André’s Reel
(If your system has trouble playing this video, scroll to the bottom of the page for our Standard Video Player)
Here is a quick moving fiddle tune to add to your repertoire. The tune was composed by Fiddlevideo instructor Casey Willis and named after another instructor, André Brunet. The tune is based in the Key of G, and drops down over an Em chord for the second part. Casey breaks down a basic and advanced version in this lesson module.
Click HERE to download the performance audio MP3 file to your computer. Once you transfer the file to your mobile device, you can hear the tune whenever you wish! Listening to the audio performance is a great way to prepare to learn this tune…
Sheet Music for the Basic Melody:
Can’t view the sheet music? Get the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader:
This I love, and the music has bowings. This is going to be my piece.
Eureka! I have it. The bowing pattern that gives this style its flavor is: up bow 3 note slurs that begin off the beat, followed by a single down bow, followed by another up bow 3 note slur and even that gets repeated into longer phrases at times. Its a sort of syncopation, the phrases get broken up in the middle in a way that is very awkward for me to do yet. That is the secret to this sound. Well, not the only secret but a big part of it. Its hard as heck for me to wrap my mind around! I spent an hour on slow speed trying to dope out the signature phrase of this marvelous piece, my god was I confused. Easy piece you said, Ha! For you easy, you have this pattern well wired in! Its OK, I understand it now. When this pattern gets wired into my brain I will have a real tool and can invent my own riffs and improvise as well.
This site is great, it is fantastically helpful, Very well worth my money and effort. Thanks!
HI Ian, Andre’s Reel is a really cool piece of music so I must like it as much as you. Congrats on the bowing accomplishment as sometimes the simplest bowing can be complex to achieve. Casey sure breaks it down and it sounds easy but takes some work. I love this tune having met Andre and I think it captures his high energy spirit. Thanks for posting. Roland White Forum Moderator
Hi Roland, He can be very proud of this tune, its lively, very pretty, and a bit sophisticated structurally, with an ABCA form, I am finding this style, (which is new for me) very melodic, which is very refreshing after having played a lot of jazz in recent years, which often loses the melody pretty fast and becomes esoteric. Not fiddle music, its pure melody all the way through.
Awesome to read all these great comments and to hear of your success linking bowing techniques to execution, Ian. You are absolutely approaching this tune and fiddling in general in the right way. Keep it up!!!
C