The Joy of Branching Out to New String-Playing Styles
How many of you have heard again and again from people you meet, "Oh, I wish I hadn’t stopped playing"? The truth is that there is no age limit, when it comes to violin, and you can always start again. The proof regarding longevity can be found at fiddle camps and multi-style programs across America, where thousands of children, professionals and even adults over the age of 60 are blowing the dust off their violins, violas and cellos to learn how to master roots styles, blues, swing and jazz, as well as how to play electric.
Image © Julie Lyonn Lieberman.
The story of string-playing in America - and how it led to this proliferation of so many new styles - is fascinating. Here is a very abbreviated version: After Western canon and Scots-Irish fiddle styles made their way to the New World in the 1600s and 1700s, there were two major turning points in the evolution of bowed strings playing in early America.
First, Celtic fiddlers who settled in Appalachia gradually morphed their repertoire into the style we now know as Appalachian — originally referred to as old-time or old-timey. Based on this we can state unequivocally that Appalachian fiddlers contributed the first new style — post-Native American music — in America.
And second, enslaved Africans contributed the first style in America to incorporate improvisation, developing the art form we know as "the blues," using voice and violin. The blues evolved into swing and jazz, as well as rock and pop. The blues influenced Bill Monroe, who invented "bluegrass." So it was the singers and blues fiddlers in African-American communities who helped create all the contemporary styles invented on American soil, most of which incorporate improvisation.
In other words, there is a compelling history in America of string-playing styles outside the Western canon, and engaging with those styles can be a rich and rewarding experience. It can improve listening skills. It can help develop new left- and right-hand techniques that strengthen proprioception in relationship to the left- and right hands. It can also stimulate creativity in a different way than playing music conceived by others. And you don't have to give up the Western canon to do it - learning to master and interpret important works of art from across time can live side-by-side with the art of improvisation - these are not mutually exclusive.
The melodies of roots styles from around the world have been learned by ear for centuries, and a great deal of contemporary styles require new ways to listen. All music worldwide was originally created for spiritual worship or to accompany dance long before the art of performance became central. This provides us with an opportunity to learn about what to listen for by introducing us to a different perspective about ear training.
Traditionally, ear training has mostly focused on learning to identify and even notate pitch and rhythm. When we delve into new genres, we challenge our ears to listen differently… beyond the melody. For example, we listen to the underlying rhythmic scaffold, also referred to as "groove." Irish fiddling has a triplet subtext, while Appalachian fiddling is built on a rhythmic use of the bow called "shuffle stroke." We also learn to pick up the key, its tonal map i.e. the scale. We work with harmonic motion - referred to as chord changes. We learn left- and right-hand ornaments unique to particular styles, and so much more. Even if you are dedicated to Western canon, your level of musicianship will improve on many levels.
You may be wondering how to get started, with so many bowed strings styles worldwide. Here’s a partial list, in addition to the styles listed above, to help you decide: Country, Boogie Woogie, R&B, Rom, Klezmer, Tango, Calentano from Mexico, Scandinavian, Cape Breton, East Indian, Greek, Afro-Cuban, Cajun, Quebecois, and Mètis, among others.
Nowadays, there are an enormous number of videos, books, and summer programs, and scores to help us along the way. The following list will provide you with a few suggested sources -including ones that I have created. (Feel free to list any additional sources that you know, in the comments!) Click on the highlighted links to learn more at these websites:
PROGRAMS
- Fiddle Hell (Massachusetts)
- Strings Without Boundaries (Massachusetts)
- Mike Block String Camp (Florida)
AUTHORS of BOOKS
DVDs and Videos
- Artist Works presents Darol Anger, Brittany Haas, Alex Hargreaves
Julie Lyonn Lieberman on Vimeo and some of her books with Hal Leonard supply video tutorials
Multi-Style String Scores
- Publishers like Alfred Music Publishing and Kendor Music were the earliest leaders in the field of multi-style string orchestra scores. You can find over 20 scores by me in their libraries, along with scores by Bob Phillips and many other composers. I've also created three concert programs, “Fiddling in America,” “Contemporary Strings,” and “Stringin’ the World” in a series titled Planet Strings Informance, that offer string orchestra scores with parts, narrated scripts, backing tracks, a press release template, and optional harp parts as well as video tutorials.
You might also like:
- Best American Fiddle Books and Resources for Teaching, Learning and Exploring
- Making Celtic Music Sound Irish, at Creative Strings Workshop
- Julie Lyonn Lieberman on How Violinists Can Prevent Injury with Proper Stretches and Set-up
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February 16, 2025 at 02:55 PM · Thank you Julie Lyonn Lieberman for this provocative and inspiring survey of American string music! I say "provocative" because there is so much here to respond to and explore that I will only mention a fraction of the thoughts you've stimulated.
Most surprising is your mention of violins in the blues --I've never heard of this, despite having collected blues albums for a few years some decades ago. Roots there seemed to be found in the recordings of Robert Johnson in the 1920s. He and all the other Delta Blues singers I've heard were playing guitars, and as Blues moved to northern cities (especially Chicago) it stayed guitar-based but electrified (John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf, etc). Some great harmonica players too, like Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson...and jazzier blues would have piano...but where can I find violins? I'd love to discover that overlooked niche!
Your survey of styles is held together by the common element of string playing, but each style is rooted in a particular community in a particular time and place. I lived a small education in this concept even as a kid, having friends in garage bands (I wasn't a musician, just the joint-roller) playing Led Zeppelin, Beatles, Black Sabbath, etc. Later I spent some years at Grateful Dead concerts and hearing their local cover bands. Of course there were also many parties, and depending on the hosts I came to associate different crowds with different music. Soon after, I discovered classical music and went deep by attending hundreds of concerts and recitals at the Yale School of Music. So early on I formed understandings of music as something done live and in community, informally and imperfectly even though highly skilled, and I came to think of music not just as sound but as expressing different communities, each with distinct subcultures and outlooks on life.
I digressed there because your survey of styles begs an anthropology survey too. In our modern world of recordings and mass media (and now internetted) and a globalized culture, we have menus of music that are rooted in legacy cultures more insulated and, if not isolated, then at least less disturbed by every other sound and culture of human history. And so now in 2025, as a player searching for direction, am I just following an auditory aesthetic or am I choosing a culture and a community?
Finally I'll just mention that I clicked your name in the resource links below your article and was amazed at the breadth of musical books and DVDs you've published. It seemed like an impulse that I immediately ordered your "Improvising Violin" book (I did take time to read the table of contents) but actually for years I've wanted to grow some improvisational skills, whether as divisions on a ground in baroque music or as a player in a rock jam band, the latter especially since I've never found a garage trio sonata ensemble to join.