How Fiddlers and Guitarists Find the Sweet Spot: Where Creative Backing and Expressive Melody Meet.
Hello, good citizens of the JamWithLauren corner of the internet!
I’m Colin Cotter, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and periodic music educator who also happens to be a friend and colleague of the “Lauren” from JamWithLauren. Lauren and I have shared many a tune over the years, taught at some of the same fiddle camps, and seem to attend a lot of the same weddings, but this is the first chance I’ve had to interact (albeit virtually) with her students outside of fiddle camp. As I know her to be a dedicated teacher highly invested in helping her students grow, I’m grateful for this opportunity to share a bit of what I’ve learned along the way and will do my best to avoid proffering any catastrophically destructive advice.
Since fiddle and guitar are my primary instruments and I enjoy playing both in a variety of contexts, I thought I’d focus this piece on a tendency I’ve encountered for that instrumentation to lock one musician into the role of the backing player (guitar) and one into the role of the melody player (fiddle) in a way that can ultimately stifle the creative output of both players to the detriment of the overall musical experience.
I don’t think that the backing player / melody player dichotomy is intrinsically bad (in fact, having explicitly-defined roles is sometimes exactly what the doctor ordered), but it is not uncommon for rigidity to take over, leaving those roles to feel weirdly isolated from one another despite both people participating in making the same piece of music.
All that in mind, I hope you find these musings useful should you encounter challenges navigating the relationship between those who reside primarily in the backing bubble and those who operate mainly in melody mode.
Goals & Roles
Here’s a declaration of something obvious: when you’re making music with someone, it’s good to be aware of the context and respond accordingly. A lot of the time, the context is clear enough that the awareness comes automatically, but sometimes it’s worth being a little more analytical about it. I’ll go into more detail in just a minute, but here are some general questions to consider on the topic:
What are the collective goals of this musical group effort?
What do you have to contribute as an individual? What do you hope to get out of this?
What are your collaborator’s strengths? What do they hope to get out of this?
How do you envision claiming your real estate in the music? How can you create space for your collaborator to claim their own?
Is this an open collaboration? Is someone in charge? A little of both?
How strictly is the group trying to adhere to the conventions of a specific musical tradition?
Note that these questions can be applied to many elements of making music with others, but I’m just going to focus on how all this applies to the relationship between backing and melody playing.
Rehearsal
Asking, “Why are we here?” can be a frustrating exercise lacking definitive, actionable answers when applied to the miracle of life on Earth, but it is a very useful question when used to contextualize a musical rehearsal. Sussing out each musician’s individual goals and aligning those with the goals of the collaboration at large is a great launching point for a productive rehearsal and can play an important role in how you play throughout the rehearsal.
So what does that mean with regards to the relationship between backing and melody playing?
Here’s an example: as a guitar backer to a fiddler, you’re generally expected to be a reliable, predictable source of consistent rhythm and unobtrusive harmonic accompaniment. One of the fun things to play around with as a backer is your predictability, be it altering the rhythmic pattern, reharmonizing, or something else, but the goals of the rehearsal should dictate how much you actually push that envelope. For example, is this a new tune for your group? Probably best to hang out in familiar territory and not be a distraction until you and your melody-playing partner have the core material down solid. Use that time to focus on nailing the groove and feel and getting the bones of the music to be second nature.
That said, melody players should keep in mind that playing the same part over and over can get boring fast (for the musician and the listener), so it’s best to rely on your backing companion for that kind of support as little as possible. As the melody player, you can also show your backer friend some love by flipping the script and providing them a steady, reliable melody that they can experiment around without them having to worry that they’re over-playing or distracting your work.
TIP: Communication is key! Playing around with the predictability of the backing is great and can generate cool music, but might frustrate people if they aren’t aware that you’re in exploration-mode and/or they aren’t down to participate in that at that moment. You can always let them know you’d like to try a few things that may or may not work, that you need the backing paired down for a couple more passes so you can land your part, etc. You just have to communicate.
Performance
The approaches to the art of performance are many and wildly varied, but my non-definitive hunch tells me that most approaches benefit from at least a little contextual awareness prior to taking the stage. Knowing, for example, that you have been hired specifically to showcase the melody player will likely guide your decisions as the backing player in a certain direction as would knowing that the performance is all about highlighting spontaneous creative interplay between the musicians.
It doesn’t have to, but knowing your audience can also play a role in the decision making: if you are playing for hardcore genre traditionalists, you can play them great music that paints within that genre’s lines or you can try to give them a memorable show by breaking procedure and challenging their expectations. That’s up to you, but choosing where you want to sit on that spectrum will probably impact your style of play.
Knowing your collaborator(s) also comes in handy, particularly when going “off script.” You want to find a sweet spot where you satisfy your unique expressive needs and your playing doesn’t derail or overpower your partner’s performance. The list could go on and on, but the final one I’ll mention is knowing what the gig is, reasonably assessing your own and your collaborator’s roles, and then doing what you can to make sure both of you thrive in your roles. If you play a tune flawlessly over perfectly-executed, safe, prosaic backing to a hall full of attentive listeners, will you hold their attention longer than if the backing was riskier but more engaging? If you’re playing a dance and you switch to a busier, complex backing part that sounds cool in rehearsal but is swallowed by a noisy room and the dancers lose the groove as a result, who did that serve?
TIP: Talk with your bandmates and take all these considerations to heart *beforehand* as much as possible so that when the time comes to perform you can trust yourself to let go of that side of things to focus on listening hard, having fun, and being present in the music in a way that uplifts the whole ensemble.
Jamming
Jams take many forms, some of which lend themselves more than others to unorthodox playing, role-rejection, and the like. Once more, contextual awareness can be your guiding light. Is this jam pretty strictly settled in one tradition? If you’re going to jump in, it’s polite to do what you can to meet them where they are. That said, injecting energy through your unique expression as a backer or as a melody player is often very much welcome and exactly what is driving the spirit of the jam. In a lot of cases, the adherence to a given role has more to do with function than anything else. Think situations like: you’re the only rhythm player at the moment and the whole jam will fall apart if you don’t wail on that backbeat, or someone started a tune and you’re the only other person here who knows it well so you stick on melody with them until the group has it. Ultimately, melody players should be aware that backing players often would like more room to play around than they are allotted and backing players should be aware that sometimes the jam really is relying on them to lock down a certain role that just may not be as flexible as another role.
TIP: When in doubt, take a moment to read the room and listen.
Editor’s TIP: If you’re completely *NEW* to jamming, the JamWithLauren All-Access Curriculum has you covered. It’s kinda what we do here.
So…Now What?
At this point, I’ve shared plenty about approaching the interpersonal side of the backing player / melody player dynamic, but I would be remiss if I didn’t share some exercises you can do on your own time to help you overcome whatever limitations that dynamic may present.
Here are a few to get you started:
Role-Reversal
What better way to gain an appreciation for someone’s perspective than to put yourself in their shoes? If you’re a backing player, learn the melody to a familiar tune you’re already comfortable backing. Once you have the melody, try to incorporate the nuances you enjoy when a fiddler plays it into your own playing. Try the same thing with a tune you’re not familiar with. If you’re a melody player, find a recording where you love the backing and translate it onto your instrument as best you can. If you need to, break up the backing into multiple parts. Pay attention to their pacing over the course of the piece in addition to the rhythmic and harmonic choices at any given moment.
Throughout this process, check in with yourself about your experience. What do you like / dislike about taking on the other role? What comes easily? What is challenging? Did you bring home any musical mementos from your trip to the other side that will inform your playing?
Thou, Thineself, and Thee
Sometimes you just have to do it all yourself. I’m not telling you to cut ties with your bandmates and go solo, I’m suggesting you take the Role-Reversal exercise to the next level by getting a mic involved.
Quick tech note: you’ll want headphones, you’ll need software like GarageBand, Reaper, Pro Tools, etc., and you can either use your computer’s built-in mic or attach an external mic for better audio if you so desire. If you’re not a tech person and that sounds too involved, you can also do most of this with the voice recorder app on your phone. Lauren also discusses ways to work through solo jams here.
Once you’re set-up, it’s time to record one of the pieces you previously worked on in your Role-Reversal exercise! Melody players: lay down a few minutes of melody. Backing players: lay down a few minutes of backing. All of those programs listed above (with the possible exception of your phone’s voice recorder app) have a looping feature, so once you have recorded your primary role’s part, take some time to play along with yourself in the role you are unfamiliar with. If you’re up to an additional challenge, make a new track, throw on your headphones, and record your Role-Reversal part when you feel like you’ve made some progress. Give it a listen without being too hard on yourself, rinse, and repeat.
Check in with yourself throughout this whole process too. In addition to asking all the same questions as before regarding your experience in the unfamiliar role, think about how your playing in your primary role impacts your playing in the reversed role. When does your playing make demands of the other person? When does it leave space for them to express?
Branch Out
My final suggestion for an on-your-own-time exercise is to take the “putting yourself in their shoes” notion to the max and actually try to learn an instrument that lives on the other side of the street from your primary one.
Fiddlers, try picking up a guitar and getting some basic chords and strumming patterns down.
Guitarists, find yourself a fiddle, mandolin, tenor banjo, etc. and take a gander into the world of melody-playing.
The goal here isn’t to become a master on your new instrument (although by all means, go for it), rather you’re trying to build a natural understanding of your collaborator’s perspective. Melody players can add natural depth to their melody playing by becoming proficient backers and vice versa for backers.
If you’re a melody player and completely new to chordal playing on your instrument, Lauren’s curriculum and books go into great detail on how to hear and apply chords to your instrument. She also has a very popular post on guitar shapes and capos, that can help the translation process for non-guitar players. It’s worth spending time working through the assignments in her post.
The End
To sum it all up, finding the sweet spot where creative backing thrives in synchronicity with expressive melody playing has a lot to do with communication, awareness, and making sure to give a little if you take a little. Best of luck to all of you musical adventurers out there, and many thanks to the one and only Lauren Rioux for inviting me into the JamWithLauren world and for all she does for her students and music community!
Editor’s Note: When I met Colin many many moons ago, he was still in high school and I was a twenty-something very new to the fiddle scene. His generous smile and welcoming words instantly helped me feel a sense of belonging. I’ll always be grateful and admire his musicianship, as well as his impeccably articulate sense of wit. I’m so glad he was able to share some thoughts with our community.
For more of Colin’s music, head to www.colincotter.com
