What’s a dedicated ukulele player doing at a national fiddling contest??? Well, I certainly wasn’t one of the contestants! Here’s how it happened: My closest friend, Carolyn, had moved to Weiser, Idaho, more than a decade ago and, while we’d met up at Palm Springs and the 2005 Midwest UkeFest in Indianapolis, I’d never visited her at her Idaho home. Carolyn’s taken up fiddle playing (after visiting, I’m thinking every Weiser resident is a fiddler) and she made sure my first visit was timed with the National Old-Time Fiddling Contest in Weiser. The first morning of my visit, Carolyn introduced me to the basics of fiddling and showed me the fiddle she’d rented for me for the week. Well, let me tell you, bad fiddling sounds a *lot* worse than bad ukulele playing! Plus, you can play the ukulele quietly when you’re trying to get the hang of it—and I don’t think that’s possible with a fiddle. Still, I perservered and can do a somewhat recognizable rendition of “Rubber Dolly’ on the fiddle (that’s the standard entry-level tune for fiddle players, I truly believe) and I had a great time.
Fiddle folks are friendly, too. I met many of Carolyn’s friends, her teachers and the luthier who keeps her fiddle happy and all were just as pleased to see a new fiddler get started as ukulele folks are to introduce *their* instrument to new players. I was invited to jam with a few of Carolyn’s friends—and even taught an impromptu ukulele lesson before the fiddles were brought out (see the photo); I played my little Applause soprano ukulele (my “travel” uke) for the jamming and the fiddle and guitar players said it added an “interesting” tone to the music.
The upshot? I’ve rigged up Matt’s 3/4-sized violin he used for Suzuki lessons 15 years ago and I can play “Rubber Dolly” at home now, too. The family is wonderfully impressed—not. Matt commented that he was sure I was enjoying the fiddle, but he really preferred hearing me practice the ukulele more than the violin…Oh well! I’m still adding the fiddle to my music time, along with my “self-taught” Hawaiian slack key guitar. I guess everyone in the household can just be glad I’m not attending any bagpipe festivals in the near future.