Sunday, October 4, 2009

Carolina Chocolate Drops

Friday night I attended the concert of what was probably one of the most entertaining, talented groups I've ever seen. The Carolina Chocolate Drops (CCD) are an old time string band from Durham, NC. My friend Katie, also from NC, raved about them and I was not disappointed. There are clearly very talented, each of them playing various instruments. But, I think what really appealed to me is that they play instruments I can relate to; there was a lot of violin and banjo throughout the sets.

They inspired me so much that the next day I removed my violin from the case while there were other people in the house that would be exposed to my scratchy discord. I wanted to try the bow hold I saw the female violinist use. You can see in the video below that she doesn't hold it at the frog like a traditional classical violinist; perhaps that is unique to fiddling? I gave it a whirl and am still unsure about the advantages but I played a rather slow song so I will have to try it on some songs with greater tempo to gauge the advantages.

The point of the story is that the CCD have inspired me not only to practice my banjo (which I do pretty often) but also to try my hand at fiddling. The downside to this all... well, you'll have to ask my roommates about that. Maybe I'll buy them ear plugs:)

I love this video mainly because of the bones player!

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