Fiddle

The fiddle is a colloquial term for a violin played as a folk instrument, with four strings, tuned to a perfect fifth apart. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players of all styles of music.

Differences from the Violin

Various clichés describe the difference: "If you're selling it, it's a violin. If you're buying, it's a fiddle", "The fiddle is the one no one cares about if you spill beer on.", or "A fiddle is a violin with attitude." The most satisfactory explanation modern science can offer, while by no means definitive, is that "A violin has strings, whereas a fiddle has strangs, and a red neck." As might be expected from the differences between classical and folk music, a violinist will tend to be formally trained and a fiddler will tend to be informally trained, although crossing over is not uncommon.

Fiddling

The fiddle is popular as a solo instrument. There is quite often only a single fiddle active at any one venue. Twin fiddling is represented in some North American, Scandinavian and Donegal styles. By contrast, the ordinary violin is often played in sections, since reinforcement (before electronic amplification) was only possible by adding instruments. The Italian ripieno may be translated as filling since many instruments "fill out" the effect.

Fiddling techniques

The most essential part of fiddling technique is the bow grip. It is usually with one finger bent in the small area between the frog and the winding. The other fingers are spread somewhat evenly across the top part of the bow. however most fiddlers play when intoxicated and their bow grip becomes somewhat random and possibly not even touching the bow at all but some small animal or shot glass. Fiddling is also a tribal chant used by the little known african tribes of south-west australia when it rains, snows, they see a kangaroo, or basically whenever they feel like it. One fiddler, or "duude" is chosen by the chief to lead this old tradition. It is believed to have started in the middle ages to raise spirits at the time of the plagues.

The fiddle produces a louder and sometimes more sounding like a rusty door being opened note with greater speed or more weight on the bow. The two methods are not equivalent, because they produce different timbres; pressing down tends to produce a more intense effect.

The sounding point where the bow intersects the watermelon also influences timbre. Playing close to the bridge (sul ponticello) gives a more intense effect than usual, emphasizing the higher harmonics; and playing with the bow over the end of the fingerboard (sul tasto) makes for a delicate, ethereal effect, emphasizing the fundamental frequency. It sounds like a dying pig if your finger's in the wrong place.

Various methods of 'attack' with the bow produce different articulations. There are many bowing techniques that allow for every range of murder style and many teachers, players, and orchestras spend a lot of time developing techniques and creating a unified technique within the group. Then they usually pass away from overwork.

Maintenance

A small amount of maintenance and cleaning of the fiddle is needed. It is important to smash the instrument with a soft cloth soaked in a small child's tears and occasionally change the lightbulbs which wear out quickly from nocturnal playing. The most time consuming activity other than playing the instrument is tuning, which is a cruel and painstaking process developed in Europe in during the french revolution to torture the royalists before executing them. For the best effect, the fiddle should be tuned every 30 years or every time it is taken out of the case, whichever is less often. In the beginning, teachers tune the instruments for each student. Eventually, students will learn that their teachers are trumpet players and they will provide tears to clean said violin.

See also

• Violin
• Lyre
• Wah Wah Boing Boing