Finding Bluegrass

In this lesson, I would like to show you some places to look for bluegrass that you might not have thought about.  

Recently, I visited my sister for Thanksgiving.  She had a satellite dish for her television reception.  I was amazed because there were so many music channels.  Bluegrass music was playing on one of them.  The title of the song, the title of the album, and the name of the artist was all that was on the screen.  There were no commercials at all; just good music.  This was a great idea to me because I have always had a problem learning the name of the song and the artist.  Now, rather than just buying a CD and hoping that I would like the group, I could have some idea of what was available.  There were so many music channels.  Finding what I was in the mood for was not a problem.  I could not get home fast enough to get a satellite system.

While standing in the store trying to find out what I was getting into, I learned from the salesman that cablevision also had the same service.  I had basic cable, but knew nothing of the extra features.  The trick was to rent the box that would allow me to rent "Video On Demand".  I did just that the next day.  You see, you don't have to rent any movies to get the music channels.  I installed the box and hit the little button on the remote labeled "Music".  The music channel list came up and I selected Bluegrass.  I said, let there be bluegrass and there was, and it was good.  Just about thirty seconds later I had my bass fiddle out and playing with the music.  

Chances are that you already have one of those services.  Call your provider and see what you can find out.  The internet also has some sites that are set up like radio stations.  There are more choices on the internet than cable or satellite.  Live365, below is one of them.

There are also sites like http://www.bluegrasscountry.org/ .

Searching The Internet

The world is at our fingertips with the internet as long as we know how to use it.  It is my intention in this section to show you how to better use the internet.  First of all, use www.google.com .  There are many search engines, but to me, none can compare.  

Google is very fast to gather new information for you to find.  One problem with the internet is that there are things that you might not want to see and the makers of that information have all of the technology to get it in your face.  If you are not careful, you might give up on the internet before learning how to protect yourself; therefore, robbing yourself of a lot of pleasure.

A typical Google search looks like this:

I typed in the words Bluegrass Bass Fiddle and this great site was number one.  This guy must be a genius, he knows what I have been thinking.  I could have gone to the top of my browser and typed in a site that sounded reasonable with a .com on the end and what ever opened would be my surprise.  There is a rule at my house that if we need to go to a site, we type it into Google so that we have some idea what is there first.  Example: In the Google search box put www.projectsandhobbies.com and it will look something like this.  

This looks safe so we can now click on the link to open it.  Had it not looked just right, we could back out just as easy.  In the search you will see a link labeled "Cached".  This is on of the best tools ever.  When you are looking for key words like Bluegrass Bass Fiddle, you can open the link and find your key words highlighted so you can find them quickly.  This is great for homework and research.  Example:

Notice that there are three different colors for three different words.  This will give you sites that display the words at random.  If you want them all as a sentence rather than separate, then put quotations around them and the computer will see them as one word.  Example: "Bluegrass Bass Fiddle" Your result will be Bluegrass Bass Fiddle

and Bluegrass Bass Fiddle with no quotations will show up as Bluegrass Bass Fiddle

Experiment with this and you will understand very quickly.

Let's Have a Little Fun With Pictures

Look at the picture at the top right hand corner of this page.  The guitar, banjo, and fiddle leaning on an old country porch.  How would you like to have this to be the background "Desk Top" for your computer?  Here is how to set any picture up that way.  Right click on the picture.  Select "Set as Background" and it is done.  Pick some other picture, repeat the process and it is now that one.  Some computers have a screen saver setting that will display all of the pictures in your "My Pictures" file.  Put in the pictures that you want in there and that is what you have.  If you see a picture like Nasa's picture of the day, right click on it and save it into your "My Pictures" file.  

If you have a problem with this set up, you can set it up at: Start, Settings, Control Panel, Display, Background and Screen Savers.

Fiddle

I have neglected the fiddle in past lessons mainly, because I am not fluent in the playing of it.  Even though I build them and understand them thoroughly, it's best that I don't terrorize the world with my audio examples.  

Where should a person start that wants to learn the fiddle?  Let's first look at the instrument itself.  You can get a fiddle from eBay! that is made in China in the range of $100 and they are not all together bad.  They will not be ready to play right out of the box; they will need to be set up.  

Let's look at the parts of the fiddle. The tuning pegs are tapered wooded pegs that fit tightly into a tapered hole.  This is not a good system for fine tuning the strings though it has been the standard since their beginning, even with the Stradivarius violins. There are two things that you will want to do to help this problem.  

First, coat the pegs at the wood to wood contact area with a bar of Lava hand soap. (Lava soap will also remove food coloring from your hands.) The soap allows the pegs to slip smoothly and the grit in the soap helps the pegs to grip.    If you can find it, the music stores carry a material that much better and safer for your instrument.
Second, normally there is only one fine tuner on the tail piece.  Use one for every string.
The strings should be rolled on the peg so that the string is somewhat straight in line with the rest of the string.  If you are lucky, the string will wind into the side of the peg box and help keep the peg tight.
Using a chin guard does two things; it keeps your chin from absorbing the sound and it gives you a little height so that you don't have to bend your neck so far.  The picture to the right shows a shoulder rest that also keeps your shoulder from killing the sound and it also will help to keep from having those neck pains.

The picture to the right shows the position of the bridge as the rectangular shapes.  They are aligned with the inside notches of the sound holes.  The round circle below the right leg is the sound post on the inside.

One of the most important things on a fiddle that controls sound is the sound post.  If a sound post is set correctly, the fiddle will be even in sound.  If it is set in the wrong place, one string can be dead while the next string is strong.  Sounds can loop the box as if there is a rat inside it running laps.  A sound post should be straight up and down.  If it is too far away from the bridge, you might get a hollow sound.  Too close or under the leg and it can be too stiff.  The side to side adjustment will control the evenness of the strings.  If a string is dead, move it over slightly and see if it opens up.  

How do you get in there to set it?  A sound post tool is a bent piece of flat metal that is sharp on one end.  The sharp point is used to stick in the the side allowing you to get it wedged into place.  The other end has curves to give you push and pull capabilities.  With that, you can move one end at a time until you have it in place. See Soundpost Setters.