[ViolaMutt]

Hi Roland and everyone,
I agree completely. I have heard only a few Scottish fiddlers in person, but the difference between Alisdair Fraser and Cape Breton’s Natalie MacMasters is obvious.
I put the reference to Skinner’s booklet on for general information. He does give an example of where the up bow comes in.
Bruce McGregor’s lesson on youTube you mention is the only video example I’ve seen.

I had a group lesson with Alisdair where we accented the upbow on beat 4 and a downbow on 7 to change the beat from the usual 1 and 3 emphasis, if I remember right.

Learning by ear is vastly better than books, for sure, which is why I have returned to FIDDLEVIDEO.

Cheers!

[ViolaMutt]

People who only write about music grab on to ideas like this that they can undertand and exggerate their importance, IMHO.
There is a booklet by J. Scott Skinner himself, “A Guide to Bowing”, published by The Hardie Press and distributed by Mel Bay Publications in the US. The short down at the tip followed by two swift upbows is one of the examples given in the booklet. There are no recordings to accompany the book, but there are some samples of Skinner’s playing on the internet. (For example: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/scottskinner/musicclips.shtm)
The audio is poor, but you can hear that he was a very forceful player -even more so than Hanneke, I think. The early recording process might be exaggerating the grit and burr a bit, but he sounds wild and fast.
I think there is a huge variance in Scottish fiddle playing styles, from nearly classical to almost raucous, and differences in ways of playing the ornaments, too. I love this richness!
Hanneke’s lessons are so helpful in creating a believable Scottish sound. I’m an American who might never have the chance to study in Scotland. I can learn from Hanneke without literally imitating her style…
Cheers to all !

• This reply was modified 8 years, 1 month ago by ViolaMutt.

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