Fiddle FAQ

Questions, Answered

Is a fiddle different from a violin?

Not as an object — the same instrument answers to both names. What differs is the register around it: the word you use, the repertoire, often the setup (a flatter bridge makes crossing to a neighbouring string easier), and above all what the bow is asked to do. This site says fiddle because the folk register is the one it is written in, and because the questions a dance player has are not the questions a conservatoire student has.

What is a position, exactly?

A place for the whole hand, not for one finger. In first position the hand sits at the top of the neck and the four fingers cover a fixed span on each string; third position slides the same frame up so the first finger takes what the third finger used to. A tune played “in third” is not played with different notes — it is played with the hand somewhere else, which changes which notes are reachable without moving and which open strings are still available.

Why is the board unmarked, and should I put tapes on it?

Because the instrument has no fixed dividing lines: intonation is decided by the ear and the hand, which is exactly why it can bend a note toward the chord under it. Tapes are a scaffold, not a sin — plenty of players use them for a few months. The habit worth building alongside them is checking every placed note against an open string, which is what the exercise drills here are for.

How do the viola and cello relate to the fiddle?

All three climb in fifths, which is why one set of finger patterns serves the family. The viola sits a fifth below the fiddle on CGDA; the cello uses the same four letters an octave lower, so the map is identical and only the distances — and the arm that has to cover them — change.

Can I really play chords on a fiddle?

Two notes at a time, cleanly — a bow rests on one string or leans between two neighbours. That is why the chord pages here are maps of where the tones LIE, with the neighbouring pairs one stroke can take marked, rather than shapes to hold. The rest of a chord arrives by rolling across the strings or by letting an open string ring under the melody.

Is any of this paid?

No. Every map, drill, and tool on Fiddle Warrior is free, with no ads and no account.