Fiddling About

From the "As if I need another distraction" file.

Seeing fiddlers at the Folk Fest and at some jams we've been to has planted the seed that it might be fun to fool around with a fiddle. It hasn't been a burning desire - lord knows that guitar and mandolin provide all the challenge I need - not to mention that my actual gigging instrument is the bass. But I thought that if the opportunity to get a reasonable quality fiddle on the cheap, I'd probably go for it.

Well, I found the opportunity, and I now have a nice little used fiddle. As my very wise wife is fond of saying (usually with a raised eyebrow when learning of my latest transaction), the problem with looking is that it leads to finding.

I saw a Craigslist ad for a used violin, and I responded with a few questions. I e-mailed back and forth with the seller, who turned out to be a woman who buys old violins from wherever she can find them (Good Will, estate sales, garage sales, etc.), fixes them up, sets them up properly, and sells them. She said she understood what I was looking for, and would gather up a few that would probably be suitable for me.

As an aside, I thought "violin" and "fiddle" were two different words for an identical instrument. That's not exactly true. They *are* the same instrument, but they're set up a little differently. A fiddle is set up with a flatter bridge, to make playing double-stops (two strings at a time) easier. I'm looking to play fiddle tunes, not Mozart concertos, so I was looking for a fiddle setup.

I met her at McDonald's Sunday morning at 10:30, and it was easy to spot the woman with four black instrument cases on a table. She showed them to me one by one, and each one had a spec sheet and price. Each one came as a package, with fiddle, bow, case, rosin. I had lots of questions, and she patiently answered them all. Then we went out to her car so she could play them for me.

They all sounded fine to me, but the ones I liked best were the cheapest ($110) and the most expensive ($225). I couldn't decide on one over the other, so price was the tie-breaker - especially since this is a "try it out and see if I like playing it" starter instrument. So I bought it and brought it home.

Now I'm painfully aware from grade school orchestra concerts that violin is not an easy instrument to learn, and that the screeching of a beginner violinist can be a painful-sounding thing. But the only way through that is to practice and get through the learning curve of putting your fingers in the right spot. So I'll try to play in the basement when no one is around to hear. My joke has been, "Here's a little number I call 'Sackful of Screeching Cats.'"

After two days, I'm kinda starting to get the hang of it, just a little. It's fun, and it's definitely challenging. Time will tell if I decide to stick with it.