h a o m a

Fiddling in my life

Way, way, back, when I was about four years old, my mom rented a fateful video: Disney's Peter and the Wolf. I absolutely fell in love with it; I was transfixed. I loved Peter the best, and I was totally turned on by his instrument, the violin, and the clever way it evoked his quick, edgy personality. I was soon begging Mom for a violin, and after a year or so, she relented. For instruction, I was taken to the local violin teacher in Evergreen, Chris Daring. Although I didn't actually realize this for many years, Chris was an accomplished Texas fiddler - one of the best in the country, in fact. She had studied under Terry Morris, a legend in the fiddling world. Of course, I didn't know or care about any of that - I just wanted to play Peter and the Wolf.

Chris worked with me diligently for many years, even slipping in a few fiddle tunes. Unfortunately, the violin is not an easy instrument, and while I still loved the idea of being great, I wasn't keen on the daily scales and exercises needed to get there, and I always had to be harassed into it by Chris and my mom. Ages five to twelve were characterized by a slow, creeping improvement, in which I bordered on quitting several times.

Then, during my awkwardest years of puberty, I got in an argment with Chris over the difference between 3/4 and 6/8 time. Since they were mathematically identical, I argued, they had to be the same thing. Chris was simply unable to get the concept of 'feel' across to me, and it was at that point she decided I had to have some fiddle tunes shoved down my throat, to squeeze an ounce of musicality into my system. My first tune was Queen of the West, and somehow, that was the song I needed. I suddenly found myself dancing to my music, having fun, playing it over and over. At that point, the flame was lit - I was a fiddle player then on.

Fiddle has been pivotal in the next ten years of my development. When I became serious about playing, I began to be invited to jam sessions with her other students, and soon I found myself in a group of very diverse kids that I would never have associated with otherwise. Fiddle gave me a social outlet where I learned how to interact with other people, make friends, function outside my comfort zone, deal with embarrasment and disappointment, have a crush, play guitar... basically, I entered adulthood through fiddling.

Fiddle has given me the basis to be a musician for the rest of my life. I joined my first rock band, Xiren, as a fiddle player. I also learned the fundamentals of rhythm and music theory that have proven so useful as a bassist. Regardless of where I go with my music, I will always approach it - fundamentally - as a fiddle player.

So what is Texas Fiddling anyway?

Texas Fiddling is a very unique substyle of American fiddling. It is related to bluegrass and the Scots-Irish of the northeast, but has a very different approach to technique from the other styles.

Texas fiddle is, in its origin, a marriage of the folk styles of New England and Southern blues and ragtime. The syncopated, lilting rhythms typical of Scots-Irish fiddle were replaced by a very deliberate, driving style without any syncopation. Under the influence of ragtime artists like Joplin, the speed was reduced to a relaxed 110 bpm or so. In addition (and we have both ragtime and blues to thank for this), the role of the fiddler changed. In traditional Appalachian folk music, the fiddle is merely one of many lead instruments who will play both rhythym and melody. Take a simple tune like Turkey in the Straw, for example - in a bluegrass jam, the fiddle would play the first and second parts of the tune, then the guitar would play them, then the banjo, then the singer, then all together. Texas Fiddlers, on the other hand, always play lead, and are encouraged to take the basic line and improvise around it, like a blues guitarist or rag pianist. It doesn't have the free-form quality of jazz (although it can be pushed in that direction) - the melody must always be discernable within the improvizations. This actually makes Texas fiddle much harder than it sounds: while a Celtic fiddler can simply play for five minutes by combining 3 or 4 tunes together, the Texas fiddler has to improvise around the tune for that time, while maintaing the slow, danceable drive.

Going Places

A major milestone in my life was my first album - a collection of fiddle tunes performed by yours truly. It was in many ways intended as a marker of where I was in my life - it was recorded during my first year of college at age 18, year 2000. I played all the instruments on the CD (except for Andy Daring as one of the two guitars, and Chris was a 'guest' on one of the waltzes). The title was very appropriate for me at the time, since it was clearly a time of growth, change, and unexpected surprises (indeed, in one year I'd be playing in my first rock band, and in two I'd be making preparations to fly to the Middle East). Although my playing is definitely dated at this point, it's still a fun album to listen to.

Track List:

Salt River

Salt River was recorded in Ft Collins right before leaving for Chicago. Completely independent at this point, I got to try out a lot of different ideas that had popped in my head over the years. I challenged myself to render each fiddle track in a way that separated it from the others, stylistically and musically. To this end, I explored a greater range of tempo, instrumentation, and arrangement than I had in the previous album, and I really like it. It features Jon and Jed from Tastes Like Burning, as well as my brother Jonathan playing piano on Mr Hr (short for Miller's Reel and Hummingbird Reel).

Track List: