Fiddling Duets (for 2 Violins & Piano)

Fiddling Duets is a great place to start if you want to learn fiddle tunes from North America and from the U.K. and Ireland. Perhaps the best way to approach fiddling is with other musicians. That’s the intent of this series. If you’re a violinist looking for some fiddle tunes to play, and you have another violinist friend, then you’re ready to start fiddling right here. Just add a pianist and your trio is complete! People who play in bands will tell you that the smaller the band, the easier it is to get everyone together to rehearse and perform. It’s true! A trio is a great way to get a fiddle band going. Because Fiddling Duets is designed for 2 violinists and 1 piano player, those instruments will always be the best and most effective way to use this series. However, this series also contains guitar chord charts in the back of the book. You can add a 4th musician if you have a handy guitar player nearby!

The 15 tunes used in the arrangements are a variety of tune types. In Fiddling Duets you’ll find American hoedowns, Irish and Scottish jigs and reels; and a tune or two from England. One of the arrangements is titled Herman & Hattie. This arrangement tells a story. When you perform this piece be sure to tell your audience to listen for a few things in the arrangement. They might hear sounds like chickens flying everywhere and getting stuck in molasses! They might hear the sound of Uncle Herman’s axe when he chops wood at the woodpile! At one point in the story, Uncle Herman is fishing when his wife, Hattie, catches him and scolds him for not getting his work done back at the house!

Another tune of interest is titled Drowsy Maggie. This arrangement contains a medley with an Irish reel (Drowsy Maggie) and an Irish jig (Donnybrook Fair). When musicians play together at pubs in Ireland and Scotland they often play “sets” of tunes. Sometimes they play a set of reels. Other times they play a set of jigs. But sometimes they play sets with both tune types in a medley. So Drowsy Maggie is intended to take you to a pub in Ireland and give you the vicarious experience of live “pub music.”

Another tune type common to Ireland, Scotland, England, and North America is the hornpipe. A hornpipe is a type of traditional dance. Because of the way the feet move in the dance, a hornpipe in Ireland has a slow, “swingy” manner to is. In the U.S. we like to play hornpipes the same way we play hoedowns—much faster with a much straighter rhythm and more “drive” to the bowing and accompaniment. Another thing that makes hornpipes unique is that they are generally arpeggiated. Arpeggiation is a melodic approach that uses a lot of the notes in the underlying chord, and it has bigger jumps from one note to another. Herman & Hattie is based on a tune titled, Uncle Herman’s Hornpipe. Two Presidents features 2 hornpipes: President Grant’s Hornpipe and President Lincoln’s Hornpipe. Look also at Cumberland Hornpipe where you’ll get a taste of the English countryside.