BLUEGRASS FIDDLE

The final camp class was a short morning session. The end of camp concert was held in the afternoon.

We started by learning a tenor twin part to Roanoke.  We finished off our week of instruction with a review of all our Blue Ridge Cabin Home parts: melody, double-stops, and fills in 3-part harmony.

My class kicked off the student concert with our rousing twin fiddle rendition of Roanoke.

Later that day I played fiddle and mandocaster for Darrell Scott’s set.  Here’s a picture of the view from the stage before it got crowded.

Thanks to all for a great week at camp and thanks to the energetic crowd at the festival.

see you somewheres,

casey

BLUEGRASS FIDDLE

The first half of the morning was spent learning fills (instrumental lines between vocal phrases) on Blue Ridge Cabin Home. We learned them in triple fiddle harmony!

The last half of the morning was dedicated to learning the tune Roanoke (G).

MOUNTAIN TOP JAM

For the afternoon, campers and instructors took the Dream Catcher chairlift to the summit of the mountain — with instruments. We jammed on an observation platform overlooking the Grand Tetons. The only requirement was that the song had to reference mountains.

How Mountain Girls Can Love (G)
She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain (D)
Sitting on Top of the World (E)
Down in the Valley (A)
High on the Mountain Top (F)
Blue Ridge Mountain Blues (E)
Mountain Dew (B)
Foggy Mountain Top (F)
Sow Them on the Mountain (Carter Family tune…couldn’t find a recording)
Fire on the Mountain (A)

It was a great day in the mountains.

casey

BLUEGRASS FIDDLE

We started off today with a review of our melody and double-stop versions of Blue Ridge Cabin Home. It was then time to work on 3 of 4 different ways of playing fiddle accompaniment.

1) The Chunk: This is a short and articulate down bow on beats 2 & 4 in which the chord (a double-stop on lowest two strings) is heard.

2) The Shuffle: This is a generally constant 8th note ‘sawing’ motion of the bow. Rocking between strings is welcome. We tried emphasizing beats 2 & 4 as well as repeating this pattern of accented 8th notes: 3,3,3,3,4.

3) The Chop: This is the highly percussive punchy transient backup. Beats 1 & 3 are bass note double-stops while beats 2 & 4 are the crunchy “chop.”  8th note subdivisions are welcome. We created walking bass note double-stop lines for the chords on Blue Ridge Cabin Home and worked out 4/4 and half-time versions.

MUSICAL TENNIS

This was a workshop given with banjoist  Tony Trischka and fellow fiddler Brian Wicklund. We discussed and demonstrated how to listen to your fellow jammers and play off each other.  Here are the tunes we played:

Limehouse Blues (C)
Wheel Hoss (G)
Lonesome Moonlight (Dm)
Foggy Mtn Breakdown (F, E, A, Ab, G)
Big Scioty (G)

ONE ON ONES

I worked on these items with various students in 20min individual sessions.

• Angelina Baker (D) and various likely bowings;

• Straight full bows with an exercise to pinpoint the 7 different planes of bowing existence;

• More intricate chop patterns and study.

• Loosening the right bow wrist and finger joints to increase dexterity and bow speed.

CASEY’S CAMP JAM

Tyler Grant and Tony Trischka and I joined forces for tonight’s jam.

Blackberry Blossom (G)
Sandy Boys (A)
Clinch Mountain Backstep (A)
Fisher’s Hornpipe (D)
Red Haired Boy (A)
I’ll Fly Away (F)
Westphalia Waltz (G)
Dixie Breakdown (G)

Here’s a view from one of my walk/jogs up on the mountain.

casey

I just spent a week in the gorgeous Teton Mountains up at Grand Targhee Resort. This bluegrass camp leads up to the Grand Targhee Bluegrass festival.  If you ever get out here in the summer, be sure to hike or take the chairlift to the summit. The view is ridiculous.

BLUEGRASS FIDDLE CLASS

My class was composed of seven students of varying experience and age. I did my best to find material that all could benefit from, regardless of ability.

• 12 Bar Blues (in A): This is the foundation of much of our western music. We’ve heard these sounds before, but learning to recognize its chord changes by name can help the student to hear those patterns within Bluegrass. After playing the blues line and turning our “letter” chart into a “number” chart, we explored a couple other fiddle friendly keys.

• Blues Scale (in A): Choosing from these notes can help you solo over the blues. I played 2bar and then 4bar phrases for them to repeat back to me, call & response. This was to familiarize ourselves with the sound of the blues scale and give some ideas for improvising.

• Scale Spelling: By this, I mean each letters of the scale is represented by the numbers 1-7. We learned to spell the A Major scale (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1) first since all other scales we Westerners use are based on the Major sequence. Then we translated the blues scale (1,b3,4,b5,5,b7,1). We tried this with a few different keys.

• Blue Ridge Cabin Home (in A): This is the official camp song that will be performed on the main stage of the festival at the culmination of the camp (and one of the reasons we played in A so much today). I taught a single note version of the melody and then a doublestop version.

ONE ON ONES

Split between two days, I was able to spend 20 concentrated minutes with each student. The others were welcome to sit in on the sessions. Here are the points covered with various students.

• Keep your fingers over fingerboard so they are ready to use at any time…economy of motion.

•Positioning your violin on your shoulder at a 45deg angle from your center with your left elbow directly underneath can help hand placement and allow for longer bows.

• Moving your left thumb so the pad is facing you will turn hand towards fiddle neck and assist pinky placement.

• Long, straight, full bow. Pay attention to the right elbow: on a full bow, it will be in, then out, then in again. Try looking in a mirror to see your bow’s position. I gave a long bow & string coordination exercise.

• Play melodies slowly with a metronome to coordinate the notes with the bow changes. Only when they are in sync does the metronome get quicker.

• Bb is your friend. Spend some time together. Get to know each other. You’ll both feel better afterwards.

Here’s a picture from my flight the day before.

Day 2 on it’s way….

casey

Here is the final day from Bluegrass Week at Augusta Heritage Camps.

ADVANCED FIDDLE

As promised to my students, here is the link to Darol Anger’s drone CD.  It’s a great tool for fretless instrument intonation study. All 12 keys are well represented by the perfect 5th interval.

We spent our last day on two tunes.  The first was Brown County Breakdown. It’s a great 3 part tune in E. I taught my version, and then we transcribed one by Kenny Baker.

Brown County Breakdown (E)

If you play the fiddle in public, chances are someone will ask you “Can you play The Devil Went Down to Georgia?” The truth is that it’s not really a fiddle tune, it’s a singing song. However, there’s an awesome tune by Vassar Clements that the fiddling part of TDWDTG is based off of called Lonesome Fiddle Blues. Next time you’re asked for the Devil song, you can satisfy the request with this fiddle tune.

Lonesome Fiddle Blues (Dm)

The final day of camp ended with the student concert. My students performed their dazzling twin fiddle version of Wheel Hoss (which we learned the first day).

Thanks to all for a great week!
casey