Here is a fiddle tune, a Swedish reel, that I learned from the Anglo-Scandinavian group Doggerland. It was written I think by the Swedish fiddler Jenny Gustafsson. It is from Doggerland’s lovely album, No Sadness of Farewell.
I have recorded it here in two keys, D minor and G minor. Although it is slightly more straightforward to play in D minor, it is interesting to note how the available chords, half-chords and drones change as we change key. In G minor the possibilities for catching half-chords and drone strings sound much better to my ears.
I will be posting more Scandinavian fiddle tunes, including Norwegian and Swedish reels, polskas and schottis-es here soon.
My online fiddle course — The COMPLETE IRISH FIDDLER – Essentials — is now launched.
Fiddle players, if you are looking to take your fiddle playing to the next level, come and see how I can help you transform your playing.
With modules on fiddle bowing technique and bowing patterns, ornamentation and where to use it, pulse and rhythm, the core Irish tune types, plus all my best exercises and practice tips. This course is guaranteed to take your fiddle playing further.
Something a little different here. This isn’t a fiddle lesson as such, but I want to show you the possibilities of using a very (very) low fiddle tuning. In the video below I am playing using Octave strings on an old fiddle to play Irish fiddle.
Octave strings allow us to play very low fiddle — tuning the strings to a full octave lower than standard tuning! The sound is quite different to a normal fiddle. The pitch is much lower, so sounds much closer to that of a cello.
If you look at the picture of the my fiddle below, you can see how much thicker the strings are to allow us to tune them down to a very low tuning.
The fiddle itself is possibly 250 years old. I haven’t been able to identify its maker, but it seems likely it was made in England (or possibly Germany) between 1780 and 1800. It has been damaged (possibly repeatedly) over that time, but carefully repaired. It’s a lovely instrument, with a real story to tell. I’d love to be able to find out more.
It has always sounded good in its low range, and it is now sounding very nice tuned right down.
You can hear me playing using the octave strings, and this low fiddle tuning, in the video below. I am playing a wonderful reel The Morning Thrush by the great piper James Ennis, father of the renowned piper Seamus Ennis.
On a site called Learn to Play the Fiddle, the question ‘What is a fiddle?’ may seem a little odd! But it is important to know something about the history of the fiddle, how it is different from a violin, and how it ended up with such an important role in Irish music.
Fiddle vs Violin
The first thing to say, is that, today, the fiddle and the violin are exactly the same instrument. (Though, see below for a little more history of the two.) Two different words for the same physical thing. The violin or fiddle is a (normally) four stringed instrument played with a bow, or sometimes plucked.
What is different about the fiddle and the violin, are the styles in which they are normally played.
When people use the word violin they are normally referring to playing classical music. But when people talk about playing the fiddle, they might mean playing traditional or folk music. That could be in the Irish, Scottish, English, old time, bluegrass, Cape Breton, Scandinavian or other styles.
These traditions of music are distinct from each other. But they also have shared ancestries, and even shared tunes, although often played in slightly different ways.
But fundamentally, if we are talking about the instrument itself, the fiddle and the violin are the same thing.
History of the fiddle
Since they are the same instrument, the history of the modern day fiddle is shared with that of the violin.
But stringed instruments have existed for thousands of years, and the modern violin as we know it today has its roots in those ancient stringed instruments. Bowed stringed date back at least as far as the 9th Century.
The earliest example of a medieval bow in Europe, and therefore the earliest evidence of bowed instruments, was excavated in Dublin. It is dated to the 11th Century. A twelfth-century carving of a bowed six string lyre has been found in Co. Kerry. And references to the ‘fiddle’ have been found in accounts from the 7th century.
By 1674 an account mentions ‘in every field a fiddle, and the lasses footing it til they were all of a foam’. (See Fintan Valelly, The Companion to Irish Traditional Music).
The violin in its moden sense, however, begins to take shape in the 16th Century in Italy. We could date the birth of the modern violin to the publication of the Académie musicale, in 1556, by Philibert Jambe de Fer, which gives a description of the violin family much as a modern violin is today.
The modern violin was probably introduced into Ireland by Scottish and English settlers. But its playing in Ireland was undoubtedly influenced by those earlier fiddles, as well as the Irish harp, bagpipes and vocal music traditions.
A traditional style
The style of playing fiddle in the traditional way differ depending on the country, region and tradition. But some commonalities remain.
The fiddle style of, say, bluegrass, old time, cajun playing are noticeably different from those of say, Sweden, or Ireland, or Shetland.
However, we can see some similarities. The fiddle was predominantly played for dancing in most cultures. So the tunes and the manner of playing are often distinctly rhythmic.
Likewise, since the tunes were almost always passed from player to player (oral transmission) the tunes themselves often have clear structures. Short repeated parts are common, and the tunes themselves are also often short, and repeated two or more times.
While the tunes are often simple, they are made more varied with the use of fingered ornamentation, or ornamenation with the bow, chords or drones, improvisation and variation. These things are to be found in many fiddle traditions.
In Ireland, the fiddle playing style is slightly different in different regions — such as the Sliabh Luachra or Donegal fiddle traditions — and obviously between different fiddle players.
But ornamentation such as rolls and cuts are commonplace, as is an emphasis on ‘lilt’ – a combination of rhythmic bowing and slightly swung phrasing, with slurs often used into or across the beat.
In this Irish fiddle lesson, I’ll teach you a lovely hornpipe called the Lone Bush.
The Lone Bush is an Ed Reavy composition, a really fine Irish hornpipe. Fiddle players will enjoy the slightly challenging B part, which will test your left hand technique.
Ed Reavy is one of my favourite composers of Irish traditional music. He wrote some absolutely cracking tunes, many of which are often played in the Irish session scene. His reels are especially well known. But his other types of tune are also excellent, including this great hornpipe.
Fiddle player and composer Ed Reavy was born in County Cavan in Ireland, but moved to the United States at the age of 14 and lived in the Philadelphia area for the rest of his life. He was a prolific composer – 126 tunes of his survive, and we are grateful to his brother Joseph Reavy for transcribing them, as Ed himself never wrote any of his tunes down.
The Lone Bush is not a well-known Irish session tune – but maybe it should be! In this lesson I play the whole tune through first on the fiddle, then I play it through slowly and in close up so that you can work out the melody.
I’ll break down a passage in the B part that is slightly tricky on the fiddle and give you some ideas about how to learn to play it well.
I also take you through some different fiddle bowing to get that Irish hornpipe sound. I really hope that you enjoy learning this great tune for Irish fiddle. Hornpipes aren’t played often enough, so take it away to your Irish sessions and play it! I would like to spread the word about Ed Reavy’s fine hornpipes!
Ed Reavy said of the title to this tune, that he would often look out at the little Hawthorn bush that stood outside his farmhouse. “Many times he wondered about that bush and why it surviced when all it perished. It has meant many things to him and has always been a life-sustaining thought”.
My online fiddle course — The COMPLETE IRISH FIDDLER – Essentials — is now launched.
Fiddle players, if you are looking to take your fiddle playing to the next level, come and see how I can help you transform your playing.
With modules on fiddle bowing technique and bowing patterns, ornamentation and where to use it, pulse and rhythm, the core Irish tune types, plus all my best exercises and practice tips. This course is guaranteed to take your fiddle playing further.
Jim Ward’s, or Jimmy Ward’s, jig is a traditional Irish jig, which I’m playing here on the fiddle. Jimmy Ward’s jig is a really popular session tune, played in Irish trad sessions all over the world. In the video below you can hear me playing my setting of this tune. I have also included sheet music for Jimmy Ward’s jig below, if you find that helpful.
Jim Ward, or Jimmy Ward, was a well-known banjo player from County Clare.
He was one of the members of the important ceili band, the Kilfenora Céilí Band. Jimmy Ward originally played the flute, piccolo and the whistle, but switched to the banjo in the 1940s, and it became his main instrument. He won the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil with the Kilfenora Céilí Band three years in a row, in 1954, 1955 and 1956.
The Kilfenora Céilí Band, around 1956
Jim Ward’s, or Jimmy Ward’s jig is his most well known tune. (Although some contest that it may have not been written by him, but merely a tune associated with him).
If you would like to learn this traditional Irish jig on the fiddle with me, then please do let me know — I am planning on making a full tutorial on this tune soon.
For those that read sheet music here is the score for the setting of this tune that I generally play. The sheet music for Jimmy Ward’s jig below doesn’t include any of the ornamentation or variations I am playing in the video – this is just the melody. In this tune, I typically use lots of long rolls, cuts, bowed triplets and chords and drones.
Nor does the sheet music include any of the slurs or bowing patterns I use in playing this jig. If you would like to learn more about bowing patterns, slurs, and bowed emphasis for playing jigs, do check out my Complete Fiddler Course.
Fiddle players, if you are looking to take your fiddle playing to the next level, come and see how I can help you transform your playing.
With modules on fiddle bowing technique and bowing patterns, ornamentation and where to use it, pulse and rhythm, the core Irish tune types, plus all my best exercises and practice tips. This course is guaranteed to take your fiddle playing further.
In this free fiddle lesson video, I’ll teach you this great tune — Frank’s Reel. Fiddle player, John McCusker, wrote this tune and it has become a really popular tune in Irish and Scottish sessions.
This is a really fun tune to play on the fiddle. But the B part has a little bit of rhythmic syncopation, which can be tricky. I think the best way to approach it is just to learn the notes of the melody carefully, get them confident under the fingers of the left hand, then think about the bow and the string crossing, and then gradually speed up the tune.
I really hope you enjoy learning Frank’s reel — Fiddle players, if you would like to take your playing to the next level, take a look at my Irish fiddle courses, including a completely free course.
In this irish jig fiddle tutorial, I’ll teach you a lovely Irish tune called The Clare Shout jig. I believe this tune was written by Bobby Gardiner in 1995 to celebrate Clare’s win in the 1995 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final.on button accordian. It’s a great fiddle tune too though!
The match, on 3 September 1995, was between Clare and Offaly. Clare won on a score line of 1-13 to 2-8. It was Clare’s first All-Ireland title since 1914.
The Clare Shout jig is a really fun tune to play on the fiddle. It has a slightly tricky passage in the B-part which is a good exercise in solid left-hand technique in combination with some string crossing with the bow. But we will break it down in detail and look out how we can learn and practice ‘tricky’ passages.
In this lesson, I go in to a load of detail on a few different techniques: double string crosses; block, bar (or invisible string!) chords. These will be really useful techniques not just in this tune, but in lots of other Irish fiddle tunes.
Once we’ve worked all that out, I’ll help you add in some simple fiddle ornamentation to this tune.
I hope you enjoy learning The Clare Shout jig. If you enjoyed this lesson, do take a look at my Irish fiddle courses, where I teach lots of other great tunes, bowing techniques and ornamentation, and let you in on my best practice tips and tricks.
In the first lessons in my Free Irish Fiddle Course, we will learn a couple of the different types of tunes that are common in the Irish tradition.
Lesson 1 — We will start by learning a fairly simple polka — The Britches Full of Stitches. The melody for this tune is quite straightforward (as many polkas are), so this lesson is suitable for novice fiddlers, though you will need to have some very basic technique already. (For this course, I am assuming you can play basic notes with your left hand, and can hold and use the bow). We will learn the tune by ear, slowly, phrase by phrase.
If you are an intermediate player (or more advanced!) you will still find tips and ideas for ornamentation and chords in this lesson, though you may want to skip ahead if you can learn the tune quickly.
Lesson 2 — We will then move on to learning a popular Irish jig — Out on the Ocean. This is a well known session tune and a great tune to know. This lesson will also introduce you to jig rhythm. Again, we will learn the tune slowly by ear.
Lesson 3 — This lesson is for more intermediate or advanced players, to introduce them to some ideas about practicing ‘tricky’ passages, some string crossing technique and some left hand technique. If that is you, please go ahead and enjoy learning The Clare Shout; or you can come back to this lesson as you progress.
We then move on to look at some ornamentation in Lessons 4-6.
Lesson 4 — First we will learn to play a Cut — the foundational ornament in Irish fiddle playing in my opinion, and always the first ornament I teach. I’ll show you the proper way to play this important ornament, and then show you how and where you can use it in the jig Out on the Ocean that we learned earlier.
Lesson 5 — Having learned to cut, we will look at 2 different ways of learning to play rolls (properly, ‘long rolls’) — the ornament every fiddler gets excited about! I’ll show you how I teach people to play rolls, so that you can get a really authentic sound.
Lesson 6 — We will then look at how and where you can play these rolls in a new tune, Paddy Fahey’s #4, which we will also learn as we go.
In the next section of the course, I will introduce you to two more types of tunes: reels and slides. These lessons will go a little quicker than the first tune tutorials, assuming that you can pick up tunes a little more easily, but I will still play the tune through slowly with a close up of the fingerboard, and you can pause and rewind until you get the tune. Once you have the tune, or if you already know the tunes, these lessons are intended as ‘playalongs’ so that you can practice along with me.
In Lesson 7 we will learn a reel — The Banshee, a fun tune to play, often played at speed!
In Lesson 8 we will learn Dinny Delaney’s slide.
Finally, I have some tips for practicing ornamentation (and indeed much else) — using a method I employ myself every day!
Lesson 9 — I will show you my top tip for practicing ornamentation whilst keeping good rhythm and pulse.
I really hope you enjoy the free Irish fiddle lessons in this course. If you find the lessons valuable, please do let me know. You can head over to learntoplaythefiddle.co.uk for lots more advice, and to sign up for my Complete Irish Fiddle Course as soon as it is available.
One of the things I occasionally get asked by those interested in playing Irish fiddle, is: ‘What is the normal Irish fiddle tuning?’.
I think this can sometimes cause some confusion. Perhaps because people aren’t always sure about the difference between a fiddle and a violin. (Spoiler – there is no difference between a violin and a fiddle!). So, the simplest answer is: Irish fiddle tuning is normally the same as for a violin tuned to standard classical tuning.
So, for playing Irish fiddle the strings are tuned to the notes G, D, A and E, from lowest pitched string to highest. The interval between the strings is a perfect 5th.
The G string is the lowest note on a standard tuned fiddle. It is tuned to the G below middle C (or G3) and its frequency is 196hz. The D is middle D (or D4) and its frequency is 293.7Hz. The A string is middle A, or A4, and is tuned to a frequency of 440hz. The E string (E5) is the highest pitched string. It is tuned to 659.3hz.
There are some exceptions, which I’ll discuss in more detail below. But first let us look at the tuning we would normally use for Irish fiddle playing.
Standard Irish fiddle tuning
In general, then, when you are starting out playing Irish fiddle, tuning the strings to G, D, A, and E is the normal practice. That is, from lowest pitch string to highest pitch string as shown in the image below – G being the lowest pitch string, and E the highest.
This means that the strings are tuned at intervals of a fifth (5th) apart. This allows the fiddle player to play a continuous scale without changing position, and without using fourth fingers for melody notes. (Compared to classical violin playing, in Irish fiddle playing, fourth fingers are used more rarely for melody notes. They are used routinely for ornamentation like rolls, cuts, casadhs, however).
So each string is tuned in turn to the following notes (also given as frequencies in Hz as is common on many tuners and tuning apps). Again, this is from lowest pitch string to highest pitch string.
The G string is tuned to G3 (or 196 Hz)
the D string is tuned to D4 (or 293.7 Hz)
The A string is tuned to A4 (or 440Hz)
Finally the E string is tuned to E5 (or 659.3 Hz)
Tuning the fiddle for Irish music
Before you start playing, it is very important to tune the fiddle accurately. You can do this by tuning to another instrument, listening to make sure you are in tune. Or you can use a tuner or a tuning app.
Now that you know the correct pitch for each string (as above), you can tune your fiddle to the correct tuning for Irish fiddle music.
If you watch an experienced fiddle player you may see that they don’t tune all of the strings to another instrument (like an accordian, which should be in tune!) or tuner. Rather, it is common for an experienced fiddle player to tune just the A string (or sometimes the D string). Then, once the A (or D) is in tune, each of the other strings is tuned from the A (or D) string by listening to the interval.
Sometimes the fiddler will play the two strings together as a chord to listen to check that the tuning is correct.
When you are just starting out playing Irish fiddle, tuning in this way (just using your ears to judge the intervals) may not be easy, as the intervals will not be so familiar. In which case a tuner or a tuning app is a good idea to make sure that the strings are in tune.
Cross tuning and other tunings
Of course, the strings do not have to be tuned to these notes. In other traditions of fiddle playing other tunings are often used. In American Old Time and Bluegrass fiddle music, for example.
Bluegrass and Old Time fiddle have some things in common with Irish music. But many of the techniques — and tunings — are also quite different from those used to play Irish fiddle. Tuning the strings to other intervals is commonplace in Old Time and Bluegrass fiddle playing, for example.
The most common alternative tunings, sometimes called ‘cross tuning’, are AEAE and ADAE (again from low string to high string). But others are also possible.
Cajun tuning is another alternative tuning. In Cajun tuning all of the strings are tuned down one tone, to F, C, D, G. This is generally done to get a slighted blue-sier sound.
Tuning down
The cross tuning of Old Time and Bluegrass fiddle is rare in Irish fiddle playing. But something more like Cajun tuning is a little more common alternative in Irish fiddle playing. This keeps the intervals set at a 5th apart, but gives a slightly different sound.
Some Irish fiddlers tune all of the strings down (or more rarely, up) one or more semi-tones. This is most often done in order to play together with uilleann pipers who are playing a ‘flat set’. A flat set is one where the drones and chanter are tuned to B or even Bb (B flat).
To do this, all of the strings are tuned down the same amount. For example, to play with a set of B pipes, the strings on the fiddle would be tuned down 3 semitones. This means the strings would be E, B, F# and C# respectively.
You can hear this effect on Mick O’Brien and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh’s albums (although here Caoimhín is not playing an Irish fiddle, but his own unique instrument, a Hardanger D’amore).
Sometime fiddlers tune down the strings just to find a mellower tone which can come from looser strings. You can hear Nathan Gourley and Laura Federson playing traditional Irish fiddle, tuning down the strings, on some of the tracks on their albums. Aidan Connolly, a fine Irish fiddle player, often tunes his strings lower. You can hear this on many of the tunes recorded for his albums Be Off and The Portland Bow.
Very very low Irish Fiddle Tuning!
I have always enjoyed playing Irish fiddle with lower tunings in the manner discussed above. I’ve even taken it a stage further by using Octave strings on an old fiddle to play Irish fiddle — tuning the strings to a full octave lower than standard tuning!
You can hear this in the video below. I am playing a wonderful reel The Morning Thrush by the great piper James Ennis, father of Seamus Ennis.
If you’d like to learn a traditional Irish jig on the fiddle, here is a great tune to learn. The Hag with the Money is a very old song, which you can still hear sung in Ireland today.
It is also a well known Irish session tune, and a common tune to hear played on the fiddle at Irish sessions.
This is a full length half-hour fiddle tutorial, going in to lots of detail on how to play this tune, including advice on scale variations and more. For example, you will hear this tune played in D major, or D mixolydian, and sometimes moving between those two scales.
I really hope you enjoy learning this traditional Irish jig with me; if you are interested in more Irish fiddle tutorials, please check out my courses page.
