Violin or Fiddle?
The answer you didn’t know you were looking for
If you are looking to start lessons for yourself or your child, it is important you learn about the difference between these two instruments: although they happen to be interchangable, they are also considered very different. I really hope this long and extensive article will help you find the full answer (or the “non-answer”) you were looking for. In fact, I always invite my students (young and adults) to explore the many meanings of these string instruments and to think beyond stereotypes. What I learned so far is that, in order to play fiddle, as a classical violinist I had to “unlearn” the violin technique and open my mind to a new way of processing music: once you get rid of all the rigidity (both physical and mental) and you’re ready to explore new facets of your instrument, then you’ll be able to approach a new way of playing.
Repertoire
“You’d never spill beer on a violin“: this is the most common answer that you’ll get from a musician when you ask what’s the difference between a violin and a fiddle. Jokes aside, it is PARTIALLY true: while the violin is considered the expensive instrument to play Western European classical music, the fiddle is considered a cheap folk instrument , usually played in gigs and mundaine occasions. But that is really not always the case.
THE CLASSICAL VIOLIN
The violin is considered to be an instrument for classical music in general, although in modern music history there are some other music styles that involve “a violinistic” way of playing, like Jazz, Argentinian tango, and some branches of eastern European and African-American music. Since the repertoire for violin was initially originated in the old Europe, the violin was always considered the instrument of Mozart, Beethoven, Paganini and all those famous classical composers, although recently there are few musicians, like Mark O’ Connor, who are trying to take the next step and incorporate the fiddle style in the classical orchestra music. Please also note that in this post I’m writing about the modern violin: if I’m to consider the baroque classical music, the baroque repertoire and the baroque violin…well, that is a whole different world.
THE FOLK FIDDLE
The fiddle is considered to be an instrument for folk music in general, although the term “fiddle” is mostly used in the United States and has lots of genres (bluegrass, old time, Canadian, folk, celtic, French), which in turn are divided in regional subgenres (like western swing, southern Texas, Appalachian, Irish, Scottish, Shetland, Cape Breton, English, Quebecois, Maritime, Cajun, etc ) and in turn divided in dance subcategories (like breakdown, clog, hoedown, hop, jig, march, fox trot, reel, rag, quickstep, twostep, polka, waltz, stomp, etc). There are also some music styles outside U.S that are considered to be part of fiddling tradition, like Huasteco and Mariachi Mexican music and European music such as gypsy, manouche, Irish, Scottish, Klezmer, Hardanger. These are just few of the repertoires that have been classified under the category of fiddle music. It’s worth to mention electric violins as well: with the new era and the technology, the world of amplified music added this new product on the market between 1958 and 1969, and its use is generally for modern folk, rock and pop music styles. I used to play my Yamaha electric violin in a New Country band (see picture), as for my generation it has become a sort of hybrid between the old sounds and the modern ones; of course, we can’t compare an electric violin to a traditional fiddle as per se, but looking at the repertoire, in some situations I like to think that somehow it gets close to the “concept” of fiddle.
One of my first country performance
Where is the performance?
Given the different musical and social background, these two instruments perform in two very distinct contexts. However, in the past, their role used to be overlapped in some situations. Nowadays, there are few musicians who are trying to fuse together the two styles.
THE STAR OF THE THEATRE
When you say violin, you think about precise situations, like string quartets playing in those stunning “Palazzi” (Italian ancient palaces) full of art and history, with all the important people of the city gathering to have social time. There were, and there still are, very big traditions of violins and ensembles playing in those elegant Viennese ballrooms, because at a certain point in history the violin music was for dance as well. That’s pretty much how it started; later, the violin became the star of those big, red and decadent opera theaters and auditoriums. Open symphonic concerts and performing events are also a thing, and all those places where there’s an audience listening to classical music (or to those music styles that are closer to classical music, see above).
THE LORD OF THE DANCE
Over the centuries, when we think about fiddle, we visualize it in noisy old pubs, with people drinking, eating and dancing. In fact, the roots of the term “fiddle” go down to dancing and storytelling. Back in the European Reinaissance, the violin was played by troubadoures (trovatori e trovieri) in the town’s squares, castle’s courts and puppets’ street theaters. We have to remember though, that the fiddle was already present in the northern part of Europe as well as in the African continent (originated by a similar instrument) and was later brought to the United States’ southern plantations (unfurtunately, with the slavery). With time, the fiddle became popular among dancers and was played inside mansions or outside on the big porches. Pubs, streets, indoor jams and open microphones, nowadays it has been nourished in less formal atmospheres, although there are famous music festivals where people seat and enjoy listening carefully to fiddle music.
In Asheville (NC) there are talented musicians basking and performing at every corner.
Who is performing?
The performer who plays the violin is a “violinist”, while the performer who plays the fiddle is a “fiddler”.
WHO PLAYS AT THE WEDDING: THE VIOLINIST
Playing classical music requires a certain type of training on the instrument. Of course, there is an accessible repertoire for amaterus who wants to enjoy playing classical music, but unfurtunately most of it requires a very good sightreading, knowing all the positions and the shifts on the fingerboard, developing an extremely precise technique both on the left hand and the right hand, searching for the perfect sound. At this point, as the classical music became more and more difficult throughout the history, the musician who wanted to play the violin professionally had to “specialize” at music conservatories and music Academies. The professional violinist is usually a person who spent a basic-10-years training going to private lessons and practicing for many hours each day, followed by some expensive masterclass and high level performance apprenticeship. You see that violinist, in the string quartet, who is playing at your cousin’s wedding’s ceremony? Tip him.
WHO PLAYS AT THE WEDDING: THE FIDDLER
It’s important to recognize the fiddler’ stereotypes that lurke in our subconscious: the common ones are that they don’t have a specific music background, they can’t sightread, because their music is passed from generation to generation learned by ear, and most of their repertoire is played in the basic first position with no special or virtuosistic technique. The thing is, fiddlers’ brain works on a different level when playing music: it takes a huge effort and a lot of time in order to learn hundreds and hundreds of tunes by heart (and believe me, lot of effort also for not mixing them up, ugh!), rearranging notes, harmonies and rhythms at 120 bpm, meanwhile creating variations, ornaments by never playing them twice in the same way, everything playing in many different jams each time to learn new skills. Nowadays the high technical demand on the fiddle has brought some fiddlers to be high skilled as the high skilled trained violinists. You see that fiddler, in the band, who is entertaining the crowd at your cousin’s wedding reception? Tip him.
The music
Violin and fiddle have usually two different types of music: one is printed on paper, the other one comes from oral tradition.
GOOD SIGHT READING & PRINTED MUSIC
Megviolin – my first classical concert as a young violinist, playing with a symphonic orchestra.
There’s one thing I insist on with my violin students: sightreading. In music, the “sightreading” (also called prima vista in Italian), is the art of reading a piece of music that you never saw in you life before, and you have to perform it right here, right now, with zero mistakes…uh! If you have a very good sightreading, as a classical musician, your life will be easier; it’s like to learn another language. Classical music (and its similar styles) has everything written down, every details, it relies on printed music and as a classical musician you are expected to have good sightreading in order to perform it.
GOOD IMPROVISATION & EAR MEMORY
In the past, the majority of the fiddle music used to come from oral tradition, passed from generation to generation by ear, no paper. Starting from late 1800 and early 1900 though, folk musicians felt the need to print fiddle music as well, for two reasons: first of all, they started to fear that the music could get lost with the next generations, so the safest way was to write it down; secondarily, more written music meant fiddle music could be approached by a wider range of people, classical musicians as well. Published fiddle songs are often only a skeleton of what fiddlers play: technique, variations, dynamics, ornaments, bowings, are all up to the person who perform it.
My first classical concert as a young violinist, playing with a symphonic orchestra
List of other differences
Hands technique and physic structure
The violin’s high technical demands include difficult fingering patterns , agility in various positions up and down the fingerboard, many bowing techniques (staccato, picchettato, sforzato, appoggiato, etc), complicated chords, a decent knowledge of all the scales in all their variations and perfect intonation. If you play fiddle, the training is quite different, but the technical master of the instrument is as difficult, and includes: fingers’ high speed technique (some bluegrass songs are so fast to play), tricky bow techniques (like chop, rocking, doublestops, ricochet, and all the different types of shuffles), good improvisation technical skills, right inflection, and perfect knowledge of the notes and fingers position once you go in another key, or worse, in another strings tuning. To facilitate all these techniques, fiddles often have a flatter bridge and a flatter keyboard.
Position and movement on stage
While classical violinist have to go through years and years of practice to find the correct position on their instrument, fiddlers often have personal postures based on the style they’re playing and the situation. It’s common to see American fiddlers’ right hands gripping the bow several inches above the frog, or the heels of their left hands positioned all the way to the neck. Fiddlers also often need to use their voice during performances, and therefore prefer to hold the instrument down on their arm to keep their jaws free. On the stage, classical musicians are required to keep a stable position, almost rigid, while the fiddler can move much more in order to pass the groove he has in mind to other musicians or dancers.
Vibrato: is a must if you practice classical violin, but it’s not used in fiddle (if not to play ornaments or give accents).
Beat: most classical music has a stronger accent on the downbeat, while fiddling accents the upbeat (for dancers) and often play up-bow on a downbeat note.
Pitch: today’s classical music is strictly tied to the well-tempered scale and all the instruments have to adehere to the standard pitch of A440 (beside baroque ensembles, that have follow other rules). When playing folk music, most of the time you have to get accostumed to play out of tune, since the tune can be adjusted as the player chooses.
Sound and dynamics: the main goal of a classically trained violinist is to search for the “perfect balance of sound” and follow all the dynamics at the perfection (piano, fortissimo, decrescendo, etc). The main goal of a fiddler is to emphasize the groove over the sound, and with him being the only melodic instrument, he generally tends to play loud, so everybody can hear the main melody. In addition, fiddlers search for that “scratchy sound” that is typical of the style: they listen to what they call “primary sources”, like old recordings from the past that usually had rough technique and grating sound on the instrument, but had the best creative variations, rhythms, groove and soul.
Tune: violin strings have a standard set up: G, D, A, E. Fiddle tuning can differ from tradition and key: sometimes you tune A, E, A, E, sometimes A, D, A, E or A, E, A, C#.
With fiddler Bruce Molsky at the Swannanoa Gathering (NC).
So, what’s the answer?
In my opinion, the big enigma around the categorization of these two instruments comes down to the music repertoire they play. There is an imaginary line that was drew through the years between these two instruments, but music history tells us that at a certain point they were the same thing, sharing the same roots and same ancestors . This difference stays in the social background of the instrument itself. Sometimes I see classical musicians and folk musicians at the edge of a war, claiming that one cannot understand the other and viceversa: if I may, I find this thinking attitude unconstructive and childish; instead, we should all learn from each other and try to emerge these two instruments’ techniques to have a new way of playing.
