Bowing

[FidlinBows]

Patty, How do you go about figuring out the bowing directions?

[Patti Kusturok]

Hi! I find that bowing is a personal choice, and when I break down a tune to teach it, I see the same patterns arising in the waltzes for instance, as well as the reels and other types of tunes. The bowings are there to help, not hinder, and allow us to accomplish many things – a sweet tone, the ability to play faster, creating ‘feel’, etc. For me they come naturally and I have never had to think about them or “work them out.” Indeed a blessing, and also interesting when I do discover that they can be carried from tune to tune.

There are some “rules” like wanting to have a down bow on the down beats, but I prefer to call them “suggestions” because there are always exceptions.

You can check out the waltz and reel bowing tutorials for examples of some of those patterns that repeat from tune to tune.

Thanks!!

Patti

[Casey Willis]

Thanks much, Patti. Good advice here.

C

[ulla_petersen]

“There are some “rules” like wanting to have a down bow on the down beats, but I prefer to call them “suggestions” because there are always exceptions.”

Yes, it seems to me that e.g. Kevin Burke often starts with an up bow, also on the “down” beats 🙂

• This reply was modified 7 years, 6 months ago by ulla_petersen.

[Roland White]

Greetings,

Great tips and comments on bowing folks. I will agree that down bow on down beat is a good basic concept and its always helped me get organized, but almost all the best fiddlers I’ve talked to say that one still has to be ready to execute your tune if your down bow and down beat get off.

I have to confess that as a feel player I rarely work on my bowing direction and I work more on the overall sound of not having to many slurs but create a nice balance of bow direction changes against the slurs to make the tune dynamic & interesting.

On up bows on down beats, I have heard over the years Irish ahfficiando’s refer to certain players as having “that wonderful up bow” in their music. I believe Kevin refers to that in his newest tutorial when he talks about the emphasis on the bow on up beats 2 and 4 rather than on 1 & 3. I’ve also observed a lot of up bow slurs in the Contest/Texas style of fiddling with top fiddlers. Most all Texas fiddlers talk about how important it is to get the bowing in order to get the real feel of Contest Texas fiddling style.

Whatever the bowing style is there are some amazing fiddlers that I would say their bowing is what makes that tune catch your interest and I love the saying, “its the Dance of the Right Hand that makes the Music Alive.” Cheers all and Happy Fathers Day to our Key Master Casey and all the other Fathers in Fickle Video land. Roland Forum Moderator

[FidlinBows]

Thanks Patti. I don’t worry about bowings at a jam. However, I have learned from studying your video waltz’s
and trying the phrases with and without your suggested bowings, that it “does” make a difference to what a listener hears. Maybe you could call it a better flow or maybe it just sounds more polished. But there is a definite difference there and I appreciate that you are teaching all the details in your videos. When I am asked to play a tune (usually a waltz) at a jam, I want that polished sound.

Thanks for your comments. Perfect.

[FidlinBows]

One more comment: Several years ago white visiting Mountain View AR, a fiddle player told me that basically (I guess this would be olde time music) to play two and slur two.

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