LESSON: Fills & Ornaments [Beg-Adv]
HELLO!!! Ya CAUGHT ME.
I’M STILL EDITING!
COME BACK FRIDAY, MARCH 20
SEE YOU THEN!
Welcome to a self guided tour!
This series of lessons are designed for the self-motivated fiddlers out there. In the following 15 mini-masterclasses, I will walk you through “fills” & “ornaments” using a popular jig as our base tune. The basic to intermediate (advanced) techniques can be transfered to other tuners. Each lesson gives you an explanation and a basic skill that you will use as a building block for the next lesson. I am just giving you ideas, the practicing, exploring, drilling and musical choices will be up to you. Since fiddling is an aural tradition, I chose to present the lessons in audio form but provided sheet music examples to support music readers, too.
Have fun!
Gretchen
LESSON OVERVIEW
Learn Kesh Jig #1 Dance Tempo, #2 Learning Tempo
Finding Hot Spots #3 Kesh Jig Hot Spots
Rhythmic Fills #4 Explained
HOW TO USE THESE LESSONS
LEARN Kesh Jig
AUDIO LESSON #1: [Kesh Jig (Basic) Dance Tempo] Gretchen plays the tune a brisk dance tempo for listening.
AUDIO LESSON #2: [Kesh Jig (Basic) Play-Along] Gretchen plays the tune at a learning tempo.
FINDING “HOT SPOTS”
AUDIO LESSON #3 [Kesh Jig Hot Spots]
BASIC RHYTHMIC FILLS
AUDIO LESSON #4 [Rhythmic fills explained]
TIME TO FIDDLE AROUND
Once you are comfy playing these two rhythmic fills, play the tune and MIX them UP!!! Try to let the ideas come to you AS YOU PLAY, without a strict plan. To fiddle is a verb: an action. To fiddle you will need to interact with the tune. Let’s fiddle around!
DRONES
Whoo hoo! Let’s play two strings at the same time by added an open string to your “hot spot” melody note. Some drones sound pretty played with the open string below the melody note (aka lower, bass, left) and others sound nicer using the open string above the melody note (aka upper, right, treble).
If you find this technique challenging, this lesson may be skipped, as you don’t need this skill for the next lessons. But, practice the drone exercise and COME BACK another time.
AUDIO: Hear Gretchen play the drones throughout the “hot spots” in this tune.
TIME TO FIDDLE AROUND
To fiddle is a verb! Let’s go!
AUDIO: Play along with Gretchen as she blends slides, fills and drones.
MELODIC FILLS
AUDIO: Gretchen demonstrates melodic fills in combination with rhythmic fills.
AUDIO: Play along with Gretchen as she plays through the A part using the various rhythmic and melodic fills from previous lessons.
Adding Mixing melodic fills (int/adv)
AUDIO: Gretchen explains upper/lower melodic fills and how to choose.
AUDIO: Gretchen plays through using a variety of “above/ below” melodic fills, demonstrating improvisation.
SLIDES
AUDIO: Gretchen explains slides and demonstrates how to incorporate with various fills/ drones.
AUDIO: Gretchen demonstrates slides in the tune, showing how to vary the speed for a different effect.
TAKE TIME TO FIDDLE AROUND
AUDIO: Play along as Gretchen uses fills, drones, slides to play the A part.
BASIC ORNAMENTATION
I will use the terms “cut” and “roll,” but you may also hear a cut referred to as a flick, grace notes, triplets, half roll, half turn, etc. You may hear roll called a full roll, turn, etc. A cut symbol looks like half of a roll, which, if you look at the notes, it is!
CUTS
10. ROLLS
Alternate notes
Placement, as with the cuts, will vary.
