Taking a bow

Following my injury last weekend, I have been unable to play the fiddle, since any attempt to rotate my left wrist is excrutiating and I can't even get my fingers onto the fingerboard. However, my violin teacher will work with me to improve my bowing technique and this is a positive thing. She agrees that I had been making faster progress with my left hand than with my right hand. This is probably the norm for many fiddlers, but now I have a chance to really focus on improving my bowing technique.

Hopefully, by the time my left hand is ready to play again, it will have a little catching up to do!

Con-session

I attended an Irish session at Rosie Connolly's in downtown Richmond last night. This session meets on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays in the back room of the pub. I arrived at about 7:15 and took a seat at the bar, ordering a pint of Harp and began chatting with the regulars. Shortly after eight, several players wandered in and I followed them to the back room, taking a seat at the edge of the session area. I explained my plight and they seemed OK with my observing and listening. Six musicians attended the session and they played these instruments:

fiddle
guitar & whistle
mandolin & whistle
flute
whistle
flute, whistle, & bodhran

Within half an hour, the back room had a healthy crowd of patrons who apparently come to listen each session. Sometime early in the second hour, a couple appeared and took a table nearby. They were wearing Scottish festival attire and produced a bodhran, occasionally tapping on it as quietly as one might during various tunes, sometimes together, sometimes not. They were strictly novices, but deserve credit for having the courage to try.

Naturally, I paid a lot of attention to the fiddle player's technique. He is definitely a better player than I, though I think that I can play at tempo with him after several months of practice. He is the keeper of the set list and said that he would e-mail it to me. While sitting on the edge of the session, I occasionally asked about the music being played and wrote down the tunes as the players told me. My list has twenty entries, fewer than half of the tunes played.

The session went until about 10:30pm, at which point a couple of players started packing up. I took that as my exit cue as well. I will return, listen, and observe. When my elbow is healed, I will begin practicing the tunes and perhaps by late winter or early spring, will be able to play them competently enough so as not to embarrass myself there.

Elbowed out

Helga, she-wolf radiology technician of the SS, took her sweet time with me today at the hospital. In a mere 30 minutes, she had me grimacing, cursing, gasping, and clawing at the ceiling in agony, under the pretext of "positioning" my arm for better x-ray shots.

The bottom line is that I have a fractured elbow and do not expect to play the fiddle again for at least six weeks. This will be a test of will for me. I will be tempted to start earlier than that, but wish to avoid long-term damage, so probably won't risk it.

They made a convert out of me

Found an extremely useful web page on a site called Concertina.net. It is the ABC Convert-A-Matic and it takes an abc text string and automagically gives back a midi file, a PDF file and correctly formatted ABC source text.

Very, very cool.

Good news and bad news

First, the good news. A fellow I had contacted regarding Irish sessions in Richmond, VA wrote back and said that there are 2nd and 4th Wednesday sessions in Richmond at Rosie Connolly's, a pub downtown on Main street. He said that there are also sessions on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays, but he doesn't know where.

Now, the bad news. It seems that I was overly exuberant on Saturday and either tore or sprained a ligament in my left forearm. I feel pain when I try to rotate my left hand and that means no fiddling for at least a couple of weeks. I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon to find out the details, but I already miss playing very badly.

I could use a good tune (up)

Here is my current tune list. The number in parens before is my relative confidence level in the tune, on a scale of 1-10.

(6) Atholl HIghlander's March - D - March (Scottish)
(6) Mist Covered Mountains of Home - Em - Air (Scottish)
(6) Roslin Castle - Em - Air (Scottish)
(6) The Butterfly - Em - Slip Jig (Irish)

(5) Ae Fond Kiss - D - Air (Scottish)
(5) Archibald McDonald of Keppoch - Dm - Air (Scottish)
(5) Crossing to Ireland - D - Waltz (Scottish)
(5) Road to Lisdoonvarna - D - Jig (Irish)
(5) The Skye Boat Song - D - Waltz (Scottish)

(4) Da New Rigged Ship - Adorian - Reel (Shetland)
(4) MacDonald Lord of the Isles - Bm - Air (Scottish)
(4) The Lea Rig - G - Air (Scottish)
(4) Toss the Feathers - Em - Reel (Irish)

(3) A Man's a Man for A' That - A - March (Scottish)
(3) Josefin's Waltz - A - Waltz (Swedish/Irish)

(2) Da Full Rigged Ship - Am - Jig (Shetland)
(2) Gin ye kiss my wife, I'll tell the minister - Am - Air (Scottish)
(2) Leaving Brittany - Dm - Waltz (Scottish)
(2) Mary Ann MacDougall's - A - March (Cape Breton)
(2) Spootiskerry - G - Reel (Shetland)
(2) Ye Banks and Braes - G - Pastoral (Scottish)

A useful tool for a fiddlin' fool

I have begun using PrintMusic software to help with my progress. This product was originally intended to aid musicians in composition and arrangement. I am able to use it to help with my fiddle practice by grabbing midi files of various tunes which I want to learn from The Session, Fiddler's Companion, JC's Tunefinder, Gatherer, or Upton, importing them into PrintMusic and then displaying the music on the screen of my desktop or laptop. I can then add a pickup measure, change the key, add grace notes, etc. until the tune is exactly what I want, save it as my own arrangement and then practice it ad nauseum.

This is aided by a very cool function in PrintMusic which allows the user to select an instrument (such as fiddle, flute, etc.) to play back the music through the computer's speakers. The great thing is that you can slow the playback speed to a crawl, half speed, three-quarter speed, or anything you want. AND it highlights each note in the music score as it plays the tune. This allows me to read the music as I am playing it along with the computer, which helps enormously with intonation and timing. I usually add a repeat symbol to the end of the piece and have it repeat the piece ten times at a clip as I play along with it.

I recently gifted this software to a very close friend who is also learning the fiddle and she was delighted when she saw its capabilities. I hope that you benefit similarly.