Sheet music for Jefferson City by Bill Katon. Hear the tune and discussion on the Fiddle Studio Podcast on Apple Music or on Spotify! Support Megan's work on the Fiddle Studio Podcast and Blog.
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 Jefferson City by Bill Katon from a session at the R House in Baltimore, Maryland.
Hello, everyone, I hope you're well. Today I'm going to talk about amplifying a fiddle, putting a microphone on a fiddle or amplifying it in some way. This does mean I'll be talking about things that I don't fully understand.
But because I get this question a lot, I wanted to go ahead and let you know what I know. And what I could figure out researching this topic. And what I use because I what I use works pretty well for me.
I guess the main issue with amplifying the sound of a violin is the screech factor. I pulled this quote from Recording Magazine with a discussion from recording engineers about the issue of trying to get a good violin sound through a microphone.
They said "the top plate is tuned to a complex set of resonances, which beam out sound in all directions, producing the radiation pattern from hell." I guess that means the violin is difficult to record.
Let's talk about the studio and then I'll talk about miking the violin for live performance. So in the studio, if you can, making it six feet away, is nice. That's that's how I get the best sound for my violin is it it has to be a little further away. Because the bow noise the kind of grit, the sounds of the bow scraping on the string are pretty loud.
But as you get a few feet away and a few more feet away, the bow noise is less and the sound of the violin is more you can do that in the studio, you can get like a small diaphragm condenser microphone, put it six feet away, you can get a nice sound.
However, that's kind of if you're layering a track one instrument at a time. And using a click track, a lot of folk music and traditional dance music bands like to record together that's how we recorded our album with Contranella.
So we all played at the same time, then you have to make the instruments much closer try to cut down on bleed. In that situation, you would be putting a microphone maybe 8 to 10 inches from the violin and do what you can to try to cut down on the bow scraping noise.
It does require that the player hold still in one spot. Because if it's only eight inches away, if you're moving around, the sound is going to come in and out get louder and softer. So if you can't hold still, then you need to mic directly on the instrument something that can clip on.
And for live performances. Most people will use a clip on if they have it and it's for that reason so you can move around also can cut down on issues of feedback because you can point it directly at the instrument so it's just picking up that sound. Not getting a lot of extra noise in there.
They do make these violins specific microphones that clamp onto the instrument. I haven't used one but uh you know, check them out online. They seem pretty good with their little clamp.
I've also seen people use the pickup on the bridge, that's pretty common, the Piezo pickup. If you do go with that the pickup right on the bridge there, you probably want to use a preamp right there on a chair right next to you by your feet.
I use a little microphone that's designed for woodwinds it's a minus and old Audio Technica they used to make the little clip on flute mics and they would make them with a little preamp box. I love that box because I can turn the microphone off right there in my pocket or on my hip to tune and then turn it back on. It does mean I have to remember to turn my mic on myself.
I don't think Audio Technica still makes it with the preamps so that you don't need phantom power but you can get I think you can get one look for the trumpet mic from Superlux. They make one that's pretty similar to what I use. Those are some options for performing really small little condenser mics that you clip onto the instrument in some way, most people's choice.
I was surprised for my teaching videos how well just having a lapel mic worked. I'm clipping it onto my shirt collar. Because I wanted to have a clear vocal talking sound. Then it also picks up the violin. And because it's under the violin, because it's done on my shirt color, doesn't really get a lot of the bow noise.
It's not like a really nuanced fiddle sound, but I think it works fine for teaching video. I wouldn't record my album that way. The lapel mic is not it's not terrible. I was surprised at how well it worked.
Our tune for today is Jefferson City. This is a reel or breakdown in G from the old time jam. I found some music for this and some information about this tune on a site from Pete showman.
If you go to showman.org there's a I believe West Coast musician who transcribes a lot is his website. It looked just like my dad's there's a certain style of website that was maybe popularized in the late 90s, early aughts. My father John Wobus has such a website and when I was looking at Pete Showman's website, I was like, Ooh, this looks just like my dad's.
Anyway, I thought his website was great, and I enjoyed looking through his transcriptions. I transcribed it the way we played it at the jam.
This tune is associated with or maybe written by Bill Katon Fiddler out of Missouri, African American fiddler. He was born in 1865, birthplace and parents unknown. Also some confusion about how to spell his name, I guess he was listed in the census with Caton with a C. But I read that he preferred it with a K. And he would spell it that way.
Yeah, there's a book or an article written by Missouri Fiddler Howard Marshall that talks a little bit about Bill Katon and his career in his fiddling and I guess he traveled all over Central Missouri playing he would play for dances.
He also played on the radio, which I don't know from what Howard said, it sounded like part of the reason he could play on the radio was because you couldn't see him so he may not have been allowed to play as an African American fiddler, but nobody could see who he was. He played on the radio stations and so he was well known through that.
And he played this tune Jefferson City named after Jefferson City, Missouri. Okay.
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