A good example of this is violinist Patrick Contreras and his YouTube videos. His most recent video is below. In that one you will hear licks that are more guitar like than you normally hear from fiddle players.

It’s a slow blues format that allows a lot of creativity, expression and virtuosity from Mr. Contreras.

As I’m preparing to teach a workshop in Blues Violin this summer at Centrum Blues Week, I give much more attention to blues violin and fiddle now. If you have any recommendations, I welcome them.

A good example of blues violin.

For 25 Christmas Carols in Violin Tab go to 25 Christmas Carols for Beginning Violin.

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“The difference between a violin and a fiddle,”

says Ingrid Richter, nearly 12 and a budding virtuoso, is found in an old joke. “A violin has strings, and a fiddle,” she says, pivoting to a drawl, “has strangs.”

Ingrid has been playing both out of the same instrument case since she turned 6, when brother Steven — then an Army motor pool mechanic stationed in Baghdad’s Green Zone — scored a violin in an eBay auction and threw in a year’s worth of classical instruction, adding a solitary, against-the-grain caveat.

Debbie Richter, mom to both, explains: “He said, ‘I want you to play ‘Devil Went Down to Georgia’ for me on my next birthday.’”

Ever since, Ingrid has been the musical version of Josh Waitzkin, the prepubescent chess prodigy torn between classical training and the rough-and-tumble speed chess played in a Manhattan park portrayed in 1993′s wrenching “Searching for Bobby Fischer.”

With one possible exception. Though the child’s preference may be for Mozart and Vivaldi, Ingrid’s longtime teacher encourages her to fiddle. “Expose yourself to new things,” she says.

* * * * *
So Ingrid does, often accompanied — as she was Tuesday — by Dennis Devine on rhythm guitar. They make a fascinating partnership: the retired Pasco teacher and Civil War re-enactor and the home-schooled sixth-grader in braces, a “thrown-together” gypsy costume and bare feet patting time.

Delighting the handful of San Antonio Rotarians lunching at Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club, they played a little ragtime, a haunting bluegrass waltz and a gypsy dance tune. “Hence,” she says (yes, Ingrid Richter, not quite 12 and home-schooled, says “hence”) while performing a small curtsy, “the gypsy costume.”

She wore a billowing rust-colored blouse cinched at the waist with a suede fringed belt dyed violet, and a long floral skirt. A double strand of wooden beads dangled from her neck, and her straight blond hair was caught by a dark headband festooned with small coins of a foreign origin. Rough woven bracelets cavorted as she fretted with one hand and worked the bow with the other.

The experience was scarcely shy of transportive. Just in time, too.

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Our first sessions were aimed at this performance. We focused mainly on the music education goals of phrasing, musical expression, and intonation. I thought she did very well to demonstrate these skills in her playing.

The one thing that I did not nag her about nearly enough is posture and appearance. That may come next.

For 25 Christmas Carols in Violin Tab go to 25 Christmas Carols for Beginning Violin.

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A man walked up to where I was sitting, near the back of the audience for one of the smaller stages and engaged me in conversation. He shared his delight in having been “at the right place, at the right time.” He had been asked to fill in for another performer who sang his voice out the night before during the campground sessions.

I was puzzled by his attitude, even though I have seen it many times, always from amateurs. Pros like to be at the right place at the right time to get a paying gig. My student Bud Green has told me of three times now that his band, the Free Range Roosters, has fallen into a spot at festivals for a paying gig.

Bud is between the amateur and the pro. He has a day business that he is good at doing carpentry. The band activity is a hobby that is now starting to pay off.

This other performer loves to sing his folk songs and strum his guitar for an audience. Maybe it’s the prestige of being a performer that is his payment. Or, possibly he feels so strongly about expressing himself in song, that the opportunity to share his deepest passion is enough compensation.

I really don’t know what motivates amateurs. The closest I can come, in my own experience, to the raison d’etre of the amateur, is the mind set I had in my early years as an improvising fiddler.

I used to look forward eagerly to the chance to show what I could do in my improvised solo. My strategy was to cover a lot of ground as quickly as possible, mixing in some hot licks as I went. When I thought I had done well, which was most of the time, in my opinion then, I had some pride in the notes I had just sprayed from my violin out over the audience.

My attitude is different now. I don’t play as fast. I use more syncopation, more pauses, more ornaments. My mind set is the belief that in any performance there is a solo that I can play that will be most inspiring to the audience. My goal is to play that solo.

That solo is not available to me consciously. I can only be receptive to the music spirit and hope for inspiration to move me in that direction. How can I know how successful I am?

The closer I get to that solo, the better. But, I don’t know what that solo is. And I can’t even know how close I came to playing it. Most of the time I feel that my solo was adequate, or competent. Occasionally, I feel that my solo was inspired. I don’t remember the last time I felt my performance was stellar, sad to say.

The outcome is not something I can control. If I can slip into focused attention to play, that is the main thing. Concentration on what I am doing, without clutching at the result, is the standard.

Now as to playing for no money, I have no attraction to that.

I well remember the first time I got paid for playing. I was in my first year of college. My teacher sent me to play for a social gathering. I played one of the pieces I had studied with her.

The group gave me $10 and a gourmet meal. I hadn’t looked for that. But, somewhere in the back of my mind a door opened. It invited me in, saying, “So this is what it’s all about.”

Within a couple of years I was playing in a symphony orchestra for union pay. I was a card carrying member of the Musician’s Union.

Now I’m in the Fiddle Player’s Union. I have a T-shirt as a credential. It’s more fun, less controlling, and a soft send up of organized labor.

Displaying my credential as Fiddle Player's Union Member

I mean, you have the union movement on one side, which has its share of difficulties with multinational corporations. On the other you have fiddle players. We’re organized differently.

I will wind this discussion of amateurism up with a citation from Wikipedia. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateurism]

An amateur (French amateur “lover of”, from Old French and ultimately from Latin amatorem nom. amator, “lover”) is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training.

Amateurism can be seen in both a negative and positive light. Since amateurs often do not have formal training, some amateur work may be sub-par. Amateur dramatics is the performance of plays or musical theater, often to high standards but lacking the budgets of professional West End or Broadway performances.

The reference to amateur performance of musical theater also applies to folk music.

Florida Folk Festival and the Crystal Beach String Band

Here I am playing with my fellow amateurs. We enjoyed it and felt good about our performance.

For 25 Christmas Carols in Violin Tab go to 25 Christmas Carols for Beginning Violin.

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Did you know Innisbrook’s 2011 Green Day & Family Festival is almost here?
Please join us on Saturday, May 7th for this very exciting event!
 
Awesome Things You Can Do at Green Day . . .
v  Run or walk in our 5k course located on our scenic North Course – 5k will be professionally timed by Florida Road Race Management (www.floridaroadrace.com)
v  Drop off your old electronics for zero waste recycling by our partner Intercon Solutions (www.interconrecycling.com)
v  Drop off your gently used shoes for donation to Soles4Souls (www.soles4souls.org)
v  Get your confidential documents shredded and the paper recycled by our friends at Business Records Management (BRM) (http://www.brm-inc.com/Document_Shredding.asp) any time between 7 am and 11 am
v  Check out the produce and peanuts offered by local Tarpon Springs vendor Simply Fresh Produce and Peanuts (“Live Life Simply”)
v  Visit with volunteers from the Brooker Creek Preserve (www.brookercreekpreserve.org)
v  Listen to the melodious sounds of The Green Grass Boys (www.thefloridafiddler.com) featuring Pete Gallagher, Elan Chalford, and Mark Musser
v  Ride a surrey bike provided by our friends at Wheel Fun (http://www.facebook.com/wheelfuntarpon)
v  Learn doggie yoga from Innisbrook Service Professional & fitness guru Lynn Colombo
v  Learn more about Honeymoon Island from the Friends of Florida State Parks (www.friendsoffloridastateparks)
v  Buy a raffle ticket/enter the silent auction for a pair of Five Finger Vibram shoes provided by FitNiche (www.fitniche.com)
v  Enjoy free beer compliments of JJ Taylor (must be 21 or older; while supplies last)
v  Purchase a refreshing shaved ice from the Kona Ice truck (www.Kona-Ice.com) – “It’s Kona :30 Somewhere”
v  Find out from Don Botto of Duraclean how you can make your home safe and clean from mold, dirt, and allergens
v  Talk with Registered Dietitian and Florida State Licensed Dietitian/Nutritionist Liat Golan of Bee Well Nutrition (www.beewellnutrition.com)
v  Purchase Indaba Spa gift certificates – a great gift for Mother’s Day
v  Enjoy a game of quick start tennis courtesy of our Tennis Professional Judi Alford

For 25 Christmas Carols in Violin Tab go to 25 Christmas Carols for Beginning Violin.

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