My violin journey away from reading the “black spots” began early, with my first folk band at the tender age of 13, where were the Chris Haig violin books when I needed them? I loved the roaring pace of the Irish jigs and their Australian decendant tunes and tearing through the notes. I always had a wistful sigh though, for the guitar and drummer though who found a wonderful freedom behind the melody, to drive various rhythms, chordal progressions and dynamics to bring a nuanced depth to the music. Dial forward through numerous classical groups/performances, membership of many orchestras and a few theatre groups. It’s been quite the journey. Picking up again later in life I was determined to go Beyond Classical Violin and with a determination to free myself from the notes one of my most treasured resources along the way have been the Exploring/Discovering Violin book series by genre chameleon Chris Haigh ( http://www.fiddlingaround.co.uk ). Some other resources I have found useful I have listed here (classical, online classes etc..)
And so it was with great delight that I ordered his new Exploring Country and Bluegrass Violin book. Now to be clear I’m not a country music devotee, but there are lots of the elements of this music in music I do play and would like to learn in a pedagogical manner. These include rhythmic bowing, drone/double stops, fills, improvising/ harmonising and how to work with with singers in contemporary and worship music settings.
Previously I have enjoyed a lot out of his Discovering Rock Violin music book. An introduction to chording, pentatonics and his magic harmony trick all have had great utility. The Fiddle Handbook (I think its out of print but found one secondhand)was great tour deforce on no classical styles. His jazz book, Exploring Jazz Violin was great, well the first 3/4 anyway… after that my brain got a bit full!. I suspect this is largely because the genre doesn’t much grab me (though Gypsy looks fun), but the techniques and theory I learn’t in the book were quite helpful.
As a look back across the books there is a fair bit of overlap and I reckon thats more than OK, everything needs to be put into its proper context and coming at music from different angles really helps with clarity…eventually.
I like the progressive nature of the books and indeed the country one. Chris neither drops you in the deep end, nor belabours the simple stuff. It’s truely a progression using loosely the historical development of country music and the different genre influences along the way as a vehicle. So for me it hit my Goldilocks violin sweet spot, not too hard, not too easy.
There are plenty of worked examples and Chris works hard to provide accompanying audio tracks to play along with, and backing tracks as well. These are not done as an after thought but well integrated and really support the learning pedagogy.
Having said all of that, like his previous books you won’t be able to get through the book in just a few practice sessions and readings. I found I needed to dip in an out of it…as well as have a playing space (my jam group and other groups) to explore the ideas. It takes time to take head knowledge and get it to the autonomic nervous system to make music. At least now i know what I don’t know, know how to get it …and occasionally glimpse getting it!
One of the serendipitous treats in Chris’ books, and this is no exception, is the the time he takes to fill in the spaces between the musical examples. There is background, history and lots of little nuggets along the way as well. Sometimes these little nuggets are enough to make the penny drop on something I’ve been struggling with. My perennial favourite is using scales not necessarily in the key of the song..I’m still chewing that one over..but at least for now i can say to my classical brain “its OK big fella just move on worry about it later” and then one pops out in a song …from my fingers no less!
Chris’ books come in around the cost of a single violin lesson, that is even if you could find a violin teacher that could teach you this stuff. And inside are hour upon hour of lessons you can do, annotate, go back and repeat. Just like any teacher you can hear Chris demonstrate the playing of the exercises. Also if you track him down on facebook he might even answer a question or two as well.
Exploring Country & Bluegrass Violin is part bed time reading, but most of it needs to be right in front of the music stand with my fiddle and computer with an mp3 player. Seeing isn’t believing, hearing is closer to believing and then the doing and the feeling is the real stuff! I’ve found to get the most out of the book I need to slow down the audio samples (by about 25%) so I can hear and play along with the nuances. Lots of computer audio players can do this built in. Learning something new is a cognitive process for me, so slower is better.
Probably the stand out examples of Chris’ pedagogy in Exploring Country and Bluegrass Violin is the Bluegrass “Roll in my Sweet Baby’s Arms”, (and later the Banks of the Ohio) a simple tune which is given 7 pages of treatment, 8 audio samples where Chris introduces the various possible fiddle elements that could be added together progressively (and a reboot later in the book). Most important he shares his rationale and thinking behind it! If I had a wish for anything in the Chris Haig violin books it would be to do this more often. Yes it belabours the point and might be repetitive, but working through various tunes and keys it would turn his Exploring series into accompanying “workbooks” you could put on the practice stand and work through it.
PS I’m still wrestling about wether I want minor or major pentatonics in my head when I play …at least now I know they are the same thing …thanks to the circle of 5ths
Thanks Chris for your contribution to music! I might try one of your online courses one day too!