Scottish Fiddlers?

[Profane James]

Not a fiddler, but would love to hear some!

[OC Richard]

I dated a Scottish fiddler while at University... does that count?

Seriously it was very informative attending numerous fiddle workshops given by Alasdair Fraser, John Turner, and others, as well as numerous Scottish fiddle competitions.

Likewise it was informative for her, to attend Professional Piobaireachd competitions and so forth.

Very glad to have a Scottish fiddler on the forum!

[Tom Fiddles]

Thanks for the reply!

I have done some workshops with John Turner at his Jink and Diddle School in North Carolina ...and it was the fiddling of Alasdair Fraser that first got me interested in playing the old Scots tunes.

I'm hoping to be at the Ligonier, PA Highland Games in September and compete in the fiddle competition this time around.

[estimaa]

The fiddle was always the trade term for the violin in the old days.

I got a training classically.
Tbqh, apart from the oddities of bowing, I can't really see the big difference between a "Scottish fiddler" and a "Fiddle player" who happens to have some scottish roots, and also plays in orchestras and quartets.

I downloaded a pile of the reels & strathspeys etc, playing them in the street in France.
People were a little bemused, including with the tartan.

Here's my heirloom from student days, bought from W E Hill.


I'm working slowly on a scientific project, analysing waveforms v relationship to hair contact sound production. But making only slow progress.



Here's how the scratching looks for real.

[Profane James]

A 'tone hair' argument to parallel the 'tone wood' argument of guitarists?
Interesting...

[estimaa]

No that goes with the BRIDGE argument, which is the territory of the very excellent & capable Yuri Pochekin*.
You can't have that on a guitar.

A typical violin bridge takes times to age, and sounds pretty rough for the 1st 6 months.
Then there's the bass bar and soundpost argument, and the fingerboard adjustment which is about as close to non linear as you can imagine,
fortunately well sorted by above*.

Of course, then we run into the gut v syn + weight, strings argument.
That's the just the instrument!

Then there's the "hair quality" argument which you can't even begin to imagine, as it's plucked from the tails of semi wild horses in semi arid regions of Mongolia, then especially if like me you jump from country to country in mid winter.

A typical day in winter in Russia or China, and you can't even get the hair to loosen off, fully unwound. (ultra dry air).
Take it back to soaking western Europe and it grows magically an extra 5mm.