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About Vi Wickam
Vi Wickam of Loveland, CO has been performing fiddle and writing music since before he could read. Along with his brothers and dad, The Wickam Family Band performed regularly on Blinky’s Fun Club, a nationally syndicated TV program.
Vi’s fiddling can be heard on numerous CD recordings, including two of his own. He’s played with many different bands throughout the United States, and even briefly in England.
Among his fiddling honors, Vi has won the Colorado State Championship twice, and been a finalist four times at the Grand Masters’ Fiddler Championship. He has judged fiddle contests throughout the US, and directed regional and state level fiddle contests.
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Hey Vi. I have a question about a bowing option on this tune. I first learned it with a down down up for each set of three notes until the B part. It was very comfortable to bow that way and I could do it quite fast too. I find it so much harder to do it fast without the slurs, but at the same time I know that is a true fiddle style. So, 1. Any tips for bowing fast in down up down up style and 2. Do you think the down down up down down up style I learned was a classical player just making this easier, or would a fiddler of any style bow this way?
Thanks!
Hey Antoinette! When I bow jigs, I generally do a combination of straight bowing, and slurring 3 per bow. I think that bowing the second half of Irish Washerwoman down-down-up would end up losing the flow of the dance. You should have a strong beat accent on the first note of each measure that would be the down bow, and a weaker accent on the up bow that would start the second half of each measure if you are looking at measure that are full of straight 8ths. I would look at the triple shuffle bowing exercise in the shuffle bowing series for help with speeding up the straight jig bowing.
https://www.mytalentforge.com/lessons/shuffle-bowing-lesson-3-triple-shuffle/
You might also find looking at the 3 different lessons that we have on Irish Washerwoman. 🙂 Let me know if this isn’t enough info. 🙂
Thanks,
Vi