To show the layers of learning in a simple fiddle tune, Alan Jabbour takes apart six easy traditional tunes and reassembles them, clearly explaining what both hands are doing, demonstrating it all with obvious respect and regard for his mentors, West Virginia fiddlers Henry Reed and Burl and Edden Hammons. The four cross-tuned bonus tunes were filmed at Alan's 2001 fiddling workshop in Amherst MA.

Each tune is introduced at a normal playing tempo. Then, deconstructing it, Alan shows where bowings and left hand techniques create his representative, but still personal, old-time fiddling style. Alan uses each tune as a teaching point for different techniques that punctuate the style. He demonstrates and analyzes how the bowings work, how they fit into the tune, and how they create the syncopated rhythms that drive old-time fiddling.

To help catch the movements that make up the "groove" or rhythm in the bow, for most tunes the film includes a right-hand bowing inset that you can watch while listening to the tune. Then Alan ends each tune with a medium-tempo rendition to play along with.

In addition, Alan has written out clear and easy-to-read transcriptions of each tune, with bowings noted. These are included as a booklet with both the VHS and DVD.

A highly-respected old-time fiddler and fiddling scholar, Dr. Alan Jabbour recently retired as the director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, which hosts an extensive online collection of his field work with fiddler Henry Reed. He devotes his time to writing, research, and to traveling and teaching old-time fiddling. He can be heard at festivals and music gatherings around the country.

For more information about Alan Jabbour's performing and teaching schedule, solo and with banjo player Ken Perlman, or to engage his services for your fiddle workshop, festival or music camp, please look him up at www.alanjabbour.com.

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Click photo for a syncopated bowing lesson (2.4MB)
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Learn these tunes . . .

Granny, Old Joe Clark, Shortening Bread, West Virginia Highway, Over the Waterfall, Peekaboo Waltz, plus four cross-tuned pieces: Sandy Boys, Old Joe Clark, Old Sledge, Silver Lake

Producer: Donna Hébert; Videographer: Marsha Schoeffler for In the Groove Workshops