BEST OF: How to play in tune (The Kilmovee)

FIRST AIRED ON JANUARY 10th 2023 (BEST OF)
Let's talk about how to improve your tuning on the fiddle. If you're struggling with this, you're not alone! We'll explore three key elements in tuning your hand on the fiddle; where your hand is on the fingerboard, finger spacing and placement, and the art of micro-adjustments.

This episode presents a setting of The Kilmovee from a session at the Arthouse Bar and covers how Megan works with her students on playing in tune.

I mentioned Music Learning Theory, Alice Kanack, and the fiddler Dermot Grogan.

Email me at meganbeller@fiddlestudio.com.

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Here are my Fiddle Studio books and my website Fiddle Studio where you can find my courses and mailing list and sign up for my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

Transcript

Meg Wobus Beller: 0:10

Welcome to the Fiddle Studio Podcast featuring tunes and stories from the world of traditional music and fiddling. I'm Megan Beller and today I'll be bringing you a setting of the Kilmovee Jig from a session at the Art House Bar in Baltimore, Maryland. Hello everyone, I hope you are well. Today I'm going to be talking about playing in tune. Just a little topic for the fiddle. This is for you if you have recently taken your tapes off, if you had something on your fingerboard or if you notice that you play out of tune. I play out of tune sometimes. I don't usually notice when it's happening, but I will sometimes hear recording of myself, even on this podcast, and think, oh, I was playing out of tune. I hope that it's comforting to you that for me, after playing violin and fiddle for 38 years, with a degree in violin performance and 20 years of teaching, I still play out of tune. Tuning is connected to what you're hearing and what you're noticing about what you're hearing and then what's happening with your left hand on the string. There's two different issues there. It's a little easier to fix issues that are happening just with your hand. There's three parts of your hand. There's just where your hand is on the fingerboard. Then there's getting your finger spacing and finger placement correct. Finally, there's the micro adjustments. That's the one we're all still having fun with all these years later.

Meg Wobus Beller: 2:07

Fixing your hand is easy. I call out to my kids One of my kids was just practicing and I just called out fix your hand. Because they weren't listening to what was happening on their instrument and their hand was literally just in the wrong place. They don't have tapes on. So they got their hand in the right place. Then it sounded fine. Make sure your hand's in the right place. That's an easy fix. Getting the finger spacing right this is a second year problem. Oh my goodness, people play their first year. They still have tapes on. They're playing a lot of A major, a lot of high twos, and then suddenly you're in the world of high twos and low twos and your tune needs to move around all the time.

Meg Wobus Beller: 2:53

It can be a big issue with tuning. You'll really want to make sure that your fingers are working independently, only one at a time. If every time you play a three, you're blocking your fingers down your two, just automatically going to that high two spot, oh, you're going to have problems. So you need your fingers to be working independently, you need to make sure you understand what you're playing, what key you're in, and I would say and this comes a little bit from my music education background I studied music learning theory in college.

Meg Wobus Beller: 3:27

Music learning theory is really big on hearing the roots and the chords and the patterns. I think knowing the chords, which is basically hearing the chords, playing the chords or playing the bass line, is very helpful in developing the instinct to put your two in the right place. And that connects to the third level of tuning, even once your hand's in the right place and you're getting your fingers spacing. Basically right, we all put our fingers slightly in the wrong place sometimes and you're going to have to make micro adjustments. On the hearing side of this, you can work on it by practicing with a drone or in unison with someone or with accompaniment I didn't mean the wrong order, but kind of easiest to get it exactly in tune in unison. And then you can go from there to working with a drone and from there to working with accompaniment with like chords. The highest level would be playing with, with nothing else, and and that's that's tricky to stay in tune like that On the other side, out of your head out of your ears and into your hand. You need your hand to be unlocked on the string in order to make those micro adjustments. So if you're gripping the neck, if your fingers are really heavy and locked down on the string, you won't be able to to react to what you're hearing. So those are things you can work on. Stop being sliding your thumb back and forth on the neck, swinging your elbow back and forth. Make sure your arm is unlocked, shaking your hand out, trying not to grip the neck so much. That will actually help your tuning because your fingers will be able to react to what you're hearing.

Meg Wobus Beller: 5:19

All of this is challenging and I would say possibly the most challenging is just paying attention to what you're playing and what you're hearing around you. I mean, that's when I'm playing out of tune, it's because I wasn't paying attention. I find that my students pay a lot more attention to what they're playing when they're not looking at music and reading. I mean it's one less sense that you're using. So you want to have music that you can play without reading it off the sheet. So you're playing it from memory. You're already going to be listening in a different way, listening closer, with a lot more awareness of your tuning.

Meg Wobus Beller: 6:02

This one's maybe not as common, but when I work on improvisation with kids and adults, I find that their tuning improves. I got this from Alice Knaak when you're making up your music, you're listening to it in a different way. You're not just recreating something that someone's given you. You're listening to it as it's being created and you're kind of evaluating whether you like it or not. Well, that goes for the tune, but it also goes for the tuning. So when my students are improvising, their tuning tends to be a lot better. I'll do a podcast on how I ease people into improvising and composing. I think it's really useful. But even if you're just messing around on your fiddle, making up some stuff that you think sounds good, you may find that that has a beneficial effect for your tuning and playing in tune. Good luck, it's a big project Moving on. Our tune today is The Kilmovee.

Meg Wobus Beller: 7:05

This is a jig that was popularized by a player named Dermot Grogan. Dermot Grogan was a flute player and button accordion player from County Mayo in Ireland, and so some people call this tune Dermot Grogan's, but it is, I believe, a traditional Irish tune. Dermot was born and raised in the town Derry Tavrain in Kilkenny in County Mayo and learned whistle and flute from his father, who was a musician. He also played the accordion. He was a button accordion player and as an adult he moved to England and then in New York and he was very well respected musician. Sadly, in the early aughts he had a very serious cancer diagnosis but was actually able to move back to Ireland, reconnect with some friends and play music there in the last couple years of his life. He passed away at the age of 48.

Meg Wobus Beller: 8:05

This tune I found on the session. You can look for it there. I will put my transcription on my website, my blog, and it's also recorded on Brendan Callahan CD where I am, so you can check it out there. Okay, here we go. Hey, thanks for listening. You can head over to fiddlestudiocom to find sheet music for this tune and more information about becoming a member of Fiddle Studio. I'll be back next time with another tune for you. Have a wonderful day.