Flog (Fiddle Blog) » Fiddle 4

Fiddle 4Ever (Tue) – week 1

Paul — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:19:28 +0000

The tune we worked on became the subject of some rumination and cogitation. It ended up as the Tune of the Week on the Fiddle Club of the World Blog. Several recordings and notation can be found there. Follow this link.

[Little] Billy Wilson, Geoff Seitz with the Ill-Mo Boys, 1991

Geoff is fine fiddler from St. Louis, who is scheduled to play a square dance in the Friday night Global Dance Series next Fall. Don’t miss it.

And here’s another bit of Show Me, a tune introduced at the end of class . . .

Missouri Mud Bob Holt of Ava, Missouri

Fiddle 4Ever (Tue) – weeks 4 & 5

Paul — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 23:36:23 +0000

We eased our way into cross-tuning.

Here’s a G tune you can play in standard tuning, or tune your e string down to d for a drone.

Old Baldy Kicking Up played by Steve Rosen

Here’s a waltz in D we played in ADAD (A,DAd) tuning

Midnight on the Water played by Colby Maddox (a bit different)

And a classic D tune also in ADAD (A,DAd) tuning. But for this one and the previous one, we also ran our G string down to a low, low D (D,DAd)

Bonaparte’s Retreat by Kentucky fiddler William H. Stepp

Where’s the beef?

Fiddle 4Ever (Tue) – week 3

Paul — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:27:26 +0000

A Lotus Dickey tune. One he learned from “jig and reel book” he and his brother bought through the Sears Roebuck catalog back in the 1920s.

Oyster River Hornpipe, Lotus Dickey of Paoli, Indiana

NB: This recording is not in the tune archive, but on my website, drdosido.net.
Here’s a link to a page full of Lotus Dickey tunes, with more to come.

Fiddle 4Ever (Tue) – week 1

Paul — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:31:54 +0000

Here’s a tune in G we should all be playing more. We got it from Chirps Smith, who learned it from Garry Harrison, who collected it from Howard Sims of Modesto, Illinois some 30 years ago. The recording below is by the Volo Bogtrotters with Chirps Smith and Fred Campeau on fiddle.

Don’t Mind the Weather So the Wind Don’t Blow

Click title or the arrow to listen, or right-click the title to download and save link.

Fiddle 4 (Mon) – week 6

Paul — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:20:17 +0000

Slightly different from the way we learned it in class . . .

That’s My Rabbit, My Dog Caught played by Steve Rosen, slowly

Draper Walter & Family recorded the tune in 1932 for Gennett Records in Richmond, Indiana, their home town. That old 78 is available as a download on Amazon.

Fiddle 4 (Mon) – week 5

Paul — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:56:07 +0000

Grab your sweetie for a waltz! (In the key of C)

Black Velvet Waltz by Chirps Smith of Lagrange, Wisconsin

Fiddle 4 Old-Time (Mon) – week 4

Paul — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:52:18 +0000

We worked on the shuffle bow pattern–long, short short, or slur, saw saw–on this C tune. The versions linked below vary from the tune as we worked on it. A medium tempo demo version in the Tune Archive is close to how we learned it.

Billy in the Lowground by Clay Smith of Fairview Heights, Illinois

Billy in the Lowground by David Hall of Monticello, Indiana

Billy in the Lowground, by Lotus Dickey of Orange County, Indiana

The first Billy was recorded by Jim Nelson in 1992 on a visit to Mr. Smith’s home. I visited David Hall in 1979 and recorded Lotus playing the tune in 1986.

Fiddle 4 Old-Time (Mon) – week 3

Paul — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:46:41 +0000

Here’s a recording of Lotus Dickey playing . . .

Dickey’s Discovery in the key of D.

Lotus Dickey (1911-89) lived on Grease Gravy hill south of Paoli in Orange County, Indiana. He thinks he learned this tune from Allen Downey, an older gentlemen who moved to Orange County around 1920 from Robinson, Illinois. Mel Durham, a fiddle born in Illinois, played the same tune as he learned it from his father, and called it King’s Lament.

Fiddle 4 Old-Time (Mon) – week 2

Paul — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:47:21 +0000

Here’s a recording of Lotus Dickey playing “Greasy Strings,” not the version we listened to yesterday in class. This was a home recording from 1986. The sound quality is not as good, but his fiddling was stronger.

Greasy Strings

This recording is not in the Tune Archive, but on my web site, drdosido.net. I’ve started to tell his story here.

Fiddle 4 (Monday) – week 1

Paul — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:53:12 +0000

It was January 9th, so we learned The Ninth of January, Bob Holt’s version of the Eighth of January. Bob’s version was learned from his father. It differs some from the more conventional melody of The Eighth of January. Bob started to call his version of The Ninth in recognition of distinction.

The Ninth of January from Bob Holt of Ava, Missouri

medium tempo

I passed out Abcs for the tune. Here is a short tutorial on how to use Abc notation.