Whiskey Before Breakfast

Described by my teacher as a "notey" tune, Whiskey Before Breakfast has a jaunty, energetic lilt to it and gives you the opportunity for lots of string crossing practice, double stop practice and shuffle bowing practice. Did I just say 'practice' three times?!? lol. Yes, I did. This tune has a lot going on.

However, as it is so notey, 'Whiskey' can seem a bit intimidating for the novice fiddler. Thankfully, I have a patient teacher who willingly adapts (aka simplifies) tunes as needed to accomplish certain tasks. With Whiskey Before Breakfast, it meant smoothing out a few of the extra notey areas while retaining the original melody and feel so that I didn't spend all my time trying to untie my fingers!

I think he did a great job! This slightly simplified version is much easier to play and sounds very much like the original. With this adaption, I was able to concentrate on the feel of the tune rather than obsessing over all those little notes.

Also, as of this tune, I have decided to discontinue (at least temporarily) providing a separate drone version of the tunes that I post. Unfortunately, I have come to realize that there are simply not enough hours in the day to do EVERYTHING that I would like (Suffice it to say, my bucket list is huge and I am NEVER bored.) Things are beginning to eat into my actual practice time! And, being that I really don't have any 'natural talent' (plumb outta luck there!), practice is a must for me if I am to become any sort of decent fiddler. Practice and focus.

So, I have come up with what I hope will be a workable compromise. I will post one version of each tune. In that version, if there are any double stops they will, of course, be notated. Drones, however, will only be notated if the open string to play is not obvious. This seems like a workable solution and will free me from a significant amount of laptop time and get me back to my fiddle.

Please note, with this tune in measures 2 and 6, you will need to 'rock' your bow a bit (making a small circle with the frog end) to move between notes (on the A and D string) to have the piece sound as it should. You can't just 'drone your way through' using equal pressure on the two middle strings.

So, check out the tune and let me know what you think! Is this a viable solution?