Spring 2007

Features

• April Verch: Fancy Footwork, by Petra Jones
• Folk Routes in Portugal, by Peter Anick
• An Introduction to Traditional Fiddling in Portugal, courtesy of Manuel Rocha, by Peter Anick
• Harmony: The Legacy of Buddy Spicher, by Jim Wood
• Fidding 101 and Beyond: A Fiddle Camps Special

Departments

• Fiddle Tune History: A well-Traveled Melody, by Andrew Kuntz
• The Practicing Fiddler: Transcription 101, by Hollis Taylor
• Bluegrass Fiddling: Laurie Lewis, by Paul Shelasky
• On Improvisation: How I Practice, by Paul Anastasio
• Irish Fiddling: Learning from the Box, by Brendan Taaffe
• Cross-Tuning Workshop: AEAE, by Jody Stecher
• Cross-Canada Fiddle Tour: Al Cherny, by Gordon Stobbe
• Accompanying Traditional Fiddle Music, by Mark Simos
• Reviews
• In Memoriam: Juan Reynoso, by Paul Anastasio

Tunes

• “The Hub,” by April Verch
• “Chula de San Pedro de Paus,” Portuguese dance tune transcribed by Jack Tuttle
• “Someday My Prince Will Come,” transcribed by Jim Wood (three versions)
• “Glenbeigh Hornpipe” (Fiddle Tune History)
• “Military Schottische” (Fiddle Tune History)
• “Bielbie’s Hornpipe” (Fiddle Tune History)
• “Original Schottische Polka,” Michael Turner version (Fiddle Tune History)
• “Original Schottische Polka,” Australian version (Fiddle Tune History)
• “Hell Amongst the Yearlings,” transcribed by Hollis Taylor (The Practicing Fiddler)
• “Your Eyes,” by Laurie Lewis; transcribed by Laurie Lewis & Paul Shelasky (Bluegrass Fidding)
• “The Owenmore,” transcribed by Brendan Taaffe
• “Duncan’s Trip to the Coal Mines,” transcribed by Jody Stecher as played by Mary MacDonald (Cross-Tuning Workshop)
• “The Straw Man,” transcribed by Jody Stecher as played by Mary MacDonald (Cross-Tuning Workshop)
• “Trambulianka,” transcribed by Gordon Stobbe as played by Al Cherny

Article Excerpts

April Verch: Fancy Footwork

By Petra Jones

Award-winning fiddler, step dancing expert, and vocalist, April Verch brings new meaning to the word multi-tasking. A winner of both the Canadian Grand Masters Fiddle and Open Fiddle Championships, April was already pleading with her parents for a fiddle of her own by the age of three. Today she is a consummate musician whose mastery of fiddle playing technique has left her free to fully explore the fiddle as a vehicle for self-expression. April’s critically-acclaimed current album Take Me Back (2006) sees her branching out into bluegrass (“Tennessee Wagoner”) and jazz (“Monarch”). But she remains true to her Ottawa Valley roots with locally-inspired pieces like “Grand Slaque” and manages to capture the magic of her live performances on tape to make her most satisfying album yet.

What’s your earliest memory of fiddling?

Well, I started step dancing before I started fiddling. Where I come from in the Ottawa Valley, step dancing was more popular for girls, I guess, than fiddling was and I started lessons in that because my older sister already did. That is what attracted me to the fiddle, because we practiced and performed dancing to fiddle music and when we competed, the contests were combined. So you would have an eight and under fiddle class and eight and under step dancing. I was meeting a lot of fiddlers and I really loved the sound of the instrument and the energy of the music. Also my dad had a little local country band. He mainly played the guitar and sang but he played a little bit of fiddle so I guess I had that little bit of influence, too. I badly wanted to learn and I started asking for a fiddle when I was three and finally got a fiddle for my birthday when I was six.

I remember that my birthday was on a Saturday that year and every Sunday morning our family goes to church and you have to be pretty sick to stay home. I was not very sick but I guess I had a bit of a cold, and I remember my dad saying he would stay at home with me and that we sat in the living room and he showed me my first few notes while everybody else was at church.

Can you tell us about the fiddling tradition in the Ottawa Valley?

The story I was always told growing up is that the fiddle tradition started here when the area was settled and people were coming mainly to work in the logging camps. That was the main industry in the Ottawa Valley and they would take their fiddle to the camp for the long winter. Most of the people that were coming were Germans, Polish, French, Irish, and Scottish, so they all had fiddle traditions and they would sit around at night and swap tunes. That is kind of how the style started and, of course, it has continued evolving since then. That is why it is such a melting pot of different influences and you can certainly hear that in the Ottawa Valley style of fiddle music. I really looked up to all of the local fiddlers that I would meet at the Renfrew County fiddler dances. When you are so young you wonder whether you will ever be in that class. I didn’t have one in particular that I chose as my role model. I just wanted to be like all of them, I think.

You mentioned that your dad plays fiddle. Have you ever played duets together?

To tell you the truth, he plays a few tunes but when I started to play fiddle then he quit! He said, “I think you are going to be good at this and so I will back you up on guitar,” which was his main instrument. So he kind of put his fiddle under the bed and stuck to accompanying me on the guitar but we certainly did a pile of that and still do when I am home. From an early age that was good experience and my sister played piano so we could all play together and perform whenever we got the chance.

With my dad it has always been a hobby but his appreciation has taught me so much. When you play an Ottawa Valley tune especially, his eyes just light up like nothing else that I know and I think that was as much of an influence upon me early on as the actual music was. You know, just the respect of the tradition and having that passed down to you means so much.    

As someone who won the Canadian Grand Masters and the Open Fiddle Championships, how important were those competitions for you?

I guess, living in Ontario, the scene is quite big so from the middle of May until the beginning of September you can pretty much find a contest somewhere in Ontario every weekend. It is a bigger part of the fiddle scene in Ontario than it is in some other provinces and we did go to quite a few of them. I always enjoyed it. It was a really healthy thing for me, and my parents always said from the very first contest that you compete against yourself and as long as you have done your best it doesn’t matter whether you win or lose.

I guess most traditions kind of go in waves and when I first started fiddling I was the only kid in my school who played the fiddle. It was not a cool thing to do but you had all summer to look forward to –– going and being with other people your age that also liked to fiddle, so it was really a time to connect with other children that liked to do what you did. It was going back to the fiddler park afterwards to jam that was the highlight. It was a good experience for me. I talked to a lot of people that had mixed feelings about growing up in contests and I think it is not always as healthy but I really enjoyed it. 

You mentioned that when you started playing, the fiddle wasn’t seen as cool by teenagers. Do you think this is changing now?

It definitely is changing. I think it is really great. I can remember what it was like when I started but even talking to the real old-timers here in the Valley, they talk about how it goes in waves and how we are at a peak of it. They are all saying it seems to be lasting longer this time and maybe it is here to stay and maybe it won’t always be this up and down thing that we have seen in the past. Maybe it is prevalent enough now that it’s going to remain a part of things permanently.  
 
Have you seen any young fiddlers that have impressed you?

Yes, there are so many. A few years ago I was still around enough, judging the odd contest. I have not had the chance to do that too much over the last couple of years but that’s when I notice it most. When I have been gone for a couple of years and then I go and judge a contest, it really is most remarkable. 

I would say that right now the eighteen and under category is more impressive than it has ever been. They are almost as good as the people playing in the championship class. The other thing that I really notice is that the kids in the twelve and under are playing stuff as hard now as used to be played in the championship –– the whole level of things has elevated that much. 

I understand you were taught initially by another young fiddler in the Valley and developed a few bad habits by the time you were taught by a classical tutor…

Yes. He had not learned to read music and had not learned except by ear himself, so he would write it out in this code for me and then put it on tape and I don’t think that I really used what he wrote out very much. I learned by ear from those tapes and mainly learned the repertoire from them but he did not have any technical training so I also acquired a lot of bad habits –– especially my bow grip. Then some fiddlers started recognizing that I had some talent but that there was only so far I could get with how I was doing things and they suggested I should take classical lessons and I really didn’t want to. I did not want any part of that but finally, I think, enough people that I respected told me this that I decided to try it so I started taking classical lessons and learned to read at that point and really honed in on technique. I mean, it was frustrating. I’m determined but I’m stubborn, too, and if I’m gonna do something, I wanna do it the right way. So I just worked really hard and tried to overcome that.

I ended up loving the classical music as well and kept up with that all the way through college and played in the Deep River Symphony Orchestra and competed in the classical world a little bit as well and just loved it. I had a great teacher in our area and I guess in a lot of areas sometimes it was really rare to find a teacher that would accept you doing both. The classical teachers frowned on fiddle and the fiddle teachers frowned on classical. My teacher was the exact opposite –– he loved that I was doing both and he was always interested in what I was learning. So it was a really great experience for me and I still always think of things that he told me when I play.

You mentioned playing with the Deep River Symphony Orchestra when you were just fourteen –– was that pretty scary?

Yeah, it was scary but also growing up in the fiddle community, people would always tell me that the classical world is different; that they’re not all that friendly and they frown upon certain things. It wasn’t as scary as before I actually got there and people were telling me what it was gonna be like. When I actually got into it, I realized that these people were all very friendly and loved the fiddle stuff that I did, too. [laughs] I guess the one thing I found really hard was trying hard not to tap my toe!

The other part that I found hard was the reading because even though I got better at reading music it wasn’t second nature to me. I had to work really hard at that. When I was playing my usual pieces, you get to a certain point where you really just know it and the music is your crutch but there was so much music that we were playing with the orchestra, I didn’t know it all so I was actually sight reading a lot and that was probably the hardest thing.
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For the rest of this interview, and April’s tune “The Hub,” subscribe to Fiddler Magazine!

www.aprilverch.com

[Petra Jones is a freelance writer and musician based in England. Besides being an avid fan of fiddle music, Petra has a house full of musical instruments from bass guitars to banjos, and five strings through to twelve. Her articles and reviews have appeared in Acoustic, Bass Guitar, Just Jazz Guitar, and a host of other music publications on both sides of the Atlantic.]

Folk Routes in Portugal: From a Roomful of Blues to a City of Rock

By Peter Anick

Musically speaking, Portugal is best known these days for fado, the mournful songs often referred to as the “Portuguese blues.” When I headed there for a week in the spring of 2004, I was naturally looking forward to experiencing fado on its home turf but I had little clue of what else Portugal might have to offer in the music department. I optimistically planned a route that would take me further and further back in time, starting in Lisbon on the Atlantic coast, moving north and inland through Coimbra, the medieval center of learning, and ending up in the village of Foz Côa, home of recently discovered rock carvings dating back 15,000 years. Along the way, I’d see what I could pick up about Portugal’s musical heritage.

The capital city of Lisbon is a fine town to get to know on foot and it was on a stroll to the Torre de Belém, a handsome 16th century defensive tower, that I unexpectedly ran into my first fiddler. He was a monkey-faced gargoyle sawing away for a serene St. Mary while other gargoyles looked on, grinning from the surrounding columns. More 16th century musicians were to be found on the finely carved façade of the nearby Monastery of Jeronimos. No monkeys here, but a winged angel bowed a fiddle-like instrument held propped against his chest. Others played harp, lute, horn, and hurdy-gurdy. Such were the instruments that must have been in vogue when the famous Portuguese navigators were setting out from Lisbon to explore the world.

By the late 18th century, a new form of music was emerging in the working class districts of Lisbon. This was “fado.” The name means fate or destiny but its origins are unclear. Theories ascribe its melancholy character to the laments of homesick seafarers or vestiges of the Moorish occupation or African slave dances. Its widespread popularity, however, can be traced back to the legendary singer Maria Severa, who drank herself to a tragic death at the age of twenty-six. The black lace shawl that female fado singers wear today is in her honor.

It is hard for a tourist not to experience fado in Lisbon, for the streets of the Bairro Alto and Alfama districts are dotted with restaurants offering fado every evening. I joined a group of fellow travelers for a dinner at one of the smaller restaurants in Bairro Alto. As we sampled the Portuguese cuisine, accompanists picked melodies on the Spanish guitar, known here as the viola, and a twelve-string lute-like instrument known as the guitarra Portuguesa. To our surprise, the singers turned out to be none other than our cook, waitress, and maître d’! Taking their turns alongside the musicians, they poured out their hearts in (what I assumed to be) sad tales of lost love and nostalgia, adding in an occasional upbeat number which locals at other tables sang along with knowingly. After their sets, the fadistas returned to serve the diners, offering CDs for sale along with the desserts.

…

It was time to venture out of Lisbon to my next destination, Portugal’s medieval capital of Coimbra. Unlike most ancient European towns whose highest points are crowned by castles or churches, Coimbra’s hilltop boasts a still-active university that dates back to the 13th century. The folk music in this region reflects its academic roots –– Coimbra-style fado is sung primarily by male students and professors and is integrated into the university’s rituals throughout the year. One of Portugal’s most influential folk bands, the Brigada Victor Jara, was born in the shadows of the university. A short stroll through the campus rewarded me with yet another encounter with an ancient violinist. On a courtyard panel of 18th century tiles, a young fiddler was seated in a bucolic setting serenading a pair of ball players, blissfully unaware that his faithful pet was making an editorial comment in typical canine fashion.

Continuing my drive all the way to the northeast corner of Portugal, I arrived at the Valley of Foz Côa, where a recently established UNESCO World Heritage Site offers views of open-air prehistoric “rock art” that goes back some 15,000 years. Horses, aurochs (extinct bulls), deer, and other animal engravings not previously known to exist outside of a few French and Iberian caves can be seen gracing the flat rock outcrops rising above the valley floor. While we can’t be sure that prehistoric man held square dances down here by the riverside (although we do know that they played on bone flutes), the modern residents of Vila Nova de Foz Côa continue to preserve the more recent musical traditions of the countryside through folklore programs and weekly folk dances held by the Rancho Folclórico de Vila Nova de Foz Côa. José Silvério Maximino de Almeida, a drummer with the local folklore troupe, took me on a tour of the folklore center. Here were examples of regional costumes, farm and work tools that figured in the songs and dances, as well as the folk instruments –– viola (Spanish guitar), Portuguese guitar, accordion, cavaquinho (ukulele), bombo (drum), and tambourine. Most of the songs in the folklore group’s repertoire were originally work tunes intended to help pass the time at seasonal activities such as cutting wheat, picking olives, or making wine. So a typical program might include beira da rio, a song for washing laundry in the river, vindimas, a dance to celebrate the grape harvest, and loureiro, in which the dancers wrap ribbons around a tall pole. Founded in 1956, the Rancho Folclórico continues to attact young people interested in picking up such traditions from the older musicians and dancers.

Driving along the Douro River to Porto for a last-minute interview with folk fiddle expert Manuel Rocha, I reviewed my brief journey from the urban working-class “blues” and contemporary world music of Lisbon to the university-centric music of Coimbra to the agricultural festivities of Foz Côa. A small country, perhaps, but one with a lot of musical diversity. Manuel Rocha (interview in this issue) would soon give me a taste of what a longer visit –– say, a lifetime –– might reveal about Portugal’s rich musical heritage.

If you go... You won’t have any trouble finding fado in Lisbon. Ask the locals for recommendations. Many of the small towns have folklore groups (“ranchos folclóricos”) with activities scheduled throughout the year. To visit the prehistoric sites in Foz Côa, you’ll need reservations which you can make online at www.ipa.min-cultura.pt/coa (or by phone: (+351) 279 768 260). José Miguel of At-Tambur edits an extensive world music web site (in Portuguese, but with a rough English online translation facility) at http://attambur.com. And the next Rock in Rio - Lisboa is scheduled for spring 2008. Look for news at http://rockinrio-lisboa.sapo.pt.

Many thanks to Clara Maximino Oliveira, who translated at the Foz Côa Folklore Center!

[Peter Anick, co-author of Mel Bay’s “Old Time Fiddling Across America,” plays fiddle with the Massachusetts bluegrass band Wide Open Spaces (www.wideospaces.com).]

For the full text of this article, as well as the accompanying interview with Manuel Rocha on traditional fiddling in Portugal, as well as a transcription of the tune “Chula de San Pedro de Paus,” as played by Manuel Rocha on Brigada Victor Jara’s CD Danças e Folias, subscribe to Fiddler Magazine!

On Improvisation

By Paul Anastasio

How I Practice

Many years ago, my late father Angelo Anastasio, a fine oboist and former student at the Julliard School of Music, paid me a great compliment. He told me that when he was enrolled at Julliard he practiced eight hours a day, but that I was able to accomplish more in one hour of practice than he could in eight. Needless to say, this caused me to take a long look at how I was practicing.The information in this article is drawn from this analysis of my own practice habits.

First of all, let’s take a look at what we are trying to accomplish when we practice. We certainly want to teach ourselves to play in tune, draw good tone out of our instruments, and play in time. These three important aspects of music will almost certainly be our goals regardless of what type or types of music we want to learn. Most of us who are reading this article in Fiddler Magazine want to play tunes from the folk tradition and/or pieces composed by others. This means that we need to be able to follow instructions, playing a series of notes in a specific rhythm. We may get these instructions from a teacher, from a recording, or from sheet music or tablature.

Some of us learn fiddling solely by playing the tunes we love, while others work through books of exercises and études. Tunes are often more fun to play than the drier exercises, but books such as the Kreutzer études were specifically written to improve certain areas of violin technique. Jazz violin pioneer Joe Venuti was adamant about my working through the Kreutzer études while I was studying with him, asking me at each lesson, “did you bring the book?” Joe felt that the classical route was the best way to learn the violin, and recommended playing “Kreutzer, Bach, and Paganini, in that order.” Without a doubt, the classical route to facility on the violin is an excellent one. For those of us who want to play and improvise in specific styles, though, there are additional skills we must learn.

Good bluegrass playing, for example, requires us to be able to move seamlessly between improvisation using the blues scale and major scale improvisation. Swing improvisation demands the same, as well as an understanding of the “swing eighth-note” feel and a serious study of difficult syncopations rarely found in classical music. Bebop demands a thorough knowledge of neighboring tones, and boppers must have the ability to use these neighboring tones to embellish the chord tones in their solos.

How best to achieve these skills? Playing tunes is great, and there’s really no substitute for hours and hours of jamming as a way to learn your instrument. The problem is that when we’re playing with others there’s always the temptation to play within what you already know, rather than risk going out on a musical limb and sawing it off behind you. If you’ve done a thorough exploration of these musical branches in the practice room, though, you will probably feel safer sawing out daring ideas in a jam session. What I like about exercises, whether written by others or ones I’ve worked out myself, is that they generally go right to the heart of the matter. Tunes will have hard parts and easy parts, but well-written exercises will be heavy on the hard parts.

Let’s say that our goal is to play an improvised chorus on a simple tune. First and foremost, we’ll need to know and be able to play the chord tones that make up the tune’s chords. This is because good improvisations, regardless of style, will use lots of these chord tones. They are the “safe notes” that figure prominently in melodies, improvisations and fiddle lines played behind vocalists.

I approach everything I play by thinking chordally. I try to be aware at all times of the basic chords behind the melody. My single most important exercise, and the one that I’ll always try to play as I’m learning a new tune, is simply to arpeggiate the chord tones in each chord of the tune. To ensure that I’m playing in tune, I’ll keep a chromatic electronic tuner, such as the Korg CA 30 or CA 40, turned on when I’m practicing. I’ve gotten in the habit of watching the three lights on the tuner (flat, in tune, and sharp) out of the corner of my eye at all times.
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For the rest of this article, which includes several musical examples, subscribe to Fiddler Magazine!

[Paul Anastasio is Fiddler Magazine’s Review Editor. A former student of Joe Venuti, he is a veteran of the bands of Merle Haggard, Asleep at the Wheel, Larry Gatlin, and Loretta Lynn. For information on opportunities to study with Paul, and his “Swing Cat” recording company, visit his website at www.SwingCatEnterprises.com.]

In Memoriam: Juan Reynoso Portillo

Paul Anastasio

This morning at 5:00 a.m., the world lost a most remarkable musician. Mexican violinist Juan Reynoso Portillo died peacefully in his home in Riva Palacio, Michoacán at the age of ninety-four, on January 18th, 2007. He had been in ill health for some time, suffering from kidney failure. As recently as March of 2006, he was able to teach daily lessons. He played well at the wedding of one of his sons and at his ninety-fourth birthday party later that same year, but in recent months he was unable to play and was confined to his hammock and bed.

Born in Ancón de Santa Domingo, Guerrero on June 24th, 1912, Juan never had the opportunity to attend school. The Mexican Revolution was still raging around him, and mothers, including Juan’s, would sometimes hide their children from rampaging armed groups by placing them in the chimneys of their homes. In this chaotic world Juan grew up, mesmerized by the violin from the age of five or six. Small for his age, he became known as “Juan El Guache,” or Juan the Kid. His father would take him to places where people congregated, offering “tres por cinco,” or three violin pieces for five centavos. 

In those days there were no paved roads, and as Juan got older he was forced to walk for hours, sometimes days, to get to an engagement. He walked to lessons too, with his main teacher Isaías Salmerón Pastenes in Tlapehuala, Guerrero. Sometimes he would take a boat across the Rio Balsas to study with members of the illustrious Tavira family in Corral Falso as well. He learned not only from violinists but also from horn players and singers, absorbing music like a sponge.

He never learned to read and write music, though he was a fine composer, and only learned to read and write a little Spanish as an adult. However, with his keen ear, high musical standards, dogged persistence and incredible memory, he rose to the very top of the musical world of Tierra Caliente. In this region, straddling parts of the states of Guerrero, Michoacán and the state of Mexico, the music is sophisticated, quite varied, highly intense, and extremely demanding.

Juan was without a doubt the finest player of his generation, and one of the finest Calentano musicians of all time. I am honored beyond words to have had the chance to study with him for ten years. His music will without a doubt live on, both through his many recordings and through transcriptions and arrangements of his work.                                                 

[Please see the Fall 1998 issue for a feature on Juan Reynoso. ]