Old-time Fiddling Styles
Introduction
What we call old-time fiddling has been around in America since the first fiddle player settled down to live in the New World.
They played in the style they learned in the Old World. The New World brought people together who didn’t live near each in the Old World, so over time, playing styles changed as the players heard different music and changed their playing accordingly.
Extreme isolation meant that a region might not be exposed to any new sources of music, in which case the music might not change much, if at all. People believe, for example, that the music of Cape Breton, settled primarily by people driven from the Scottish Highlands, was closer at the time of the Folk Revival (’60s and ’70s) to old Scottish music than Scottish music of the time, which had changed to suit concert halls and competitions.
Isolation also meant that a region could develop its own style.
A modern example of that is the upstate New York / Ithaca old-time sound, characterized by reggae influence and emphasis on the backbeat. The Horseflies, led by Judy Hyman and Jeff Claus are probably the most well-known example.
The old-time musicians in Ithaca were able to travel to the Southeast to be influenced by the likes of Tommy Jarrell and others. But they were far enough away from the Southeast, West Virginia, and other sources that influenced them that those influences didn’t overwhelm them. Their relative isolation, because they lived in a small college town in upstate New York, enabled them to develop their own distinctive sound.
So over the decades and centuries, a hodge podge of different fiddling and musical styles developed across America and the New World, driven by local needs, circumstances, and differing degrees of isolation. Individual players, of course, also developed their own styles, heavily influenced by the styles of the people around them.
This page is meant to collect, for the curious, information about different styles of old-time fiddling and music.
It is NOT meant to be comprehensive.
As of when this was written, there is no comprehensive reference that describes the different old-time styles. And if you see one, it’s likely to be wrong unless it’s been put together by a great many fiddle players.
The problem is that are so many old-time fiddling styles that it’s impossible for one person to develop a deep understanding of even most of them, to say nothing of all of them. There are too many, and it takes too much time.
Top old-time fiddle players typically develop a deep understanding of a few styles. (Currently, just Round Peak, but probably a couple more to come.)
Players who do develop a deep understanding of one of more styles are typically unwilling to say much about styles they don’t know well, because they understand how easy it is to say something that’s wrong.
With that in mind, here are some notes on a very few styles.
Note that much of the information about anything other than Round Peak was obtained from fiddle players who are experts in those styles.
– Ray Chen
Round Peak
Round Peak is an area of North Carolina in and around Surry County and its largest town, Mount Airy.
Round Peak old-time music is characterized by high-energy tunes and a fair amount singing that goes with the tunes (compared to what we know of other fiddling styles).
Round Peak fiddling (and banjo playing) is characterized by a lot of changing syncopation. The ever-changing syncopation adds excitement and energy to the music.
Charlie Lowe is credited for the development of the Round Peak banjo style, and the fiddling style changed to match it.
Notable Round Peak old old-time musicians include Tommy Jarrell, Fred Cockerham, Kyle Creed, and Benton Flippen.
Most of the Round Peak tunes are in the keys of D and A. Round Peak fiddlers typically tune their fiddles to those keys (fiddle strings tuned to ADAE and AEAE, respectively), instead of playing in standard tuning (GDAE). Benton Flippen was the notable exception. He didn’t want to tune on stage, so he reworked all his tunes so he could play them in standard tuning.
Round Peak music had an outsized influence on the Old-Time Revival and therefore on modern old-time music. This in large part because the old musicians were very generous, and because the music has so much energy and is so much fun. Tommy Jarrell was particularly generous with sharing his music. People were known to camp out in Tommy Jarrell’s back yard for days.
Modern old-time players who came to old-time music later in their lives and were heavily influenced by Round Peak include Bruce Molsky, Brad Leftwich, Rafe Stefanini, Judy Hyman, and Earl White.
You will hear musicians use the terms “Round Peak”, “Mount Airy” and less often “Surry County” music, fiddling, and banjo playing interchangeably.
When people use the term “North Carolina” or “Western North Carolina” fiddling, banjo playing, etc., they are also typically referring to Round Peak, even though there are other styles of North Carolina playing. Marcus Martin (the source for “Shove the Pigs Foot a Little Further into the Fire”), for example, was an influential Western North Carolina fiddler who didn’t play in the Round Peak style.
Other Styles
Other regional styles of old-time fiddling that I’m aware of. Some of these designations may be too broad, especially for states or areas that include mountainous areas where more isolated communities flourished. (Isolation breeds style divergence and growth.)
- West Virginia – notable old masters include Edden Hammons and other members of the Hammons family, French and Ernie Carpenter, Ed Haley, Clark Kessenger, Melvin Wine, Wilson Douglas. Modern players include who learned from the old masters include Jimmy Tripplett, Erynn Marshall, and Jake Krack.
- Southwest Virginia (south West Virginia and southwest Virginia are different!)
- Kentucky – John Salyer and Doc Roberts are two iconic old masters. Bruce Greene is the modern player that stands out. He collected tons of tunes that are available online at the Berea Archives.
- North Carolina Piedmont
- Galax (old) – Emmett Lundy is a name that stands out
- Galax (modern) – Eddie Bond grew up and lives in the Galax area, although he says that his fiddling is a blend of Round Peak and Galax.
- Texas (modern) – a modern style of old-time contest fiddling. The “National Old-Time Fiddling Contest” held in Weiser, is the major competition for Texas-style fiddling.
- Texas (old) – Howard Rains has been publicizing and leading the revival of the old, pre-contest Texas style
- Ozarks – the Collins family fiddling that Tom Sauber learned from Max Collins and taught in southern California is Ozarks fiddling
- Tennessee
- Missouri
- Ithaca (NY) – Highwoods Stringband and The Horseflies
- New England contra
- Georgia – the Skillet Lickers were a notable example
- there are undoubtedly midwest styles that I don’t know about.