans a teacher, I hate to admit that I've recently found myself skipping around from tune to tune and truly not accomplishing much of anything - except to drive myself crazy. Arghh!

So, in an effort to give myself some kind of direction and quit the "flitting" about, last week I dug through my bookshelf of fiddle goodies and pulled out Brad Leftwich's old time fiddle lesson DVDs. I received this two DVD set as a gift several years back when I was just toying with the idea of learning to fiddle, but was still wrapped up in classical lessons. Hence, these DVDs have largely been gathering dust since I got them (another thing I hate to admit - lol). This time, I am going to give them a run for their money. Maybe that's my New Year's resolution! Anyway, I'll see how far I get.

Currently, I am working on the first tune on the first DVD of the set. The tune is 'Shortenin' Bread' and it's in the key of A which means cross-tuning your fiddle to AEae. Personally, I have to say that I find the key of A gives tunes an incredibly old-timey sound compared to other keys. However, it's a bit of a "sharper" tone (That's not really quite the word I'm searching for, but it sort of fits - after all, the key of A does have three sharps in it!) and I find that it's a bit hard on my ears after a lengthy practice session. I think if I had to pick a favorite key it would be D - but, alas, I digress.

Leftwich does a really admirable job of breaking down the tunes for his audience on these DVDs. First, he breaks a tune down by phrases then goes back and demonstrates the individual notes for each phrase as they fall on the fingerboard.

Following this, he demonstrates the bowing as it relates to the notes (ie, what notes are played on the up bow and which are down bow). Leftwich is teaching a method of fiddling called down-bowing which is primarily a southern-style of fiddling. Down-bowing simply means that the emphasized notes are generally played on the down-bow (when you "pull" your bow down [or away] from your fiddle). Tommy Jarrell, as Leftwich indicates, was a down-bower.

Next, he puts the tune back together and plays it through in its entirety (melody notes only) indicating aloud the bowings (up or down). Leftwich then adds the drone notes to the melody indicating which strings to drone on depending upon what string your melody falls upon. If it is possible to drone on more than one string, Leftwich indicates he preference and explains why.

During this entire process, Leftwich explains that fiddling is built upon learning licks. He defines licks as types of bow strokes that give old time fiddling its sound. In 'Shortenin' Bread', he covers four types of licks: short and long saw strokes, a basic ending lick and a beginning lick.

To wrap up the lesson on 'Shortenin' Bread', Leftwich plays it through up to speed with accompaniment from his wife, Linda Higginbotham, on banjo uke (and I do mean, up to speed! lol)

Right now, I would say that I've got the tune up to about 75-80% speed. There is just one spot on the B part that my bow hand insists should not be bowed the way Brad says it should. Let me say that I firmly disagree with my hand (and that Brad is correct), but every now and then my hand gets the better of me and switches things up just enough to trip me up. The best way I can describe this is with the old simile of patting your head and rubbing your stomach. At this one particular point in the tune, my hands want to "go the same direction" so to speak, when they shouldn't. Really frustrating, but kind of funny when you stop to think about it. Anyway, until I can quell that urge every time I run through 'Shortenin' Bread' (or at least 99.9% of the time!) I won't move ahead to the next lesson.

As this post has ended up being somewhat of a review of Leftwich's DVDs (not my original intent as I had truly started out wanting to share with you the current direction of my fiddling education), I do want to add the following advice as was shared on Amazon reviews by others who had purchased the Leftwich DVDs.

In my mind, these lessons are not for absolute beginners. Although it is possible (and anything is) to pick up a fiddle (having never done so before) and start to play with this DVD - I don't recommend it. Leftwich does not cover the basics such as bow grip, posture, how to hold the fiddle, how to tune your fiddle, alignment of your bow with the fiddle, etc. In my mind, these basics (once ingrained in your head and muscle memory) make learning a particular style of playing much easier. Pick up a basic method book such as String Builder V1 Violin (Belwin Course for Strings) and, at the very least, work through the first few pages. Even better, work through an entire level one book. IMHO, you won't be sorry.

That being said, I am highly impressed with Leftwich's instructional style and do recommend these DVDs to anyone desirous of learning old-time fiddle. I just think that you will find them far more rewarding (and hence won't become discouraged) if you already have some violin/fiddle basics beneath your belt.

Subsequent lessons on the first DVD include the tunes 'Sugar Hill', 'Old Jimmy Sutton', 'Black-Eyed Susie', 'Great Big Taters' and 'Jeff Sturgeon'. I better get back to practicing!