# The Scottish Fiddler



## Ingélou

A thread for those who love the traditional music of Scotland played on the Scottish second 'national instrument'.

This book is to be recommended. It comes with an accompanying cd which is lovely just to listen to. My only criticism is that some of the tunes are played in sets, which means that if one of the tunes is trickier than the other(s), one's playing can break down. It would help to be able to work on the tricky tune on its own.

Iain Fraser: Scottish Fiddle Tunes - 60 Traditional Pieces for Violin. Schott publishing, 2006.


----------



## Ingélou

This is also a very good fiddle tutor, and comes with an accompanying cd.

My criticism here is that some complex bowing patterns and techniques come up rather too quickly for learning the instrument, and the later section of the book is largely repertoires from different areas of Scotland. Also, not all the pieces are on the cd, so I had to ask my fiddle teacher to make mp3s of missing tunes that I really liked. 
A final criticism is that the book is a hefty paperback and doesn't open out easily on the music stand.

I did work through this book in the order given, though, and it has helped my playing and my understanding of the Scottish tradition enormously.

Traditional Scottish Fiddling - A Player's Guide to Regional Styles, Bowing Techniques, Repertoire & Dances compiled by Christine Martin - Taigh na Teud (Scotlandsmusic) Publishers 2002


----------



## Duncan

This may be a site of interest -

https://www.youtube.com/user/fiddaboy/featured

It features dozens of fiddle technique classes ranging from Scottish to Québécois -

*Scottish Strathspey *- (7 videos)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvxdxPB0PG_8l75JvhiettdEcgr4Zm5vP

*Scottish Jig - * (9 videos)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvxdxPB0PG_8TcYch-mM6ZVn9Gy_hUSyD

*Scottish Reel -* (19 videos)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvxdxPB0PG_8E0hisFIUgPWQqe6jo7K3I

*Scottish Air - *(8 videos)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvxdxPB0PG_92aEVjikAaO9Yj1z411N_6


----------



## Ingélou

David Johnson - Music and Society in Lowland Scotland in the Eighteenth Century - second edition 2003.

This is a good book for understanding the music situation in Scotland in the eighteenth century, 'the golden age of Scottish Fiddle Music'. We own a copy, and I've read it a couple of times. My only caveat is that I don't rate the chapter on folk music at the end all that highly - I'm not sure the author had a very good understanding of how folk tradition works, being fed not only by oral tradition but by broadsheets & chapbooks & even sometimes being affected by 'drawing room fashions'.

Very interesting on the overlap between baroque and traditional music in Scotland, though.


----------



## Ingélou

David Johnson - Scottish Fiddle Music in the Eighteenth Century - A New Collection & Historical Study, 2005.

I managed to buy another of David Johnson's books second hand a couple of years ago, from an online friend of my fiddle teacher. I have yet to read the text or to sample the tunes, but I'm looking forward to getting on to the book this year. It has an excellent customer review on Amazon, which I can believe to be well-founded.


----------



## Ingélou

This online blog by Ronnie Gibson is also useful and interesting - though it used to contain a collection of tunes with videos on how to play them and the sheet music attached. I learned a lot of my repertoire from Ronnie Gibson, whose videos were always helpful, even though he maintained the most unyielding poker face ever. Maybe he was just shy, though. 
https://scottishfiddlemusic.com/

And I've posted it elsewhere, but will put up this video again, which features Ronnie Gibson & Natalie Brown, advanced students at Aberdeen University. The sound quality is poor, but it's still good to watch.

*Folk Meets Baroque:*


----------



## Ingélou

*Hanneke Cassel*'s 'how-to' videos have been mentioned above in post #3 - I play along with her video on The Braes of Tulliemet regularly.






*Fiona Cutts of the Glasgow Fiddle Workshop* also provides some helpful tune-videos. 
https://www.google.com/search?biw=1...i30k1j0i30k1j33i160k1j33i21k1 .0.CMMDITXzm5M

Her method is to play the slow version first, and then the faster - not sure that's so sound in educational terms as I think you need to have the finished tune 'in your head' before you start to learn it slowed down, which inevitably changes the tune.

However, it is much more convenient in the early stages, not having to scroll forward. 

Highland Whisky:






And, although *Duncan Ross Cameron* includes a lot of Irish tunes in his how-to videos (which I also enjoy playing), he has some Scottish stuff too. His format is to play the tune at speed a couple of times and follow it up with a slow learning version. Here's the eighteenth-century tune Flowers of Edinburgh by James Oswald.


----------



## Ingélou

*Melinda Crawford* is another fiddler who provides very helpful videos, and whose personality I warm to -

The Braes of Mar:






Cam Ye O'er Frae France:


----------



## Duncan

*The Fiddle Music of the Scottish Highlands - Volumes 1 & 2: Ceol Na Fidhle Series*

*Christine Martin*









*The Fiddle Music of the Scottish Highlands - Volumes 3 & 4: Ceol Na Fidhle Series*

*Christine Martin*









*The Fiddle Music of the Scottish Highlands - Volumes 5 & 6: Ceol Na Fidhle Series *

*Christine Martin*


----------



## Ingélou

https://jamielaval.com/bio

*Jamie Laval *- fantastic American fiddler specialising in the traditional Scottish repertoire. Here's his fabulous version of Monymusk, with variations:


----------



## Ingélou

James Hunter - The Fiddle Music Of Scotland

Another book I'm lucky enough to own. It has a comprehensive set of tunes from the repertoire - possibly a little too much Scott Skinner & his ilk for my liking.  As well, though, it has a very good introduction with a description of eighteenth-century fiddlers & their method of keeping a notebook of variations, and a run-through of bowing styles, including Niel Gow's traditional method of 'the up-driven bow'.

I've worked on that technique as much as I can, using tunes such as The Braes of Tulliemet and Lady Ann Hope's Strathspey. It's becoming easier, though I still can't get the Scottish snap as snappy as I'd like.


----------



## Ingélou

I've seen some of the Music of Scotland dvds, borrowed from a friend - one, on strathspey bowing, was a nice display of the woman teacher's virtuosity, but not really* teaching* the techniques in the way I like. Maybe the only way for me to pick those techniques up is to go up to Scotland and find a good traditional teacher.

Still, dvds and mp3s are a great way to learn - tunes, at least - so there may be something on this Music of Scotland site that I'm tempted to buy in the future. 
https://www.musicscotland.com/cd/Scottish-fiddle.html


----------



## Ingélou

Scottish Fiddlers & their Music - Mary Anne Alburger, 1983.

Nothing startling here, but a useful survey & reference book, with some nice tunes included. We bought it second hand after seeing the name of it on a folk music site that I belong to.


----------



## Ingélou

Katherine Campbell - The Fiddle in Scottish Culture - Aspects of the Tradition. (John Donald, Edinburgh 2008.)

I thought there was rather too much made of too little here, with much of the book padded with different variations of the same folk legend about learning tunes from trolls (the traditional sort - not the modern internet variety .)

Still, I am glad to have read it and to have it in my collection.


----------



## Duncan

*Alasdair Fraser on How the Scottish Fiddle Is a 'Vehicle for Different Types of Dialects' - *

http://stringsmagazine.com/alasdair...is-a-vehicle-for-different-types-of-dialects/


----------



## Duncan

https://www.cranfordpub.com/books/CBSC.htm


----------



## Duncan

http://www.boxandfiddle.com/

*"Box and Fiddle" - The Magazine for Scottish Music Enthusiasts *


----------



## Ingélou

*Blazin' Fiddles* is a group that we've seen twice now in concert at the Norwich Arts Centre, and they are fabulous. They play modern composed Scottish fiddle tunes, and also have members that come from different areas of Scotland and play tunes from their locality with their slightly different styles. Their stage shows are marked by energetic playing and quickfire humour and repartee directed at the audience. If you get a chance - go to see them.

https://www.blazinfiddles.com/


----------



## Ingélou

We got to know the group a bit better in October 2016, when we went up for their annual music school *Blazin' in Beauly.*

This is the website for this year's music week -
https://blazininbeauly.com/

*** Taggart (*John*) went to classes in keyboard accompaniment with Angus Lyon, and I (*Mollie*) went to one of the Advanced Fiddle Classes - not the top layer, of course! 

In our fiddle class we learned a 'big tune' that all the classes could learn together, and each member of the group, plus a visiting tutor, took our class in turn and taught us new tunes. Many were tunes that they themselves had written.

Out of the tutors, I enjoyed my time with Rua Macmillan most, because he seemed the most well-versed in the traditional Scottish Highland style with all its various ornaments. My second favourite actually was the visiting Finnish tutor, Esko, because he had a fabulous teaching method - he just played the tune over and over until gradually we all joined in. His tune was the most secure with me at the end of the week.

The other class-members - most of them Scotswomen - were very nice and friendly to me. Many had been coming for years. I always feel a bit apologetic in Scotland because, although my father was Scottish, I grew up in England and have an English accent - but I found Beauly a very welcoming town to Sassenachs and half-Sassenachs. 

John got a lot out of his keyboard classes because Angus Lyon spent years playing for a Scottish dance band and had a lot of good advice about chords and timing.

_*** *Just to clear up any confusion, since I have put a link to this thread on other music sites where my real-life name is known, and because in the past I have referred on TC to our actual first names: we have no connection with the TC member posting on this thread who has combined our forenames as a user-name and who lives in Canada. Thank you. *_


----------



## Ingélou

There were special interest classes in the afternoon, but we didn't go to them, taking the chance to explore the lovely area of Scotland and to visit Taggart's cousins, who moved up to the North-East of Scotland from London over forty years ago.

But we returned for the concerts in the evening.

All in all we had a good week, though I prefer to learn techniques or harmonies rather than simply new tunes, which I usually forget after the course is over.

In any case, I'm a bit of a purist. Modern Scottish tunes are not my cup of tea - nor Nova Scotian & Cape Breton, either, although I 'thole' them as part of a session. 

No, my passion is for the traditional Scottish tunes from the seventeenth, eighteenth & nineteenth centuries, although there are some excellent tunes written more recently 'in the tradition', for example by Muriel Johnstone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_Johnstone

Here is something which *is* my cup of tea - a lovely old Scottish air, *Anna Thug Mi Gradh Dhuit*, or Annie is my Darling, from the *Simon Fraser Collection* of the early nineteenth century, played in a video tutorial with Rua Macmillan of Blazin Fiddles.


----------



## Ingélou

*Bruce MacGregor*, the founder-member of Blazin' Fiddles, has put up some good video tutorials on playing traditional Scottish Music. Here's one of my favourites, on Ringing Strings.

Thanks to my fiddle teacher, who double-stops with the best, I am much better now at playing chords than I was, but I still don't incorporate them into my playing of Scottish tunes. I should - they are definitely part of the Scottish sound - but maybe it will all gel some time in the next five years.


----------



## Ingélou

One of the nice things about going to the Music Week Blazin' in Beauly is the connection with 'The Strathspey King' James Scott Skinner. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Scott_Skinner










Skinner was a showman who as a lad played with a touring orchestra and I don't care for some of the many Scottish tunes that he composed because they are a bit 'music-hall' for me. Here's one that for me has this showy & sentimental quality, Silverwells, played by Iain Fraser - it is in his book mentioned in the OP:


----------



## Ingélou

However, he did help to revive Scottish music and he did compose many wonderful tunes. I think he's out of favour at present because of his showmanship and his ebullient personality. He's the one who said (thinking of himself) - *'Talent does what it can - genius does what it must'*.

He was classically trained and a very good violinist, and as a result some of the tunes he composed are difficult for the amateur fiddler to play - *hobbyism does what it can get away with*! 

Here's one, Bovaglie's Plaid, which uses the harmonic, though I tend to miss that out. This one's a bit sentimental too, but I still think it very beautiful, and I enjoy playing it. It's played here by Alasdair Fraser, Iain Fraser's more famous brother:


----------



## Ingélou

And there are many more Scott Skinner tunes that I know, play and love. I can't find a lovely jig of his, Rose Wood, on YouTube (except as part of a medley 



), but I did come across a Scott Skinner traditional set played by Bonnie Rideout, another of my favourite fiddlers - or whom more anon!


----------



## Ingélou

In Beauly, there are many associations with Scott Skinner - some are mentioned in this article, including the ironmonger's shop where my classes were held. 
https://www.scotsmagazine.com/articles/blazin-beauly/

Taggart's keyboard class was held in an upper room in the Phipps Hall, built in the early twentieth century, but a venue where Scott Skinner performed. Apparently the building has an interesting history.
https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/shy-phipps-became-highland-institution-1-632358


----------



## Ingélou

*Bonnie Rideout* is one of the diaspora Scottish fiddlers that I love. 
http://www.bonnierideout.com/

Her playing of ancient pibrochs achieves a mystical quality. 
Here's the Lament for the Bishop of Argyle, an ancient melody.






(I can play this - not well, but I do love it, and would recommend playing pibrochs to any of you that are Scottish fiddlers. I think working on the tone of pibrochs will help improve one's tone immeasurably.)


----------



## Ingélou

Here's another of Bonnie Rideout's tunes which I love - Yell, Yell.

I can't find the sheet music for it, and I did once make it a project to learn it by ear. I had to leave that for other practice tunes, but I hope to return to it this year.


----------



## Ingélou

A word of explanation that maybe should have gone in the OP.

I started this thread because of my love for the traditional fiddle music of Scotland, which has become my musical journey. (I call it Fiddle Trek...)

However, I decided to place my thread in the *Strings* section of the *Instruments and Technique* sub-forum because it's *not* about tunes or links so much as about *fiddle lore* and aids to learning the instrument.

I hoped and still do that (eventually!) I'll find another person on TC who both plays the fiddle and loves this repertoire. I would be very interested in hearing about their experience, especially if they are an 'adult learner' or a returner like me - but even fiddle prodigies are welcome too! 

Oh joy if you live in the UK & we could meet up for a session. 

*Nigel Gatherer* is not a fiddler, but he is a musician and an authority on Scottish Music, and a very nice person - I've been in touch with him on the Folk Music forum that I belong to,

Here's his useful and informative website.
http://www.nigelgatherer.com/

With this fab forum - http://www.nigelgatherer.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?fid=7


----------



## Taggart

Ingélou said:


> Here is one of them, *Anna Thug Mi Gradh Dhuit*, or Annie is my Darling, from the *Simon Fraser Collection* of the early nineteenth century, played in a video tutorial with Rua Macmillan of Blazin Fiddles.


Bit more about Simon Fraser here - https://www.scottish-places.info/people/famousfirst1006.html

Link to the collection here - https://www.scotlandsmusic.com/Product/SM-QOL20J/the-simon-fraser-collection - with some more infornation about the collection.

Simon Fraser on IMSLP - https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Airs_and...s_of _Scotland_and_the_Isles_(Fraser,_Simon)

And finally, another Simon Fraser tune - Hard is my Fate - played by Iain Fraser


----------



## Taggart

*Scottish Fiddle Accompaniment*

The classic accompaniment is the cello. Here's Niel Gow with his brother Donald:








The University of Aberdeen has a great Scott Skinner site - https://www.abdn.ac.uk/scottskinner/index.shtml This includes some of Skinner's own recordings of his tunes. The bigraphy section notes:



> Alexander Forbes Skinner (1833-1883) taught his young brother James to play tunes on the violin, and to 'vamp', or play a bass line on the cello. By the time he was eight, James was playing the cello at dances with local fiddler Peter Milne (1824-1908), who came from Kincardine o' Neill, Aberdeenshire.


According to some stories, Skinner could play the bass line in his sleep, not surprising as he had to travel long distances and the dancing went on for much of the night.

Alasdair Fraser is continuing this tradition in his partnership with Natalie Haas:


----------



## Ingélou

Speaking of Alasdair Fraser - like many traditional players he has branched out into new ways of playing things so as to seem fresh and artistic, not same-old, same-old.

His playing with Natalie Haas these days engages my admiration, but not my heart.

But in his early heyday, he could fiddle the auld tunes rarely.

Our favourite cd of his is The Driven Bow.










What is good about Alasdair Fraser's playing on this cd, in my opinion, is the energy and pace, closely followed by his mastery of the ornaments, which in Scottish fiddle are based on the sound of the bagpipes. 
On some of the tunes, those ornamented phrases sound so pipy and organic that I am awed.

I don't know of any other fiddler who can match him in that respect.

I will look later to see if I can find an example of what I mean.


----------



## Taggart

*Piano Accompaniment*

Most Scottish fiddle accompaniment is the standard I IV V three chord pattern. When I was in Beauly, Angus Lyon spent some time on this. He was more concerned to get a good rhythmic pattern rather than to worry about the chord voicing. The technique was about finding chord voicings that sat comfortably under the hand so that you could follow a tune at speed. Although a piano player, Angus had worked as an accordionist - second box - in a Scottish dance band. That job is basically providing a rhythmic accompaniment to the lead accordion - first box - who takes the melody. Angus also considered using II and VI chords to provide alternatives and to allow fast movement between chord sequences.

I met a similar approach a couple of years later in Melrose when Ian Lowthian was leading the Merlin Summer School. Ian is an accordionist who has trained at conservatoire level. (Yes they do that in the UK!) He is a music teacher leading school orchestras so has considerable interest in arrangements. Again he was more concerned with playing at speed than with voicings so again was looking at hand patterns.

This sort of accompaniment works well for fast music. One of the glories of Scottish music is the Strathspey. The problem here is that there will be rapid harmonic changes at the end of a phrase so instead of one type of chord a bar you will have several. Here's an example:








The triplets at the end are another feature of the Strathspey which gives it its grace but can also involve rapid harmonic changes.


----------



## Ingélou

*The Braes of Mar*:

An embodiment of the sheet music that Taggart has posted above. (See also Melinda Crawford in post #8, above.)

Here's an example of the tune from a teaching video by Fiona Cuthill of the Glasgow Fiddle Workshop.






And here's the same tune as part of a set played by Alasdair Fraser in The Driven Bow - see post #33 above. This is not the most spectacular example of his ornamentation skills, but still a good illustration - hear how the snaps & birls are integrated into the tunes, like leaves growing on a tree. Awesome!






Here's a link on the tune's history - it is an eighteenth-century tune and very popular - has spread to the New World and is found in other forms in Ireland too. 
https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:Braes_of_Mar_(1)_(The)


----------



## Ingélou

During the eighteenth century in Scotland, the fashionable art music, baroque, was not separated from folk music by such a wide gap. The same violinists who taught the gentry's children were often in demand as fiddlers at dances and weddings, and perhaps took part in the Edinburgh Music Society''s concerts. The structure of reels, often based on arpeggios, and with special ornaments, can be seen to be related to the structure of baroque music. Schools and universities in Scotland were open to 'the lad of parts' who came from a poor home, and many fiddlers could read music and kept note of their variants of well-known tunes in little manuscript books.

Sometimes composers of art music also composed in the traditional style. Scottish traditional music was fashionable in Scotland even among the gentry - it was a mark of patriotism.

One example of a composer who wrote art music and also wrote/ collected/ arranged/ published traditional ('folk') music was James Oswald. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Oswald_(composer)

One of his books of sheet music can be found here:
https://imslp.org/wiki/A_Curious_Collection_of_Scots_Tunes_(Oswald,_James )

And here is his 'hawthorn sonata' - baroque music with Scottish-traditional themes.


----------



## Ingélou

Another composer who straddled the worlds of art-music and traditional Scottish music was Thomas Erskine the sixth Earl of Kellie - his nickname was 'fiddler Tam'. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Erskine,_6th_Earl_of_Kellie

Here's a baroque composition of his - Sinfonia a Quattro in D major.






And here's Kellie's Reel played beautifully & with spirit by my fiddle teacher at a Norwich Baroque Concert - of course, being Jim, he likes to groove it up a little and make it his own as the tune advances.


----------



## Ingélou

Time to bring in that prince of golden-age Scottish Fiddlers, Niel Gow. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niel_Gow










I know a Scot who comes from that area of Scotland and who looks just like him. 

He really is my favourite. Two of his famous laments are in the Iain Fraser book (see OP) and can be found on YouTube played by Iain, very beautifully. I enjoy playing these tunes very much, and never get sick of them.

Oddly, though in general I find it hard to manage vibrato, when I'm playing these laments, the emotion gets to me and I can just about do it. 











I love both these tunes, and they have a similar structure and feeling, but best I like the Lament for his Second Wife, as somehow it conveys the most sadness.


----------



## Ingélou

Pete Clark, a brilliant fiddler who lives at Dunkeld, holds a festival in honour of Niel Gow every March. Here is his website, which also contains details of the festival & recordings of Pete playing tunes by Niel's pupil John Crerar. 
https://www.pete-clark.com/

Pete Clarke has produced two fab cds of himself playing Niel Gow tunes, and we're lucky enough to have them both.










Even Now, brought out in 1998, is my favourite and I am learning the tunes on it by ear - have only managed about four tracks & nine tunes by now as I got waylaid by my lowly-grade violin exam, but I'm hoping to return to the project soon.

You can sample the tunes on this link - https://www.amazon.com/Even-Now-Pete-Clark/dp/B005S4B304

More recently he collaborated with the pianist (and composer of traditional-style dance tunes) Muriel Johnstone on a cd called Niel Gow's Fiddle. Here's a link with the cover on, and a short review. We both like this cd, but the piano does tend to drawing-room-ise the music to an extent. 
https://www.heraldscotland.com/arts...-clark-and-muriel-johnstone-niel-gows-fiddle/


----------



## Ingélou

Another golden-age Scottish fiddler who published traditional tunes was Robert Mackintosh, known as Red Rob. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mackintosh










Mackintosh at Murthley - the Music of Robert Mackintosh. 
This cd by Pete Clark contains Mackintosh's traditional tunes & his baroque pieces - fiddle backed by a small baroque ensemble - and it is an exquisite mix which we love listening to.

We also bought a book of sheet music called The Mackintosh Collection, produced by The Music of Scotland. It doesn't look much - a dark blue book with dull lettering - so it doesn't matter that I'm not able to find an image to post. Still, it does show that you can't judge a delightful book by its boring cover.

Barring one reel, I've not had time yet to delve inside this book, which lies in a my crammed Scottish Fiddle Music drawer. That's the sad thing about starting a collection - but the good thing is, I've got something to look forward to playing, and will have for years - if I'm spared.


----------



## Ingélou

John and I have been practising Scottish tunes together recently, and played one justly famous one called Brig of Perth. This was accredited to Donald Dow, an eighteenth-century composer of both baroque & traditional music, but in fact he styled himself Daniel Dow - both names a translation of a Gaelic original. Wiki has a little information on him:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Dow

In c 1775, he published "Twenty Minuets and Sixteen Reels" - a title which shows how in eighteenth-century Scotland, there was no huge gap between art music and 'folk' music. 

I can't find any good videos of The Brig o Perth, but apparently, he also wrote Monymusk, which is one of my favourite tunes - here played by the virtuoso American Scottish fiddler Jamie Laval:






As I find that I've already posted this video above, let me post another Scottish virtuoso, the renowned accordionist Jimmy Shand - his Monymusk is so brisk and rhythmic, that it's a joy to dance to.


----------



## Ingélou

Oh what a great discovery on YouTube this afternoon. Have sampled the cd and written to Santa - that's Christmas sorted for Mr & Mrs Taggart, then. 

Hesperus Early Music Ensemble - MacDonald Of The Isles March To Harlaw - Source Of The Spey - The Periwig.


----------



## Guest

Not Scottish fiddle exactly. Scottish viol played pizzicato which I have not heard of before. Anna Tam, I think, used to be a member of Medieval Baebes. The dialect she sings in is a bit lost on me although I can get the gist of it.


----------



## Ingélou

Ingélou said:


> Oh what a great discovery on YouTube this afternoon. Have sampled the cd and written to Santa - that's Christmas sorted for Mr & Mrs Taggart, then.
> 
> Hesperus Early Music Ensemble - MacDonald Of The Isles March To Harlaw - Source Of The Spey - The Periwig.


We listened to the full cd over the Christmas holidays and it's really lovely. I'm glad we got it.
It was made twenty years ago and has a lovely 'early music' feel to it. I hope the performers have had good opportunities to make music in the time intervening.

Bonnie Rider is one of the 'guests' on the cd, so you can imagine the high quality.

Happy New Year to all true lovers of the Scottish Fiddle Tradition.


----------



## Guest

Sir Alexander Don's strathspey--the original "Auld Lang Syne"


----------



## Shaughnessy

Taggart said:


> Most Scottish fiddle accompaniment is the standard I IV V three chord pattern. *When I was in Beauly*, Angus Lyon spent some time on this. He was more concerned to get a good rhythmic pattern rather than to worry about the chord voicing. The technique was about finding chord voicings that sat comfortably under the hand so that you could follow a tune at speed. Although a piano player, Angus had worked as an accordionist - second box - in a Scottish dance band. That job is basically providing a rhythmic accompaniment to the lead accordion - first box - who takes the melody. Angus also considered using II and VI chords to provide alternatives and to allow fast movement between chord sequences.
> 
> I met a similar approach a couple of years later in Melrose when Ian Lowthian was leading the Merlin Summer School. Ian is an accordionist who has trained at conservatoire level. (Yes they do that in the UK!) He is a music teacher leading school orchestras so has considerable interest in arrangements. Again he was more concerned with playing at speed than with voicings so again was looking at hand patterns.
> 
> This sort of accompaniment works well for fast music. One of the glories of Scottish music is the Strathspey. The problem here is that there will be rapid harmonic changes at the end of a phrase so instead of one type of chord a bar you will have several. Here's an example:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The triplets at the end are another feature of the Strathspey which gives it its grace but can also involve rapid harmonic changes.


I've been following everyone around who has "liked" my posts trying to acquaint myself with the various members and their interests.

I thought that "Beauly" was the name of your Scottish music group and that "Angus Lyon" was a member - 
It's actually a town - :lol:

https://www.lastminutemusicians.com/search/celtic_groups_ceilidh_bands/inverness_shire/beauly.html

I did find this video -






which contains video clips of dozens of traditional groups.

I've played the video half a dozen times - it's great! - but other than "living in Glasgow" and the odd word here and there, I can't understand anything else that is being said at the beginning especially whatever it is that makes the two of them laugh.


----------



## Tikoo Tuba

I like to play drum to Scot fiddling ... a big one , a pow-wow American drum . 
Oh , yes , the McDonalds came to Montana .


----------



## Ingélou

Some Scottish tunes found their way into Playford's English Dancing Master - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dancing_Master - such as Lady Catherine Ogle, a lovely reflective tune. There's also The Scotchman's Dance which I think is a theatrical burlesque of the Scottish style.

There's a nice version of both tunes by The Toronto Consort. Lady Catherine sounds pukka baroque but The Scotchman's Dance has been given a little bit of modern groove. 





Sheet music for Lady Catherine Ogle here:
http://abcnotation.com/tunePage?a=t...ic/abc/England/reel/LadyCatherineOgle_Gm/0000

Sheet music for The Scotchman's Dance here:
https://musescore.com/latestaccent/the-scotchmans-dancein-the-northern-lass_-p1687_plfd1_288


----------



## Ingélou

There's also Johnny Cock Thy Beaver - a Scots song that found its way into Playford's Division Violin, a gorgeous collection of fiddle tunes with variations published in 1684: https://imslp.org/wiki/The_Division_Violin_(Playford,_John)

Sometimes called 'Cock up thy beaver', this song concerns Johnny turning the brim of his beaver hat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_hat up in his jubilation at becoming a successful border reiver.

It was collected/ improved (or rewritten - who knows?) by Robert Burns. See the lyrics here:
http://www.robertburns.org/works/333.shtml

So sadly, nothing to do with sexual relations with a beaver, though when I was a young teacher and I asked for pupil requests from our poetry anthology, some bright spark would always request this one with a smirk. 

Here's an account of it from a folk website, which includes a video, though it's played rather too slowly for my taste:
https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/threads/96753-Johnny-Cock-Thy-Beaver-(Baroque-variations-1684)

Here's the sheet music:
http://www.folktunefinder.com/tunes/72280

It's a lovely tune and I'm going to add it to my main repertoire of weekly tune practice and see if I can work it up as a party piece.


----------



## Ingélou

Lesson on 'birls' or the bowed triplet -* Bruce MacGregor 'Bowing : Triplets' - Fiddle Lesson*


----------



## Shaughnessy

Ingélou said:


> A word of explanation that maybe should have gone in the OP.
> 
> I started this thread because of my love for the traditional fiddle music of Scotland, which has become my musical journey. (I call it Fiddle Trek...)
> 
> However, I decided to place my thread in the *Strings* section of the *Instruments and Technique* sub-forum because it's *not* about tunes or links so much as about *fiddle lore* and *aids to learning the instrum*ent.


My apologies for the posts which were about tunes... Should have read the entire thread before posting.






Video which explains the "Slap" technique with your bow, to achieve a Scottish style fiddle sound.


----------



## Shaughnessy

"Scrunch" = Scottish grace note...


----------



## Shaughnessy

Techniques being demonstrated on Scottish tune - the "flick" "channels the bagpipe into the tune".

Note: this and several dozen technique videos can be found here -

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheTuneProject/videos

Courtesy of the "Tune Project"


----------



## Ingélou

Sunburst Finish said:


> "Scrunch" = Scottish grace note...


More like a dissonant double-stop, hence 'scrunch' - causing a sharp shocking buzz to the perceptions.


----------



## Shaughnessy

A series of Scottish grace note tutorials - 

https://www.fiddlevideo.com/categor...e-lessons/scottish-grace-note-tutorials-free/


----------



## Ingélou

Sunburst Finish said:


> A series of Scottish grace note tutorials -
> 
> https://www.fiddlevideo.com/categor...e-lessons/scottish-grace-note-tutorials-free/


Thanks.

My point was merely that your definition needed more amplification because the scrunch is different.

It's not like the normal grace notes in that it's deliberately *not* grace-ful and is also played _*with*_ the main note as a dissonant harmony so not what you'd normally think of as a grace note like a roll or a flick, which forms (as it were) a little extra tune in between the main notes.

In that way, it's *more like* double-stops or ringing-strings - which are very important to Scottish music but so far at least don't figure in the grace-note collection that you cite.

The scrunch is the coolest ornament at present, along with very frequent birls. I suppose these are the more energetic 'in your face' ornaments which suit the zeitgeist. Tunes which are being composed now include a lot of birls and scrunches and also a slightly jazzy rhythm.

Have you found these videos helpful in your playing?

And do you yourself use 'the scrunch'? I found it difficult to acquire (I have a short left pinkie), and in the end not to my taste, so I have not kept it in practice.


----------



## Ingélou

Ringing Strings - a Bruce McGregor Video.

This is the skill I wish most to acquire. I can do the occasional 'double-stop' or chord but I am not fluent in ringing strings throughout a tune. I think my fault is that I try to press too hard to get the sound, whereas actually, it's all about position - as my fiddle teacher used to stress. He was very good at harmonising on other strings while playing Scottish tunes - keeping other strings 'hanging on' as he described it - and I have some wonderful mp3s of Scottish tunes that he gave me in order to help my playing.


----------



## Shaughnessy

Ingélou said:


> Thanks.
> 
> My point was merely that your definition needed more amplification because the scrunch is different.
> 
> It's not like the normal grace notes in that it's deliberately *not* grace-ful and is also played _*with*_ the main note as a dissonant harmony so not what you'd normally think of as a grace note like a roll or a flick, which forms (as it were) a little extra tune in between the main notes.
> 
> In that way, it's *more like* double-stops or ringing-strings - which are very important to Scottish music but so far at least don't figure in the grace-note collection that you cite.
> 
> The scrunch is the coolest ornament at present, along with very frequent birls. I suppose these are the more energetic 'in your face' ornaments which suit the present zeitgeist. Tunes which are being composed now include a lot of birls and scrunches and also a slightly jazzy rhythm.
> 
> Have you found these videos helpful in your playing?
> 
> And do you yourself use 'the scrunch'? I found it difficult to acquire (I have a short left pinkie), and in the end not to my taste, so I have not kept it in practice.


I should have been much clearer in the statement that I used and for that I apologize.

The "Scottish grace note" reference was a direct quote taken from the video. Until viewing it I didn't know that "Scottish grace notes" even existed much less known what a "scrunch" is but I have to admit that I have thoroughly enjoyed everything that I've come across so far even though I don't understand exactly what is being done or why it's being done. It is genuinely fascinating to see these technique demonstrations - There's one called the "waterfall" that I thought was just about the coolest thing that I had ever seen.

It's great to be able to see how what I've been listening to all these years is actually being produced.

The post which contained "A series of Scottish grace note tutorials" was meant to be a separate post that wasn't in reference to anything other than a desire to add something that may have been of interest for anyone who may find themselves reading this thread which I find fascinating despite not being able to play even a single note - It's interesting in and of itself - I love the music and even though I'm not a player I've enjoyed watching the videos and I can say with certainty that they have greatly increased my ability to enjoy the music itself.

It's the one instrument that I most wish I could play and this thread has been providing a great deal of vicarious pleasure and you have my thanks for creating and maintaining it. I can't do anything other than try to add links or videos which correspond to the mandate that you established for the thread. It's a nicely focused thread that you worked diligently to create and I wanted to kind of make amends for posting the two videos which were not in any way relevant to what you had intended. It took me a while to read through the posts and when I got to the explanation of the intention of the thread I realized that I had inadvertently erred.

I would like to start something like an "A to Z Guide to Fiddle Players" which would be a generalized overview of performers but I would place that in "Non-Classical Music" section rather than here now that I understand that this section is intended for actual musicians.

You'll have a faithful reader - however one who won't be able to contribute much other than to express appreciation for the time and effort expended.

Again, my compliments - :tiphat:


----------



## Ingélou

Iain Fraser playing the strathspey The Smith's A Gallant Fireman - he uses the scrunch in the first note of the main opening theme-bars, and the double stop (or chord) elsewhere in the tune.






The discordant scrunch does make for a virile sound.

PS - A note on the tune from Nigel Gatherer. :tiphat:
http://www.nigelgatherer.com/tunes/tab/tab3/smith.html


----------



## Ingélou

I found this beautiful air by baroque composer William McGibbon, 'Through the Wood, Laddie', published in 1746. 
This video is a bit twee, but the playing is lovely.


----------

