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Folk Music Terms:

A Usage Dictionary
for Fiddlers

Erica Suggs
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Folk Music Terms:

A Usage Dictionary
for Fiddlers

Erica Suggs
 3

This book is merely an introduction to some

of the terms and words used in the folk music
tradition, specifically those relating to the art
of fiddling. It is assumed that the reader has
some musical knowledge and basic violin
skills.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Air 6
Break 6
Breakdown 6
Ceilidh 7
Chop 7
Cross Tuning 7
Diddling 8
Double Stop 8
Fiddle Foot 8
Hokum Bowing 9
Hornpipe 9
Jig 10
Lick 11
Ornamentation 11
Part 13
Polka 13
Reel 14
Sean Nós 14
Session 14
Set 15
Shuffle 15
Slide 16
Song 16
Texas Fiddling 17
Trick Fiddling 17
Tune 18
Twin Fiddling 18
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Air
Airs are a type of tune, most common in Celtic folk
music. They slow and legato and in 3/4 time. They
can be played by a solo instrument or have lyrics and
be sung, and are typically a tribute to someone or
something, usually lamenting someone’s death or
days gone by.

Break
A break is a common characteristic of Bluegrass
music. It is a short solo played between verses or
sections of a song where a musician takes the
opportunity to show off his or her skills, often a
variation of the melody.

Breakdown
A breakdown is a series of breaks, each played by a
different instrument. A well-known example is
“Foggy Mountain Breakdown” by Earl Scruggs.
Breakdowns are usually dance tunes, with each
instrument taking a turn to play the melody, rather
than the fiddle the whole time.
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Ceilidh
(pronounced KAY-lee)
The word comes from an Old Irish word meaning
“companion”. A ceilidh is traditionally a Scottish or
Irish social gathering. Now, it involves playing Celtic
folk music and dancing at a house, concert, or other
community gathering
place.

Chop
The chop is a bowing
technique invented by
Bluegrass fiddler Richard
Greene. The fiddler
brings the bow down
vertically on the strings,
making a crunch sound, then lifts the bow off the
strings with a forward motion to create another,
pitched, sound. It imitates the percussive sounds of
other instruments, such as guitar and mandolin.

Cross Tuning
The standard tuning of violin (fiddle) strings is GDAE.
Among American fiddlers, this became known as
Italian tuning. In many different styles of fiddling, the
strings are tuned to alternate tunings. The most
common in American music are AEAE (known as
Cross Tuning, Cross A, or High Bass), ADAE (known
as High Bass Tuning), and DDAD (affectionately
called Dead Man’s or Dee-Dad Tuning). In Celtic
fiddling styles, cross tunings are rarely used.
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Diddling
Diddling, also known as lilting, is a form of singing in
the Irish tradition where nonsense syllables are sung
to imitate instruments. It may have originated due to
a lack of musical instruments because they were too
expensive or banned. It is closely related to port à
beul music (literally, “mouth music”) in the Scottish
Gaelic tradition.

Double Stop
Double stop is the term used for when two strings are
played simultaneously. These are very common in
Appalachian, Western, and bluegrass fiddling styles.
Sometimes it is just the bow momentarily striking
another string while playing one, and sometimes a
second string is played
constantly throughout the
tune. The second string can
be either open (no fingers
down) or stopped (having a
finger down to play a
different pitch).

Fiddle Foot
A rather uncommon and
unused term, fiddle foot refers to the sticking out of
the foot by the fiddler in a group or band to indicate
that that is the last time they will play the tune they
are playing. It can be used in a set to indicate that at
the completion of that tune they will change tunes, or
just to indicate the complete end of the tune or set,
since generally a group will just continue to play a
tune until someone decides it is time to stop.
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Hokum Bowing
Also known as the double shuffle, hokum bowing is a
bowing technique where the player crosses between a
lower and higher string. It is probably best recognized
in the trick tune “Orange Blossom Special,” in which
there are two ways to play the hokum bowed section.
The simpler, 2-to-2 double shuffle (alternating
between two notes on a lower string and two notes on
a higher string):

And the harder, 2-1 double shuffle (which alternates

between two notes on a lower string and one note on a
higher string):

Hornpipe
A hornpipe is a dance tune in 4/4. It is slower than a
reel (see Reel, p. 11), and usually has a dotted rhythm
rather than even eighth notes. Triplets are a common
feature of hornpipes.
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Jig
Contrary to popular belief, a jig refers to a specific
kind of dance and the tune that accompanies it, not
any Irish music and dance. There are three different
kinds of jigs. Double and single jigs are in 6/8 and
slip jigs are in 9/8.

Single Jig: The single jig is loosely formed by

a quarter note followed by an eighth note.
There can be variation, but that is the basic
structure. This gives it a more bouncing
rhythm.

Double Jig: The double jig is formed

generally by sets of three eighth notes together.
Again, there is room for variation. Double jigs
have a more smooth and lilting rhythm.

Slip Jig: The slip jig is in 9/8, making it very

lilting.
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Lick
A lick is a short musical phrase. Many bluegrass
fiddlers have characteristic licks that they use in their
breaks. A lick will usually recur in a tune or break,
tying it all together. While there may be licks in other
styles of fiddling, they are not referred to as licks. It is
a strictly American term.

Ornamentation
Ornamentation in Celtic music
originated from the piping
tradition. With bagpipes, there is
no way to separate notes, since the
sound is continuous and the part
blown into is separate from the
fingered part. Ornamentations
were ways to separate the notes
from each other, particularly when
multiple of the same note are
played in a row. Other
instruments later adopted the ornamentations. There
are many different kinds of ornamentations.

Cut: The cut is where two notes of the same

pitch are separated by another note played
briefly, usually higher in pitch. They are
sometimes also called flicks, because the
musician flicks the string to get a momentary
second pitch separating the two equal pitches.
If a cut were to be notated, it would be
represented by an eighth note with a strike
through it, the usual symbol for a grace note.
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Roll: In the roll, a series of five notes is played.

The musician starts on the base note, does a
flick, then quickly lifts the finger to produce a
lower pitch, ending on the base note again.
Since a lower note must be played very quickly,
the roll can only be played on fingered pitches,
not open strings. A roll can either be long,
being used more for rhythmic purposes or to
separate notes; or it can be short, being used
more as a melodic decoration on the notes.
While the roll can be completely written out, it
is more often notated simply by a curved line
underneath the rolled note.

Cran: The cran is an ornament taken straight

from piping. In it, the musician starts on the
base note, then flicks a note two pitches up,
then flicks the note one pitch up, ending again
on the base note. In fiddling, the cran is used
in place of the roll when ornamentation is
needed on an open string. Since a cran is
essentially a roll for an open string, it is notated
the same way as a roll.

Slide: The slide is when the musician slides

into a note by starting either above or below
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the intended note and gradually letting down

or up a finger (on wind instruments) or sliding
the finger up or down (on string instruments).
In bluegrass fiddling, sliding down is fairly
common; in Irish, one rarely slides down.

Shake: A shake is when the player turns a

single quarter note into a triplet of the same
note. It is called a shake because of the motion
of the wrist; one bows up-down-up, or down-
up-down quickly enough that it takes no more
time than the original quarter note did.

Part
Tunes, and sometimes songs, are divided into parts.
There are usually two, maybe three, and sometimes
more, parts in a tune, and they are labeled A part, B
part, C part, etc. Traditionally, each part is eight
measures long, so a tune written out is sixteen
measures. When played, each part is repeated,
resulting in a total of thirty-two measures.

Polka
The polka is a dance form known all over Europe. The
Irish polka is in 2/4 and is played very fast, even
faster than a reel (see Reel, p. 11), usually accented on
the off-beat.
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Reel
The reel is a dance and accompanying tune. It is in
4/4, but usually played as 2/4 because of the quick
tempo. It is similar to the hornpipe in structure (see
Hornpipe, p. 6), but is faster, and has even eighth
notes instead of a dotted rhythm.

Sean Nós
(pronounced shahn-NOHS)
Sean nós means “old style” in Irish Gaelic, and refers
to the old style of traditional singing and dance. In
sean nós singing, the lyrics are sung by a soloist,
unaccompanied by any instruments. It is highly
ornamented, and usually each verse is ornamented
differently than the one before it.

Sean nós dance is characterized by its improvisational

steps, low and close to the ground. Unlike Irish step
dancing, the movement is free and fluid, with loose
arms, and intricate footwork flat on the ground rather
than on the toes.

Session
A session is a
traditional social
gathering to play
music. They are
typically in pubs or
other social places, but
now people will hold
sessions in their homes
or anywhere they can
have people gather.
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The music played at a session is unarranged;

musicians will take turns starting or suggesting tunes,
which are played until someone indicates it is time to
move on to the next tune or it is time to end the tune
or set. (See Fiddle Foot, p. 5)

Set
A set is when multiple tunes are
played together. The tunes can
be of all varieties, but usually
like tunes are played together.
If different kinds of tunes are played together, they
have a generally established order. Airs usually
precede jigs, jigs usually precede reels, reels usually
finish the set.

Shuffle
The shuffle is the most common bowing pattern in
Old Time and other American fiddle styles. There are
two different kinds of shuffles, the Nashville Shuffle
and the Georgia Shuffle.

Nashville Shuffle: Also known as the simple

shuffle. In this pattern, the musician plays a
down bow followed by an up bow and another
down bow. This first down bow could be a
single note or slurred over two notes.
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Georgia Shuffle: In this pattern, the off-beat

is accented. It is usually played on a down bow,
with the next three notes slurred on an up bow.

Slide
A slide is a tune rather like a jig. It is in 12/8 time,
with 12 beats in a measure, the beat falling on the
eighth note.

Song
A song in folk music terminology does not refer to any
music played or sung. A song refers to music with
words. This may be an air (slow, usually lamenting
something), a ballad (many verses that tell a story), a
drinking song (an upbeat, rowdy party song), or
something else that is sung.
(See Tune, p. 15)
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Texas Fiddling
Texas fiddling, also known as
contest fiddling, is a
technique that uses the “long
bow method” as opposed to
the “saw stroke method”.
That is, several notes being
played in a single bow stroke
instead of each note getting
its own stroke. This makes it
more flowing and smooth.
Texas fiddling as has more
developed harmonies and
variations. Breakdowns
played in this style are usually
played with a bit of a swing
and at a slightly slower
tempo.

Trick Fiddling
Trick fiddling is a style of fiddling in which the fiddler
intends to show off. It started as a more physical
show, with the musician holding the instrument in
unique positions to make it more difficult to play,
whereas now it mostly concerns bowings, cross
tunings, and fingerings, such as the hokum bowing in
“Orange Blossom Special” (see Hokum Bowing, p. 6,
and Cross Tuning, p. 4). For this reason, such songs
as “Orange Blossom Special” and other tunes that
involve trick bowings or cross tuning are banned from
most competitions.
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Tune
A tune is different than a song in that it is strictly
instrumental (does not have words sung to it), and is
usually meant to accompany dance (see Song, p. 13).
The types of tunes defined here are airs, jigs, reels,
hornpipes, slides, and polkas.

Twin Fiddling
Twin fiddling is when there
are two fiddlers together,
moving between the melody
and a close harmony. An
excellent example of twin
fiddling can be seen in the
playing of Jon Bekoff and
Nate Paine.