Fiddle update 1: Calico Tuning & Old-Time music
Hi, friends!
Gosh, I hope you're all doing well. Thanks for subscribing to my podcast!
If you've heard or read me talk about anything in the last 5 months, you've probably heard me talk a LOT about fiddle. I've been playing fiddle since before 8th grade, and I've realized over the past years that it's a core aspect of my life. I've really been getting back into it this year after settling into Portland and finding its traditional music communities.
Lately I've been playing around with cross tunings1 after my friend Kate2 told me about Calico3 tuning. Normally a violin is tuned to GDAE, with G being the lowest string and E the highest. In that tuning, the strings are all a perfect fifth4 apart from the next highest string, which sounds nice enough when you play them at the same time. In Calico tuning, you tune the strings to AEAC#; the A and E are still a fifth apart, but you have one low A and another A an octave higher. The A and C# make a major third5, which means they sound real nice when you play them together, and if you add on the E you have an A major chord. All this means that Calico tuning is basically a free chord you can saw away on without even putting your fingers down on the fingerboard. (One of its siblings is sort of jokingly called Galico, which I've also heard called emo calico hehe).
Cross tunings are really useful for old-time music6, a genre of traditional music that has intimidated me for /years/. After playing Irish music for ~20 years I've really internalized the tune structures, the rhythms, and the melodic trends, and when I'm playing old-time, I can't fall back on any of those. In some ways it feels like swimming out in open water.
Some of the first tunes I'm learning in Calico tuning:
- Happy Hollow7 - real easy, real sweet
- Grigsby's Hornpipe8 - I've been wanting to learn this one for years since my Arizona fiddle teacher gave me this album in 2010
- Hunting the Buffalo9 - a classic I guess?
All this to say I'm having a lot of fun, getting outside my comfort zone, really testing the limits of my violin strings.
Let's close this one out with some music recs, old-time fiddle edition:
- Tatiana Hargreaves & Allison de Groot10
- Brittany Haas11
- Laurel Premo12 (is she even actually playing old-time?? gosh don't ask me I'm new here)
SOON, in another fiddle update: I've been getting deeper into Cape Breton13 and Scottish14 style music since I started taking lessons with Hanneke Cassel, and I'm set to start taking private lessons with both Jenna Moynihan16 and Maura Shawn Scanlin17 (!!!!!!!!) !!!!!!! Did you know that you can just email the people you wish you could play like and ask them if they do lessons??? Apparently it's true!
Links, in case you're seeing all this in plain text:
- [1] Cross tunings on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_tuning
- [2] Kate Gregory playing with Cameron DeWhitt on the podcast Get Up in the Cool: https://getupinthecool.fireside.fm/274
- [3] A nice illustration of a calico cat: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Illustration_by_Jean_Bernard,_digitally_enhanced_by_rawpixel-com_120.jpg#/media/File:Illustration_by_Jean_Bernard,_digitally_enhanced_by_rawpixel-com_120.jpg
- [4] Perfect Fifth on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_fifth
- [5] Major Third on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_third
- [6] What's Old-time music? https://www.blueridgemusicnc.com/listen-and-learn/music-styles/old-time/
- [7] Happy Hollow, as played by Eden & Lukas Pool: https://youtu.be/iBg_rIdgUmY
- [8] Grigsby's Hornpipe, off an album called Republic of Strings: https://youtu.be/9WZ6tt28JfA
- [9] Hunting the Buffalo, played by Janet Foster on fiddle and Paul Draper on banjo: https://youtu.be/SlimBUuiN3E
- [10] Tatiana Hargreaves and Allison de Groot's album of the same name: https://allisonandtatiana.bandcamp.com/album/allison-de-groot-tatiana-hargreaves
- [11] Brittany Haas's self-titled album: https://brittanyhaas.bandcamp.com/album/brittany-haas
- [12] Laurel Premo's album The Iron Trios: https://laurelpremo.bandcamp.com/album/the-iron-trios
- [13] What's Cape Breton music? https://www.cbsession.com/cape-breton-music
- [14] Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas playing some Scottish tunes: https://youtu.be/nwgcvxsOeyI
- [15] Hanneke Cassel playing some Cape Breton tunes: https://youtu.be/pAwtn20e6ic
- [16] Jenna Moynihan & Mairi Chaimbeul playing a tune written by Jenna: https://youtu.be/xk50Bjj6FDA
- [17] Maura Shawn Scanlin & Eamon Sefton playing a set: https://youtu.be/FRh2qun2iiI