UNIT 2: CRIPPLE CREEK Lesson 2A: The Tune The origins of this tune are not exactly known, but it started appearing around 1820, making it a very old American minstrel tune. It is argued that the tune s title is about a town in Virginia or Colorado. Regardless, the title cripple creek describes a river with lots of twists and turns. Most fiddle tunes are in the form AB. Cripple Creek is AB. With the repeats, it sounds like AABB. You will start to notice how in most fiddle tunes, the A will contrast with the B either in register, texture, rhythm, or overall character. This song is a very strong example of a Call and Response event. This can be thought of as a Question and Answer, where a musical phrase asks a question, and the next phrase provides an answer. You can do some fun stuff with Call and Response! Note: You should learn this tune very well before advancing to the next lessons. Lesson 2B: Bow Patterns and Variations General Guideline: Try to make your A and B start downbow. This is only because I think it s easier this way, and it makes sense to me. You are allowed to do it differently if you do it well! This tune works extremely well with the Nashville Shuffle all the way through, making it a great opportunity to work on plugging in that bow pattern. We learned how to apply a quarter note pattern and an eighth note pattern to this melody. TIP: It is a good idea to try plugging in a simple pattern on a simple melody as demonstrated in the lesson. This teaches you how to morph a melody to fit into a new rhythmic pattern. Lesson 2C: Left Hand Technique Reviewing the Slide We discussed how to choose good places for slides and grace notes. Slides are commonly placed at the beginning of a phrase, like A or B, or at the beginning of every call or every response, or both! If you want to be a little less common, try finding good spots for a slide in the MIDDLE of a phrase. Grace notes: o Can go anywhere a slide can go. o Work particularly well on repeated pitches, to break them up a little.
o Can be diatonic (exactly in key) or they can be out of key. o Can come from BELOW or ABOVE the main pitch. (upper neighbor and lower neighbor) New Left Hand Ornament: Upper Neighbor Triplet or U.N.T. This is just another form of a grace note. Instead of PRECEDING the main note with a grace note, you play the main note, play an upper neighbor, and play the main note again. This creates a little triplet. UNT is all in one bow (slurred) UNT can be delayed or immediate, just like a slide. When it is immediate, it s like a stinger. When it is delayed, it can be very melodic. Often it works really well to slur the UNT into the next note as well, for a total of 4 notes in a bow. Lesson 2D: Scale, Arpeggio, Finger Patterns Cripple Creek is in A Major, which has three sharps. ALWAYS do your arpeggio too. They are just as easy as scales, but often get neglected. TIP: The sharps come in a particular order. F# is always first, B# is always last. You can t have B# in a key signature without having ALL the other sharps that come before it. So, when you have 3 sharps, they will ALWAYS be F, C, G. TIP: Pneumonic device to remember the order of the sharps: Fred Can Go Down And Eat Breakfast TONS of exercises in this lesson! Remember, if they are too hard, find a way to make it easier. Nashville Shuffle with 2 potatoes, 1 potato, and ½ potato per note. If you use 4th fingers, you will get caught crossing strings on an upbow. However, it can happen if you use open strings too.just be aware. Upward Slides on an ascending scale, Downward Slides on a descending scale. Grace Notes: play upper neighbor on ascending scale, lower neighbor on descending scale Upper Neighbor Triplet: Immediate (stinger) going up the scale, DELAYED UNT coming down. Lesson 2E: Chords Chords used in Cripple Creek are: A, D, and E. (Tonic-I, Dominant-V, and Sub-Dominant-IV) The changes in this tune come more quickly, so make sure you can easily move from one chord to the next.
Lesson 2F: Bowings for Back-Up Use the Nashville Shuffle to play back-up for Cripple Creek. You will continue to use Nashville Shuffle for the next several units to make sure you have it mastered! Reminder: 1 Potato= 1 Big Beat, which is actually a half note. 2 Potatoes= 2 Big Beats, which is actually a whole note, or a whole bar! Learn to do this in stages. First, we play just whole bows for every chord symbol. We do this on Chart 1, 2, and 3! Next, Second, play Chord Chart #1, 2, and 3 using the Nashville Shuffle Third, Play Chord Chart #1, 2, and 3 with me along with the melody track. Last, play Chord Chart #1, 2, and 3 to the Play-Along Video. You are now on your own! Lesson 2G: Playing Intros and Endings Intro: We will use the Nashville Shuffle to give 3 ½ potatoes, or 4 potatoes, whichever you prefer. Ending: We will use Shave and a Haircut to end this tune as well. This song is in A Major, so you need to start Shave and a Haircut on the tonic, A. Therefore, start your tag ending on 3 on E. Lesson 2H: Change-Ups and Breaks Open string stomp: Use this cute little stomping ornament to add rhythmic drive to your Call. Call and response: You can play with the Call and Response character, and drop out for the calls, or drop out for the responses, or trade with another instrument. Rhythmic free-style: Practice playing the rhythm while spontaneously changing the rhythms. This is VERY easy to do when you sing, so I suggest you start singing in the shower or whistling as you walk! Then, remember what you did, and try it when you practice. Drones: Cripple Creek works with Open A or Open E 90% of the time. Use your ear to know when to drop the drone. (Usually, when playing on the D string, you must drop the drone.) Walking 8th notes: This is a more difficult change-up technique, because you have to be able to do the Nashville Shuffle while you are adding all kinds of extra notes. This may not come to you for awhile.don t despair! As you progress through this course, you will gain skills that will help you to do this. Learn a whole new variation: I gave you 2 full variations to learn. Sometimes, learning someone else s variation teaches you how to create your own.
Bow patterns/left hand ornaments: Change up your ornaments and bow patterns. This can make a tune sound completely fresh, and it s VERY easy to do. UNIT 2 PRACTICE ASSIGNMENTS Lesson / Video Assignments A B ASSIGNMENT A1: Learn this tune very well before advancing to next lessons, because you will be adding some fancy bowings and ornaments to the tune, and you MUST have it learned well. Try to get your speed to at least 84 to the half note. ASSIGNMENT A2: While learning this tune, watch for good places to put a slide and a grace note. ASSIGNMENT B1: Apply the Nashville Shuffle to Cripple Creek. It works very naturally with this song. Don t worry if you screw it up sometimes. This is called variety!!! The important thing is that you KEEP THE MELODY GOING even if you screw it up! ASSIGNMENT B2: Apply a solid quarter note pattern to Cripple Creek. ASSIGNMENT B3: Apply a solid eighth note pattern to Cripple Creek. ASSIGNMENT C1: Play Cripple Creek, and put a UNT on every 1st finger! C ASSIGNMENT C2: Play your A Major Scale and Arpeggio, 2 octaves, playing each note twice. Put a Upper Neighbor Triplet on the second note of each pitch. ASSIGNMENT D1: Concentrate on your note names as you play your scale and arpeggio. ASSIGNMENT D2: Nashville Shuffle applied to your scale and arpeggio. Follow these steps: D 2 Potatoes per note: DOWN little UP little then change notes. 1 Potato per note: DOWN little, change notes, UP little etc. 1/2 Potato per note (or 2 notes per Potato): DOWN change notes, little change notes ASSIGNMENT D3: Apply the Slide to your scale and arpeggio. To save time, you can slide upwards when ascending your scale, and downwards slide when descending your scale. If this is too hard to change, just make sure to practice up and down slides. ASSIGNMENT D4: Apply the Grace Note to your scale and arpeggio. Upper neighbor grace note on ascending scale, lower grace note on descending scale.
ASSIGNMENT D5: Apply the Upper Neighbor Triplet to your scale and arpeggio. Do an IMMEDIATE UNT (stinger) on ascending scale, and do a DELAYED UNT on descending scale. E F G H ASSIGNMENT E1: Practice going back and forth between A, D, and E chords. ASSIGNMENT E2: Spend 60 minutes this week listening to fiddle music while clapping or tapping to the big beats. This is extremely easy, and will help you immensely on playing back-up. ASSIGNMENT F1: Using Lesson Video 2F, train your eyes and ears to follow Chord Chart 1, 2, and 3, playing just whole bows for every big beat. ASSIGNMENT F2: Using Lesson Video 2F practice playing back-up along with me, using the Nashville Shuffle. Master Chord Chart 1, 2, and 3. One potato per BIG BEAT. ASSIGNMENT F3: Once you have nailed the above assignments, play back-up to the play-along video! That is the true test! ASSIGNMENT G1: Practice playing 3 ½ potatoes, then launch right into Cripple Creek. Then try 4 whole potatoes going straight into Cripple Creek. Which do you like best? Why? ASSIGNMENT G2: Practice Shave and a Haircut starting on 3rd finger on EACH of your strings. Also, try adding an open string below to go along with your Shave Ending. (except the G string, of course, where you have no other string below!) This means you will practice Shave in WHAT FOUR KEYS? (make sure you know the answer to this.or else you are flying blind!) ASSIGNMENT H1: Practice Cripple Creek, using a drone throughout the song, except when you are on the D string, just play the D string. ASSIGNMENT H2: Practice Cripple Creek using Rhythmic Free-Style. Try SINGING some rhythmic changes. Sometimes when your instrument isn t in the way, our voice can unlock some creative ideas. Then, try to remember what you sang, and PLAY it! ASSIGNMENT H3: Try adding the Open String Stomp on every CALL. This means you can t do drones when using the Open String Stomp. ASSIGNMENT H3: Try adding your own little Walking Eighth Note variations. Even if you only add 4 notes here, and 4 notes there, that is an EXCELLENT start. ASSIGNMENT H4: If you aren t totally overwhelmed by now try learning the Latham and Duncan variations! Remember, if you screw it up, it becomes your OWN variation! (if it sounds good!)
Cripple Creek Chord Chart 1 Instructions: Each letter you see is a chord symbol. Play down little for the chord symbol, then up little for the next chord symbol, etc. This is the equivalent of 1 potato per chord symbol. Part A: AA / DA / AA / EA / AA / DA / AA / EA Part B: AA / AA / AA / EA / AA / AA / AA / EA Cripple Creek Chord Chart 2 Instructions: Play 2 potatoes (down little up little) for every chord symbol EXCEPT where the chord symbols are close together. This means you must play only 1 potato per chord symbol. For instance, the DA in bar 2 would be played D little A little, and the EA in bars 4 and 8 would be done the same way. Part A: A / DA / A / EA / A / DA / A / EA Part B: A / A / A / EA / A / A / A / EA Cripple Creek Chord Chart 3 Instructions: This is only a sample of what a real chord chart will look like. You are not expected yet to be able to read this. (soon!) Part A: A / DA / / EA / / DA / / EA Part B: A / / / EA / / / / EA