Texas Fiddle’s Bow Technique & Tone Production!

The mechanics of a Texas fiddler’s bow arm are completely different from any other style.  These mechanics are created by the Texas fiddler’s approach to the instrument. To them, as Dick Barrett says, “The fiddle is not a stringed instrument, it is a bowed instrument”. Thus the emphasis is placed on bow technique and right arm mechanics.

The following description of the Texas bowing technique and resulting tone production was related to me by Dick Barrett.

Most budding or book taught fiddlers, including those who play other styles and are now attempting Texas style, use entirely too much bow.

If we were to draw the sound of a single bowed note as played by most fiddlers and classical musicians, we would see that the loudest and strongest part of that note is at its center or towards its end. They let the note build intensity.

Building Intensity

The bow begins its stroke (A), and the sound of the note builds as the bow accelerates, then peaks at its loudest most noticeable point (B), and dies off as the bow decelerates to change direction (C) for the next note.

A series of bowed (not slurred notes) would look like this:

Three Single Bow Strokes

The player changes bow direction and begins the new note right on the beat (A), holding it for the time value of the note. Since the strongest and most noticeable part of the note is in the middle or toward the end of the bow stroke, the note and the player tend to sound late because the beat was at the start of the stroke and the notes emphasis was in the middle or towards the end of the stroke. This late feeling is especially noticeable when contrasted with the plucked note from an accompanying guitar since the strength of the plucked note is at its beginning.

The gaps between each of the previous diagrams are referred to as “air-time”, which consists of the time necessary for one note to end, the bow to change direction, and a new note to  begin. A Texas fiddler seeks to make that gap as small as possible, ideally to eliminate it. So their series of notes would attempt to look like this.

No Air-Time

Even if a player were to accomplish the elimination of air-time, he still would not sound like a Texas fiddler because the strength of the note falls slightly after the beat.

The goal is to move the strength of the note closer and closer to its start, right where the beat hits. You are then playing “on top of the beat” or as Matt Hartz calls it, “riding the wave”, and the perfect note would look like this.

The Strength of the Note at Its Start

A series of perfect notes played on top of the beat with no air-time would look like this.

Three Notes played with Single Bows and No Air-Time

This approach, playing on top of the beat, produces the drive which makes the song dance. To consistently play on top of the beat, a players up-bow must be as strong as their down-bow which other styles do not advocate. A short bow stroke, about two or three inches long, appearing to move slowly, accomplishes this on top of the beat feel more effectively than a longer stroke moved quickly and is less work. It will also produce a thicker tone.

Air-time cannot be entirely eliminated (except when slurring) simply because you must first stop moving in one direction before going the other way. By using the bow correctly, the ear can be tricked into believing the air-time is gone. This is why it is so difficult to decipher a Texas fiddler’s bow direction. While a copyist can find the notes, the music still does not sound the same as the original, they must also find the bow.