DAY 5

Nashville fiddle camp is over, for good.  Mark will still hold his strings conference in NYC and at UCLA, but the Nash version is caput.  I have to say that I’ll miss it quite dearly.  It was such a beautiful outdoors environment in which you could lose yourself to all things fiddle.  Sure, there were chiggers and ticks and the air was thick with moisture and heat, but you don’t really care or notice.  Sure, your fingers stick together, your glasses are sliding off your face, and you hope for the best when shifting, but we are all suffering the same perils of the fiddle.  Sure, you can’t remember how that tune starts, or you just don’t know that tune, but there’s someone here who does and is more than willing to share.

Fiddle camp really exists, people. I invite you to crash one sometime.  Your life will never be the same…

Casey’s Camp Jam Hour

Devil’s Dream (A)
Sweet Georgia Brown (G)
Irish Washerwoman (G)
Cripple Creek (A)
Arkansas Traveller (D)
Angelina Baker (D)
• This is the only tune we repeated. It’s a great simple standard for all…a fine way to close our our camp jam.

Teaching: Back-up & Accompaniment

DAY 4

Today was one of those days that I’ll remember . . . not so much because of camp (though today was a fun day), but because I was at camp.  Specifically, I was in the parking lot when I heard the knews that Michael Jackson passed away.  While heading home at midnight after a full day and 4hrs of sleep, I gave myself a healthy dose of Thriller and Off the Wall for company.  I think the cops who were strategically placed to intercept speeders at my second to last turn towards home could hear me singing to “Don’t Stop ‘Till You Get Enough.”

Casey’s Camp Jam Hour

Old Joe Clark (A)
Clinch Mountain Backstep (A)
Swallowtail Jig (Em)
Ashokan Farewell (D)
Whiskey Before Breakfast (D)
Salt Creek (A)
St. Anne’s Reel (D)

Teaching: Repertoire (Slightly oddball tunes of the modernish variety)

Intermediate Class:
• Land’s End (D) by Tim O’Brien.  3 part jig with an intricate 3rd part.  Long been one of my favorites and beginning to surface in jam circles.

Advanced Class:
• Up on the High Road (Em) by Tim O’Brien.  2 part tune with lyrics.  It’s a haunting melody with very interesting chord changes.  There are also lyrics though we didn’t tackle singing.

• Big Country (E) by Béla Fleck.  AABA tune with very lyrical (and at times syncopated) melody…not your standard 4/4 fiddle tune. Great harmonic movement to accompany a more flowing melody.

DAY 3

We’re over (as my friend calls it) humpday…that’s midweek, people. Strangers are now friends and friends are, well, better friends. Buddy Spicher’s western swing band played in the pavilion and we all cut a concrete rug. Girls danced with girls. Boys sometimes danced with girls. I didn’t notice any boys dancing with boys. But hey, anything can happen at camp.

Casey’s Camp Jam Hour

Black & White Rag (G)
Grey Eagle (A)
Waltz You Saved For Me (D) **Recording in C**
Red Wing (G)
Golden Slippers (G)
Sitting on Top of the Mountain (G)
Chicken Reel (D)

Teaching: Solo Development

• You have your melody, chords and scales to learn (of course), but there’s more…
• Tell a story >> Introduce characters, develop the plot, climax, resolve;
• Draw inspiration from emotions surrounding life circumstances >> eg. your boyfriend, someone you want to be your girlfriend, a favorite movie or piece of art, a situation you just experienced, etc;
• Tension & Release >> vary the register and speed of notes,  use repetition of ideas, explore consonant & dissonant harmony;
• Develop small melodic statements or motifs
• Call & Response >> have a conversation with yourself, a partner, or a musical group;
• Create variations on the melody
• Don’t be afraid to rest;

chop chop,
casey

Coming to you LIVE from Mark O’Connor’s Fiddle Camp . . .

Day 2

Casey’s Camp Jam Hour

Big Mon (A)
Sugar Foot Rag (A)
Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down (G)
Jesse Polka (G)
Cherokee Shuffle (A)
Angelina Baker (D)
Musical Preist (Bm)

Teaching: Double-Stops

*Note: I had a moment today where I was waiting for my class to arrive…15min into session, they still weren’t there.  I thought, “Hmmm, no one wants to learn about double-stops from me today.” It turned out that I was at the wrong location (Cabin 14 when I was supposed to be at Tent D).  My class was on time and waiting…I was 15min late.  Sorry class!

• Learn arpeggio of chord in question;
• Explore all possible two note (double-stop) combos of notes in arpeggio;
• Arpeggios in double-stops (ascending & descending);
• Harmonize single note melody of a song by using double-stops;
• Serge Korgouf exercises for double-stopping and finger independence;

2 of 5 . . .

casey