Basics of Old Time Bowing Workshop
Bowing Hand Techniques For Southern Fiddle Tunes
Since 2006 I've been teaching & refining a workshop I've designed on Old Time bowing.
This is a two hour workshop focusing on identifying, naming, slowing down but mostly playing the exciting rhythms, pulses, and drones that give Old Time fiddling it's distinctive sound. The object is to point out and demystify the half of old time fiddling that often gets neglected; the bowing hand. In the workshop I break down each of the bowing movements or rhythms that I use, teach the group to replicate them and then play them in the context of a melody. Once the group has a handle on the rhythm then we shift the focus to think about how you would teach those rhythms to others in your community thus creating a community of teachers. It's part learning, part teaching, and part having fun. Basically, It's the workshop I wish I had taken years ago when I first started fiddling.
This workshop uses mostly your bow hand to get your muscle memory used to playing the rhythms. It's appropriate for all levels of fiddlers, beginner or advanced, young or old, and anyone who is interested in teaching techniques.
Let me know if you want me to come teach it in your town.
Below are the melodies and bowings I use to teach the workshop:
Give Me a Chaw of Tobacco (Fiddle Lesson) (Right Click to Download MP3)
Old Corn Liquor (Fiddle Lesson) (Right Click to Download Mp3)
Jenny run away in the mud in the night (Fiddle Lesson) (Right Click to Download Mp3)
Sail away ladies (Fiddle lesson) (Right Click to Download Mp3)
Rabbit Where's Your Mammy (Fiddle Lesson) (Right Click to Download Mp3)
Old Billy Hell Yeah!
Old Billy Hell Yeah! is my alter ego/solo project/default band name. If I'm performing on fiddle with my friends, well, we have to call it something right? sometimes I can be found playing with Jason and Pharis Romero or other times with Curtis Alsobrook, Kevin Sandri, and Laura Quigley. Maybe next time it will be with you?
Here are some recordings I made with Pharis and Jason Romero:
Little Rabbit
I've Been All Around This World
Poor Old Napper
Liza Jane
Duet with
Curtis Alsobrook
Curtis and I have been playing and performing together for several years now in and around Portland, Oregon. We play and sing Old Time tunes and songs on fiddle, banjo, and guitar. Curtis played for years in the Boulder, CO based string band High On The Hog. Now he Lives in Portland. Lately we have also been found backing up the phenomenal fiddler Lisa Ornstein.
Big Hoedown
Big Fancy
Moonshine Still
