Teaching Fiddle Tune Purple Lilies

A great fiddle tune from the American Southwest: Purple Lilies.
I play it through once quickly and then go slowly phrase-by-phrase. I play it on the mandolin rather than fiddle because the frets make it clearer where exactly the notes are. The fingering is identical, of course, and the tunes sound best on fiddle. Single bows work just fine.

In contrast to the better known Southeast Old-time fiddle style, Southwestern fiddle tunes (Arizona, New Mexico, California) sound decidedly more Mexican - or maybe more central European compared to the the stronger Irish/Scottish influence in old-time. Southwest fiddle tunes work great in jams once you have a critical mass. Purple Lilies is one of the best known tunes, thanks to the efforts of Bayou Seco (Ken Keppeler and Jeanie McLerie) of Silver City, New Mexico, who have kept that style alive and brought it to new players.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Southwest fiddle tunes
• old-time
• Bayou Seco
• Arizona

[soapycows]

Nice job teaching, and I see my neighbor Tom built your mandolin.