What’s a cello got to do with a famous fiddler’s tale?

BY NATALIE HAAS

You can realize that potential as a cello accompanist on one of my all-time favorite reels, “Jenny Dang the Weaver.” Here are a few elements to consider.

MELODY

Before I talk about how to accompany a fiddle tune, I want to emphasize that the cello can be a melodic instrument. Cellists should be encouraged to take the lead occasionally; it makes a nice texture change. Knowing how to play the melody also gives you more ideas for accompanying it. Due to the nature of most fiddle tunes (especially the tendency to make frequent use of the E string), shifting and awkward fingerings can sometimes present problems. There are solutions: maybe you need to play the melody an octave lower or alter a few notes here and there.

DRONES

“Jenny Dang the Weaver” (see music excerpt on pages 34 and 35) would sound absolutely great with a D drone the whole way through. You can also use what my playing partner, Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser, calls a “contaminated drone,” holding the D while simultaneously hitting other notes above or below it to add color or imply chords.

RHYTHM

You could also liven up your drones with some rhythmic grooves. The idea of turning your cello (or any stringed instrument, for that matter) into a rhythm instrument is not a new one. To most classically trained musicians today, though, it is absolutely foreign. We all learn to count, but playing precisely in time and playing music with a groove that makes people want to get up and dance are completely different.

Here are a few ideas for rhythm grooves in reel time (try these on open strings first):

Shetland shuffle. Accent the bar’s weak beats: 2 and 4, for instance. Start on an up bow and reemphasize the second note under the slurs (Ex. 1).

1-4-7, and its reverse, 1-3-6. Again, we want to accent the weaker beats using groupings of two and three (Ex. 2 and 3).

Extending the groups. You can also extend the groups of three, like in the two-bar extended version 1-4-7-2-5-7 (Ex. 4).

The chop. This is a percussive technique essential to playing solos and backup in bluegrass bands. It’s also useful in a variety of other styles, including jazz and some contemporary art music. (For tips on this technique, visit the Strings archives online at www.stringsmagazine.com and read James Reel’s “Get Your Chops Down.”) See Ex. 5, 6, and 7 for some chops that I might use to back up this reel.

CHORDS

You can use your grooves to play the chords of the tune. A very basic chord chart for “Jenny” might look like this (remember, in chord charts, a slash is shorthand for “play the same chord”):

• D / | D / | G / |G A
  
  (repeat)
• D G | D A | D G | A /
  
  (repeat)

A little theory here will go a long way toward having fun playing backup. “Jenny,” like lots of fiddle tunes (and much of Western classical music), is built around three chords, referred to in Roman numerals as the I, IV, and V chords.

In the key of D, the I chord is D major, spelled D-F♯-A. The music feels stable, at home, on the I chord. Including D, count up four steps and you arrive at G, so the IV chord is G major (G-B-D). The fifth step up from D is A, so the V chord, in the key of D is A major (A-C♯-E).

Chords have three members: the root (the note the chord is named for), the third (a third, or three steps, above the root) and the fifth. We can imply chords on the cello by playing two of the three chord members together. “Root position” chords have the root as the lowest note. I call having the root in the bass and the fifth above—for example the open D and A strings—power chords. Inversions simply put a different chord member in the bass, adding interest and tension.

Sticking with the basics always works. But if you want more harmonic tension, then add some simple substitutions. The other most commonly used chord is the vi (the lower-case numeral signifies a minor chord). In the key of D, this is B minor (B-D-F♯).

The vi shares two notes with I, so it is often used as a substitute.

Another way to add tension is to use a prolonged V pedal—in “Jenny,” that would mean playing the A note or chord, which is the V in D. The V really wants to resolve to I, so this creates lots of suspense!

Cellists today are rekindling the cello’s potential for rhythmic excitement in traditional dance music.

BASS LINES

The cello is such a versatile instrument that you can treat it like a string bass. Here are some different ways to be a bass player on your cello:

1. Rocking between the tonic and the fifth on each chord, with the occasional bass run thrown in (Ex. 8).
2. The funky version (Ex. 9).
3. Play bowed bass, the kind you might see in an 18th-century Scottish collection, using octave leaps. Accenting beats 4 and 1, making 4 lean into 1, helps to propel the music forward (Ex. 10).

HARMONY

I am using this word loosely to cover a great many ideas: harmony can be something that follows the melody note for note (this is typically done by starting on a note a third above or below the melody note), or it can be more ambiguous. For instance, create a longer-wavelength part that floats on top of the melody. Or, write an entirely new tune that counters the original melody.

Be creative!

Cellist Natalie Haas has toured and recorded with master Scottish fiddler Alasdair Fraser, fiddler Natalie MacMaster, and violinist Mark O’Connor as a member of his Appalachia Waltz Trio. A recent graduate of the Juilliard School in New York City, she teaches privately in a workshop setting at various fiddle camps and at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

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TRADITIONAL; ARRANGEMENT BY NATALIE HAAS

It’s time to take a stab at “Jenny Dang the Weaver.” Keep cellist Natalie Haas’ suggestions in mind—drive the rhythms in the accompaniment parts, be sure to use that “chop” bow stroke whenever you see an X, and emphasize those accents. Play out when you have the harmonies, and think about how the melody influences your ideas for playing the accompaniment. try experimenting with a D drone through the piece or using a V pedal to build suspense, and let the fiddler dance with the melody on top.

—Graham Pellettieri