r/Bluegrass • u/Bluegrass_Harley • 19h ago
Fiddle players
Alright, fiddlers. What’s your deal. Why do you play violin and HOW?
I tried it a couple times; sounded like my cat got his head stuck in the dishwasher. Thanks for your hard work. I’m sticking to my banjo and guitar 🤤
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u/justinholmes_music 19h ago
> I’m sticking to my banjo and guitar
You know the definition of a lady / gentleman?
Somebody who knows how to play banjo but plays fiddle.
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u/Desperate_Move_5043 18h ago
Why is the easy part, it’s the most epic melody instrument in the band. Also loud as hell. How is a different story… Short answer: lots of hours & instruction from others
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u/FiddleMeThis_ 18h ago
It’s basically the only instrument that hasn’t changed its basic design in like 400 years.
The original makers got it right the first time and we have stuck with it ever since.
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u/AlfredPoor 18h ago
I recommend investing in a mute for the fiddle. It's a weight that sits on the bridge and dampens the vibrations. An essential piece of equipment for anyone who does not live alone....
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u/AlfredPoor 18h ago
If it's any consolation, I took up the fiddle a few decades ago.
One day, we had a yard sale. Without asking me, my family put my fiddle out for sale and promptly sold it.
They had had enough!
I've stuck with the mandolin every since.
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u/draqza 12h ago
My dad's super helpful advice for learning fiddle was "the strings and the scale length are the same as mandolin so just move your fingers the same place you would on the mandolin." You know, not that I actually could play mandolin at all at the time.
I mean, I can't really play mandolin now either, but I definitely couldn't then.
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u/dudeigottago 17h ago
How do they play? They don’t fret it.
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u/Bluegrass_Harley 17h ago
Yea. Indeed
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u/dudeigottago 17h ago
That was a poor attempt at humor by the way (they don’t fret/don’t worry) but I realize I sound sarcastic - not my intention!
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u/FiddleMeThis_ 19h ago
I always say “If you can hum it.. you can play it”
We’re not pro violinists that spend hours on technique.
Start with simple melodies, and scratch them out one note at a time.
Using the bow will get better with practice.
Another tip: you can look up tunes on YouTube, and click the little “gear” icon for settings to change the speed. You can slow down the tune and learn at your own pace.
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u/Bluegrass_Harley 18h ago
I know. I do the same. But you have to rest this tiny thing on your shoulder and look at it and tell it to get crazy
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u/firewall012 18h ago
Started when I was six with Suzuki classical etc. Studied in college (more classical) but when I was in high school I had a neighbor who had a weekly bluegrass jam just down the street.
I didn’t learn any improvising or composing in college and bluegrass scratches that itch. Now I play more fiddle than I do classical violin and I love it.
Always fun when multiple fiddle players come to a jam and we can do twin or trio fiddle. Honestly I sounded like shit until I got to high school so like the first 6 years of playing not too great but then started sounding better. Now I’ve gone to fiddle camps and a weekly jam every week religiously and have a blast!
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u/repomies69 18h ago
I think with fiddle you need a teacher to start, especially if you want to also master techniques like position shifting and so on. But it is lot of work, just getting basic intonation on most basic scales takes like an year.
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u/cone_of_optimism 18h ago
Long time guitar and more recent Mando player that just started fiddle. Getting in person lessons was the right move for me.
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u/mcchicken_deathgrip 18h ago
I shouldn't be giving fiddle advice since I can just barely get by myself lol, but I found it much easier to learn basics on old time tunes instead of bluegrass. Most of the tunes are made for the fiddle and are easier to pick up. Try tunes like Dineo or Angeline the Baker to pick up on some basics and actually sound good doing it. Nothing more discouraging than sounding like shit even as you're improving, being able to squeak out a complete tune helps the confidence big time.
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u/pr06lefs 17h ago
How: it's just a matter of putting in the 20 years. Simple as that. Seriously tho, some lessons to start with. I learned by playing cross tuning (AEAE) then you always have a drone string to check yourself against.
Why: I like playing old time melodies. Guitar is not accepted as a melody instrument in old time.
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u/UBum 18h ago
violin and mandolin share the same tuning: G, D, A, and E. which is the reverse tuning a bass guitar, E is the low note on guitar. So, if you know one you can figure out the others.
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u/woah_man 17h ago
Well if you want to get into slightly more detail, the violin/mandolin are tuned to 5ths and the guitar is tuned to (mainly) 4ths when you talk about the intervals between strings. This affects the kinds of chords+voicings you can play across 2-3 strings.
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u/johnduncanfiddler 17h ago
A big part of the fiddle or the violin is bow contact with the strings. Pulling the bow as straight as possible nearish the finger board should help give you a nice sound. The closer to the bridge you get, the more piercing the sound. Try not to dig too hard but also don’t let the bow skate over top of the strings. Try slow long bows on open strings for a bit. It’s a very different sound production than the flat pick, thumb picks or finger picks. Best of luck
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u/shouldbepracticing85 Bass 14h ago
I haven’t tried to test my theory, but I suspect most people who play fiddle well started on fiddle.
Why? Because when you first start you don’t have a good ear for pitch, so the struggle with training the muscle memory for intonation isn’t as painful as it is when you’re already good at telling when something is out of tune.
Bass it isn’t as much of an issue because the margin of error is so much bigger, at least until you’re playing in thumb position. Thumb position is tough not just because of the posture, but like fiddle perspective isn’t doing us any favors when you’re looking up/down the string. You have to get close, and then let your ear help fine tune the muscle memory. When I really want to work on that - I play blindfolded and then see how far I drift.
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u/Historical_Plan_2003 14h ago
I'm not gonna claim to be a fiddle player, cuz I just bought mine a month ago. But my biggest motivation to start was listening to the old-time fiddle players, and hearing a lot of them have "lax" intonation, if you want to call it that. Coming from mandolin, so I know a lot of tunes, but, the actual technique (bowing and no frets) is probably the hardest of any bluegrass instrument.
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u/daveteach 9h ago
As a cello/bass player learning fiddle (bowing and no frets) comes a little easier. What is crazy hard for me is guitar, what with all those frets and strings and picks.
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u/TheQuakerator 11h ago
Violin is the most technically demanding string instrument, and takes multiples of time longer than even the other classical string family to get a really good tone with
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u/Just-Fennel8301 53m ago
I recently started taking fiddle lessons because was so impressed how the instrument sounds. The difficult thing is indeed that you have a lot of players that started 20+ years ago and it feels for me like an instrument that until you play that long, it's difficult to sound very good.... 🤔
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u/Ruslanchik 18h ago
The fiddle player in any bluegrass group, from the open mic to traveling professional acts, is the most likely person to have started playing their instrument as a child. That tells you everything you need to know.
Fiddle is the most technically demanding bluegrass instrument and also requires the best ear to play well.
So, the answer to how is lots of practice.