How to Make a Fiddle Wail

If you're interested in fiddles, you may have already learned the basics. But what about nuanced technique? "Making a fiddle wail" might sound like a poetic reference, but there are ways to get a "wailing", sliding sound out of your fiddle, and these are used frequently by fiddlers who want to make their playing emotionally evocative.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Resin up your bow. The first step to getting optimum sound out of a fiddle is to get the right amount of resin on the strings and the bow. Contrary to what the name suggests, resin is not a sticky substance but actually a cake that forms a powdery residue. Draw the bow across the resin cake to get particles of resin into the bow, this will improve your fiddle sound.

2. Practice the long draw. Spend time playing notes by drawing the bow across the string (or strings), keeping constant pressure on the strings, getting a smooth, consistent sound.

3. When you've mastered the long draw, start playing faster compositions to get your bow speed up. Part of fiddle playing usually involves quick draws as well as long, plaintive tones.

4. For your "wailing" or ascending/descending notes, you'll also want to work on fingering technique. Experiment with sliding fret action: the fiddle or violin type string instrument accommodates this by not having actual demarcated frets. You can play the fiddle by bringing your finger gradually up the board, creating a kind of wailing, fluctuating sound that is a mainstay of evocative fiddlers.

5. Get electric. One way to draw the maximum sound out of a fiddle is to use new technology. To some old-school fiddlers, it's cheating, but to others, it's optimizing the sound. Electric violin models are available; another method is to run fiddle sound through an amplifier and/or effects pedal to create sonic variations.