On Fri, 12 Jan 2001 11:56:46 +0000, David Kilpatrick wrote:
>on 12/1/2001 2:40 am, Keith W Dunn at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>> Is anyone on the list familiar with a fiddle ornament called a "birlin'
>> "?
>I'm not a fiddler at all but I have repaired fiddles, and of course, you
>mess around with them when doing this. As a result (despite the complex
>replies given about up and down strokes and using the heel etc) I just
>thought you let the bow bounce on the string during the stroke for three
>rapid 'burst' notes, more like a single note broken up.
I've heard Irish fiddlers bounce bows for what I call a triplet, but this
is extremely difficult to control. I've heard classical violinists playing
traditional music do a form of it as well - lifting the bow after each
short stroke. This sounds exactly like a classical violinist playing
traditional tunes. There's probably a fancy Italian name for the
technique.
I've tried for a long time to get triplets down. More knowledgable people
than I told me the move was accomplished primarily with the wrist.
Practicing the up-down-up or down-up-down using the wrist and keeping the
arm as immobile as possible helped. Naturally, you have to move your arm
when playing a tune, but this excercise got me to relax my wrist. I've
made progress - every now and then I can hit a triplet correctly.
Jeri, who hopes a triplet and a birl/birlin is actually the same thing, or
I'm going to feel really dumb.
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