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West Virginia fiddler Burl Hammons is the source for the fiddle tune “Big Sciota” that has become a jam session favorite in bluegrass circles. His version of “Big Scioty”, however, is much more syncopated and illustrates the constant improvising that most old-time fiddlers engage in. Each A part is different from every other A part and the same is true of his B parts.
Scott Nygaard’s Flatpicking Old-Time Fiddle Tunes course explores playing traditional American fiddle tunes on the guitar from Scott’s perspective as an old-time fiddler. Scott learned to play old-time fiddle for square dances in the 1970s (he won the fiddle contest at the inaugural Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Port Townsend, Washington, in 1977) and that background has deeply informed his guitar playing. When playing for dancers, your objective is to get people’s feet moving, not to wow an audience or impress a contest judge, so the emphasis is on rhythm and phrasing. And we all know that syncopation can be an important part of getting people’s feet moving. In addition to learning 14 great old-time tunes, you’ll learn how to phrase melodies on the guitar, taking advantage of the fact that it’s possible to play notes in more than one place on the fretboard, so you can experiment with fingering to create powerful phrasing and rhythm.
Another aspect of playing fiddle for dancers is melodic improvisation. When you’re the only melody instrument and you’re playing the same tune for five to ten minutes at a time, you learn how to vary the melody in small ways. As one of Scott’s mentors, the great fiddler Hank Bradley, says, you’re “always improvising, but not in an extreme way.” This kind of improvisation is not based on the chord changes of the tune, but rather on the melody. For each tune you’ll learn, Scott gives you minor variations of each phrase and shows you how to come up with your own.
Solo playing, or playing with only one accompanist, is also a part of traditional old-time fiddling, and in this context, the fiddler is free to play in a more unstructured way. From this tradition, “crooked” tunes have evolved: tunes that don’t conform to the standard eight measures per part that is usually required of square dance fiddlers, and Scott includes a few crooked tunes in the course.
This is an intermediate-to-advanced level workshop and students will be expected to be familiar with alternate picking technique. For those who haven’t mastered alternate picking, we have provided an alternate picking technique lesson from Scott’s Intermediate Flatpicking Guitar course at Peghead Nation
Scott talks about what you'll be learning in his Flatpicking Old-Time Fiddle Tunes workshop. And for those who haven’t mastered alternate picking, we have provided two alternate picking technique lessons from Scott’s Intermediate Flatpicking Guitar course at Peghead Nation that you should look at before you start learning the fiddle tunes.
West Virginia fiddler Burl Hammons is the source for the fiddle tune “Big Sciota” that has become a jam session favorite in bluegrass circles. His version of “Big Scioty”, however, is much more syncopated and illustrates the constant improvising that most old-time fiddlers engage in. Each A part is different from every other A part and the same is true of his B parts.
Grayson County, Virginia, fiddler Otis Burris’s version of “Fortune,” has more of a bluegrass feel, but it has a lot of the syncopated anticipations that characterize old-time fiddling as well as a lot of improvisation. Scott has boiled down those variations and improvisations to two A parts and two B parts.
“Ways of the World” is a three-part tune in A that comes from an amazing solo fiddle recording by Kentucky fiddler William Hamilton Stepp, who was recorded by Alan Lomax in 1937 for the Library of Congress. There are also great contemporary versions by Rayna Gellert and Bruce Molsky. You’ll learn “Ways of the World” with a capo on the second fret, played out of G position. Scott talks about deciding whether to play A tunes with a capo or not and then walks you through his arrangement, which includes two versions of each part.
The three-part tune “Bull at the Wagon” comes from the Lewis Brothers, Dempson and Denmon, a fiddle and guitar duo that was recorded in El Paso, Texas, in 1929. Scott also references Oklahoma fiddler Earl Collins’s version. Scott’s arrangement of this A tune is also played with a capo at the second fret.
Edden Hammons’s version of “Fine Times at Our House” is the usual source for contemporary old-time fiddlers, but Indiana fiddler John Summers’s version is also quite interesting and his B part is very different from Hammons’s. The A tune “Fine Times at Our House” sounds great played in open position, without a capo, although it does provide some fingering challenges.
Norman Edmonds’s “Chinquapin Hunting” is completely different from the D tune with the same that has become popular in bluegrass circles. Bruce Molsky’s version is many people’s source for the key-of-A “Chinquapin Hunting” these days.
The epic four-part “Lady Hamilton” is in the key of G and comes from Marcus Martin and Manco Sneed. Marcus Martin played four parts, but Manco Sneed apparently only played two. These days people usually play either three or four, but Scott teaches you Marcus Martin’s four-part version, so you can decide for yourself how many to play.
“Tucker’s Barn” comes from Gaither Carlton, Doc Watson’s father-in-law. Doc plays rhythm guitar on the original Watson Family recording and he also recorded a version with fiddler Mark O’Connor. Scott’s version is not based entirely on either, but is influenced more by the fiddlers he learned it from, who likely learned it from Carlton’s version.
“Done Gone” is most often played by bluegrass and Texas fiddlers in the key of Bb, but Georgia fiddler Clayton McMichen recorded a great version in the key of C in the 1920s. Scott’s version of “Done Gone” comes from both McMichen’s and Lowe Stokes’s versions as well as a more contemporary version from Ruthie Dornfeld.
“Rocky Pallet” is another three-part C tune that was recorded by the Skillet Lickers in 1929 and featured the old-time power trio of Clayton McMichen and Lowe Stokes on fiddles and Riley Puckett on guitar. There’s also a nice version from Tatiana Hargreaves and Bruce Molsky on Tatiana’s album Started Out to Ramble.
"Richmond Blues” is a well-known old-time song, and Kentucky fiddler Leonard Rutherford recorded it twice in the 1920s with two different singers and two different titles, though his fiddle break is virtually identical on each recording.
North Carolina fiddling legend Tommy Jarrell has a distinctive, syncopated bowing style, and Scott uses his version of the popular square dance tune “Soldier’s Joy,” to demonstrate how to approximate some of his phrasing.
The quirky D tune “Sullivan’s Hollow” comes from Freeny’s Barn Dance Band, one of the great Mississippi string bands recorded in the early 1930s. There’s a nice, contemporary version by Rayna Gellert, fiddler in the string band Uncle Earl.
“Pleasure of a Single Life” is a lovely, but infrequently played tune in the key of G. It comes from John Salyer, an eastern Kentucky fiddler who was recorded at home by his sons in the early 1940s. There’s also a great contemporary version by Dirk Powell.
Scott talks about the importance of muscle memory in memorizing tunes and how important it is to divide tunes into phrases, both in memorizing and when you start to come up with variations and improvise.
