The classical vs. fiddle divide (North Carolina Breakdown)

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Welcome to the Fiddle Studio Podcast featuring tunes and stories from the world of traditional music and fiddling. I'm Megan Beller, and today I'll be bringing you a setting of North Carolina Breakdown from an old-time jam at the R house in Baltimore, Maryland. 

Hello, everyone, I hope you're well. Today I'm going to be talking a little bit about the tension between the worlds of fiddling and of violin. I was thinking about this because I was talking to the mother of a former student. My student is now of a violin major, violin performance major in college. 

I was speaking with her mother a little bit catching up and I asked her mother will she still fiddling? The student was a very good fiddler. She could definitely play a whole dance, played the fiddle beautifully from a very young age. And her mom said, Uh, well, no, you know, she, she was avoiding it because her teachers thought that she shouldn't do anything that would mess up her technique or her classical playing. 

The funny thing about this is that 20 years ago, I was told the same thing. I didn't realize that classical teachers were still complaining about fiddling, ruining technique. Maybe that's something that will never end. 

When I was in college, I was kind of in the closet as a fiddle player for a while. I remember my teachers saying about Mark O'Connor, like oh, fiddlers can only play in three keys. As my college career went on, it became more and more obvious that I was a fiddler, and wasn't really hiding it anymore. To the point where I actually included fiddling, I played a lot of my own fiddling compositions as part of my senior recital. My senior recital was half classical, half fiddle. I don't think they had done that at Eastman before. I think that was a first. 

After my recital, my teacher kind of rolled her eyes and said, well, at least you'll be able to pay the bills. Which is so funny, because she was sort of saying to me, you can't play classical well enough to have a job, but you can have a job with that other thing you do. But I don't think she realized that folk players get paid even less than classical players. 

Anyway, the world of classical music does not look kindly on fiddlers. And it's funny because I'm a Suzuki teacher. Suzuki violin, Suzuki, uses pedagogy, breaks everything down and goes through it step by step. I love to apply that to fiddling. I believe in the power of pedagogy! 

But I was recently called, this time by fiddler, somebody said to me, Well, I'm sure you're very good Suzuki teacher. And the context was definitely but you don't really know anything about authentic fiddling, so I had to kind of laugh at that. I get that also from the world of fiddling and fiddle players where if you, you know, if you play classical music, if you if you are Suzuki teacher, you're not really considered to have that authentic sound, passed down. You didn't grow up playing in pubs in Donegal. I get it a little bit from both sides. 

I don't think that there really needs to be this divide. I think that violin players are musicians that are playing music that inspires them. And I think that fiddlers are musicians that are playing music that inspires them. Whether the music that you love is is Mozart, or it's Kenny Baker, learning to make that music and play music with other people it's the same thing. It's being a musician. It's making music. 

I mean, different people are inspired by different things. So we're not all inspired by the same thing. I don't think there's a right way or wrong way to study and play the music that you love. Anyway, that's just a Suzuki teachers perspective. So take it for what it is. 

Our tune today is the final G major reel. Yes, we will be moving on from G major and from reels in December. I'll make sure to go to a non old-time jam between now and then. This is North Carolina Breakdown. 

It is a fiddle tune with a composer was composed by Arthur Smith. Fiddler out of Tennessee,  Fiddling Arthur Smith was his nickname. Ernest Smith, who was Arthur's son says that he believes his father wrote North Carolina break down around 1937, I guess that was the time he also wrote a tune called Smith's Breakdown. And these are some still very popular tunes. Still played around a lot. 

North Carolina break down is a very popular contra dance tune, even though it's considered a bluegrass tune primarily. Arthur Smith, worked full time as a musician and also worked full time on the railroad. He had a lot going on in his life. He performed regularly at the Grand Ole Opry. He was a prolific composer of tunes. 

Also kind of a band hopper, reading his bio on Wikipedia, was a list of a lot of different bands and a lot of bands switching around. Fun fact I think in his later career he even appeared as a fiddler in some low budget westerns, which actually sounds like a really fun gig. If anyone's making a low budget Western, please sign me up to play fiddle in it. 

Anyway, Charlie and I are going to finish out the old time tunes for you here with North Carolina breakdown. Ready?

Thanks so much for listening, you can head over to fiddle studio.com for the sheet music to this and all of the tunes I teach. I'll be back next time with another tune for you have a wonderful day.