Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddler's Convention

[Ole Joe Clarke]

Anybody going to the Tennessee Valley Old Time Fiddler's Convention this year?

It's held at Athen's State College, Athens, Alabama, October 7-8, 2016. It's always the first weekend in October that has a Friday. Great music beginning at least a week before the actual contests. Motorhomes, tents, and RV's can park on campus free, no hookups though.

Ya'll come and we will jam a while.

Leon

[Butchman205]

I hadn't heard about this...but might require a buzz up from B'ham.


-Butchman

[Blackwater]

Wow! I'd sure like to, but won't be able to make it. A fiddle is like no other instrument in music making. You just can't be sad when a fiddle and banjo are involved. Kind'a makes yer feets happy, too!

[Fergie]

Heh...Old Joe Clarke was one of the first fiddle tunes I learned. I'd been playing violin for about 6 years when I started taking lessons from this guy here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFHtk7zEfRU

Haven't played since my Dad passed, and had only played a bit for the 10 years prior to that. I still remember all the Cape Breton jigs and fiddle tunes though...good memory jog.

[bedbugbilly]

Sur wish I could make it but it's not in the cards! Nothing like fiddle playing . . . so rosin up the bow boys!

Fergie - I started playing about 20 years ago after a major heart attack and bypass surgery. It was good therapy for the recovery! I love Ol' Joe Clarke among a lot of others. I went down to the Agusta Heritage Center in WV a number of years ago for workshops. A great place. Had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Melvin Wine - the only fiddler written up in the WV school history books.

I learned to play "cross tuned" down there and have loved it ever since. Down tune the A & E string so they are G & D - so you tuning is GDGD. Double stopping on two strings gives you a beautiful morning sound. Other ways to cross tune as well. Fingering is a little different but you can figure it out. My handicap is that I don't read music - it's all "by ear" - but hey, it all works out!

Nothing like the sound of a fiddle . . . no sir!

[Bad Water Bill]

Back many years I remember and heard SP Itzak Pearlman flew in from Israel where he was a symphany orchestra player to teach BLUEGRASS .

Has anyone heard of him?

Girty says she sure misses that BLUE GRASS.

[Fergie]

Sur wish I could make it but it's not in the cards! Nothing like fiddle playing . . . so rosin up the bow boys!

Fergie - I started playing about 20 years ago after a major heart attack and bypass surgery. It was good therapy for the recovery! I love Ol' Joe Clarke among a lot of others. I went down to the Agusta Heritage Center in WV a number of years ago for workshops. A great place. Had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know Melvin Wine - the only fiddler written up in the WV school history books.

I learned to play "cross tuned" down there and have loved it ever since. Down tune the A & E string so they are G & D - so you tuning is GDGD. Double stopping on two strings gives you a beautiful morning sound. Other ways to cross tune as well. Fingering is a little different but you can figure it out. My handicap is that I don't read music - it's all "by ear" - but hey, it all works out!

Nothing like the sound of a fiddle . . . no sir!

I was started in the Suzuki method when I was 8 or so, and didn't learn to read music until I was in 7th grade. Everything was done by listening, playing it back, and by memory. Took me a while to get up to speed with other folks that had been reading longer, but I could play solos much easier due to the teaching method.

The guy in the video I posted, if you can look at his fiddle, he has machine pegs(like guitars) on the scroll so he can tune it to his liking. He'd have me tune a spare fiddle down so I didn't mess up my concert violin, and practice that way.

When I got good enough, I'd travel with my Dad's old west cowboy reenactment group(think Tombstone Rendezvous of Gunfighters) and I would be the entertainment between sets. I've played the local fairs and some up in NV too. Even got to entertain for the Grand Canyon Railway for a few years when my Dad was doing that.

@Bad Water Bill - Itzhak Perlman? I've had the pleasure of meeting him and he did a small group session with the Suzuki students at the university when I was 12 or 13. Somewhere in the house I have a signed suzuki method book. An amazing musician!

[Ole Joe Clarke]

This is the 50th year for the TVOTFC, and there will be three different bands performing. Bobby Osborne and the Rocky Top Express will do a free show on Thursday, Oct 6th. Riders In The Sky will be doing 2 shows Friday Oct 7th, Norman and Nancy Blake with James Bryan will also be performing the same day. The Friday shows are included in the $15.00 entrance fee. What a deal. Plus great jamming everywhere.