On Sat, 13 Jan 2001 09:53:47 -0800, you wrote:
>Jeri Corlew wrote:
>> I've heard Irish fiddlers bounce bows for what I call a triplet, but this
>> is extremely difficult to control.
>
> Like that ornament that Kevin Burke does all the time? That's kind a
>strange one :-) Some of the most wicked bow ornaments I've ever heard
>come from Tommy Peoples. Donegal music in general fascinates me.
>Probably the only region of Irish music that I like as much as Scottish
>traditional music.
As a matter of fact, it was Kevin Burke I was thinking of. I'd just
started learning fiddle and I went to a Bothy Band concert and couldn't
believe what he seemed to be doing.
>
> Are you thinking of that spicato bow stroke, where the bow sort of
>bounces off the top of the string? The mechanics of that are actually
>different. Natalie MacMaster likes that ornament.
Perhaps. When it comes to proper names of things, I'm mostly clueless. I
believe the violinists mainly use the frog end of the bow for that?
>
>> 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.
>
> How much are you using your fingers? Most of a cut comes from having a
>loose wrist and fingers with a relatively stationary upper arm.
I was mostly joking about the "every now and then" bit, but I'm a long way
from having mastered the technique. I figure if it feels right, I simply
need more practice. This may sound weird, but I found it helped me to turn
my hand so the movement was more up and down than sideways. (I noticed
Harvey Tolman plays like that, and decided to try it.) I don't play with
my hand that way most of the time, but it did help to learn the movement
needed.
The way I do it, it's mostly a hand/wrist movement, sort of like sketching.
Jeri
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