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New Fiddle Books
AltStrings Fiddle Method by Caroline McCaskey
Great fiddle books for Suzuki students
Caroline demonstrates "chopping" on YouTube
FIDDLE BOOKS
Listening/Viewing
Also see: Fiddle Tunes with MP3s
Fiddling for Viola
Anonymous, Fiddling Fingers. (Beginning Fiddling Lessons for String Classes or Individual Learners (Viola Book - Audio CD Included))
Edward M. Caner, Fiddling for Classical Kids - Viola Part. (Providing stylistic fundamentals For Celtic, Bluegrass, Old-Time, Texas, and Jazz Fiddling)
Edward M. Caner, Fiddling for Classical Stiffs - Viola
Craig Duncan:Christmas Solos for Beginning Viola Easy Solos for Beginning Viola Rhythmic Studies for Beginning Viola Sacred Melodies for Solo Viola The Student Violist: Bach - Viola and Piano The Student Violist: Beethoven - Viola and Piano The Student Violist: Mozart - Viola and Piano Technical Studies for Beginning Viola
Michael Hoffheimer, Fiddling for Viola. Traditional Irish and American Fiddle Tunes Arranged for Viola
Bob Phillips and Andrew H. Dabczynski, Basic Fiddlers Philharmonic Celtic Fiddle Tunes (Viola)
Bob Phillips and Andrew H. Dabczynski, Basic Fiddlers Philharmonic Old-Time Fiddle Tunes (Viola)
Brian Wicklund and Faith Farr, The American Fiddle Method, Volume 1 - Viola Book/CD Set
Anne C. Witt, Scottish Fiddling for Viola
RE: Fiddle and Alternative Styles
Teaching Fiddle:
I frequently have students contact me who are studying law or working on a Ph.D. in a science subject, who are clearly not planning on becoming professional musicians (though some approach that level), but who "want to know everything" while mainly their focus is fiddle. In these cases, I still use Suzuki book 1, but add the Fiddle Time Runners, and Fiddle Time Joggers, along with a lot of handouts and a lot of listening but using more an aural tradition [See "Easy Fiddle" link, below].
By observing the posts on Fiddle Hangout (very friendly list) and Fiddle-L, a forum based at Brown University, I have come to understand the real distinction between classical music orientation and folk/fiddle orientation. Learning fiddle is not done by the book, but by listening and teaching improvisation techniques. This is the way folk and popular music is frequently learned, and I highly recommend it.
Like studying the viola, studying fiddle takes the classically trained violinist out of their comfort zone, and is wonderful for the development of their musicianship. There are also sociological and cultural issues, and it's incredibly interesting. [See also, below: How many difference fiddle styles are there?]
From the Violin/Viola FAQ:
How many different fiddle styles are there?
The "art music" versus popular or folk music discussion: The distinction is between so-called "art music" and popular or folk music. This distinction is no longer very meaningful, however, as the social classes that participate in these art forms are pretty much completely across-the-board. In other words, highly educated individuals enjoy playing "fiddle," and discovering what that art form is about, and students from all social classes (not just the privileged), study classical music.
There is still some resentment. Sometimes people are taken aback by the term "art music," assuming that this phrase suggests that other musics are not art (understandable, actually). But nothing could be further from the truth. The phrase "art music" is found in every musicology textbook, and simply means a distinction between academically oriented music versus popular or folk musics. It is not pejorative.
If you trace the history of music from the Renaissance to the present, it is evident how events in music mirror the socioeconomic events in human history. In the early development of Western "art music," this music was mostly created for the European wealthy class. There was no middle class - until the Industrial Revolution.
At that time, entrepreneurs began designing larger concert halls to accommodate the middle class, who could afford concert tickets, and the modern stringed, keyboard, brass and woodwind instruments came into being, in response to the acoustic needs of these big halls.
This is an important fact that students should understand. The "piano-forte" (our modern piano) was so called because it could play both loudly and softly; an ability unknown in the previous keyboard instruments (like the harpsichord), which were designed for the small "chamber" ensembles, which were an entertainment of the wealthy.
In Arnold Steinhardt's Violin Dreams he wrote about his visit to Mark O'Connor's summer fiddle camp:where violinists of all types -- jazz, bluegrass, country and western, blues, rock, Texas style, old-time, classical, and Cape Breton -- gathered to teach and play. (p. 240, 2006 ed.)
So he mentions eight styles, other than classical. I have a couple of questions about this: (a) Should there be other styles on this list?; and (b) What are the definitions of each?
Responses:"In addition to those already mentioned, I'm aware of the following fiddle styles: Irish, Scottish, French, Swedish, New England, Midwestern, Quebecois, Southwestern, Alaskan, and Northwestern. These are just the ones I can pull out of my head at the moment, and I'm sure there are many more. . .they vary widely in the type of music played, the bowing styles, and ornamentation. Within Irish fiddle music alone there are as many different styles as there are counties in Ireland."
The list is definitely incomplete. There are other musical cultures in which the violin or fiddle is used extensively, and the style or styles in which the instrument is played would not fit any of the categories already listed. For instance, the violin is a very important instrument in Indian classical music. It is also played quite a bit in Greek traditional music. The category "Gypsy" would not be adequate to represent Hungarian traditional playing as well as Romanian fiddling. We also have all the Native American traditions of fiddle playing, Metis (ND and Canada), Tarahumara and other Northern Mexico tribes, Bolivia, etc...
I can think of five very different fiddle styles in Michoacan. Around Lake Patzcuaro (Morelia, Uruapan); Tierra Caliente part of Michoacan; the southern coast; Tarascan (native fiddle); and modern Mariachi, which is found everywhere but seems strongest to its roots in the western part of the state.
Let me suggest a few styles that have thus far not been mentioned: Son Huasteca, from Veracruz on the Gulf Coast side of Mexico and the son and gusto styles from La Tierra Caliente, over on the Pacific side. Is it proper to call that Son Calientano. And the fiddle is used in Michoacan, in a configuration that differs from its neighbors (Son Michoacano?), Also there's some wonderful fiddle music from the Andes that is unlike any other I've heard. Have you tried to list the various Indian styles in North America? Waila, Athabascan, Metis from the Red River Country, North Woods styles (Anishanabe, Menominee, etc.) And don't forget the Poles (several varieties right here in Chicago), and the Danes, and the Finns, and the South Slavs.
I'm not sure if you can even list all the styles, even in one specific geographic region. West Virginia probably has a half dozen different styles, to the discerning ear, as does North Carolina. Eastern Kentucky is different from Western Kentucky, East Texas/ West Texas, Southern Missouri/Northern Missouri. It goes on and on.
Thus far, we have:
American fiddling (e.g., New England, Northwestern, Midwestern, Southwestern, Appalachian, Missouri, Tennessee) Balkan bluegrass blues Cajun Canadian (e.g., Ottawa Valley, Western/Midwest, North Dakota Norwegian, Ottawa Valley, East Coast, West Coast (Métis), Red River, Prince Edward Island) Cape Breton country and western English French Greek Gypsy (e.g., Serbian, Armenian) Hungarian Indian raga (e.g., Hindustani, Carnatic) Irish (e.g., Donegal, Kerry, Clare, Galway) jazz Klezmer Mariachi Maritime metal Mexican Northumbrian Norwegian old-time (e.g., ragtime) Quebecois rock Romanian Scottish Shetland Southwestern Square Dance Swedish Swing Tarahumara Texas style Western Swing
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