What tunes do fiddlers play? When dancing is involved The Southern Arizona Old-Time Fiddler's Association plays tunes suited to the style of dance involved. Play a polka for a polka, a waltz for a waltz, a hoedown for a square dance. Another group, Fiddler's Across Generations display amazing talent in their familiar tune performances at Tucson Meet Yourself.
Also known as "chicken scratch," Waila evolved from the music of earlier acoustic fiddle bands that adapted European and Mexican tunes heard in northern Sonora. By the mid-1950s, groups with a combination of different instruments, including the button accordion and alto saxophone, became known as the Waila Band. Today's Tohono O'odham Veterans Waila Band also includes electric six-string and bass guitars and a drum kits.
Fiddlers choose tunes they can play for five minutes or more without wearing out your fingers and arms. Tucson Meet Yourself is a place where they show off technical expertise on the fiddle, using tunes that require strenuous bowing.
In general, many avoid using crooked tunes, that is, tunes with phrases and measures of irregular length. An exception might be to use crooked hoedowns for square dances, if you know for sure that the caller can deal with them.
Playing for a general audience, fiddle tunes are chosen that my be familiar. Most musicians love to play wonderful, unusual, newly-learned tunes, adding their own unique twist to the tried and true. |
