Honky Tonk: Walking Fiddle

Honky Tonk Fiddling: The Walking Fiddle Style

Continuing with the Hank Williams honky tonk style of song, we're going to look at the particular style played by the fiddler, Tommy Jackson. He was probably the most influential of the session fiddlers in Nashville at the time.

The Walking Fiddle Technique

Tommy Jackson had a style which Bob Wills referred to as the walking fiddle. This is a very interesting and worthwhile style to learn. The nature of this technique is that you:

• Do double stops most of the time
• Walk from one chord to the next

Walking Between Chords

For example, from a G chord, you walk towards the next chord:

• From the G down to the D
• Then from the D down to the G
• And from the G down to the G7, then to the C

You are signposting each of the chord changes as they come, and it's really satisfying to do.

Sample Play

Let's hear that with the backing track. This creates a very smooth sound. It's ideal for playing behind the vocal; it doesn't get in the way, but it does add a lot in supporting the chords.

This technique does a very similar job to what the pedal steel does, filling out the sound.

Maintaining Movement

In the previous example, we were just walking from one chord to the next, pausing, then walking on. However, you can actually keep the walking going the whole time.

• After reaching the next chord, you can find somewhere else to go.
• Starting with the G chord, move to the second over fourth for the D chord.

So, we're walking the whole way through, it never really stops moving.

Understanding Chords and Double Stops

To be able to do this, you need to know what the chords are, at least subconsciously, even if not consciously. You must also know all of the double stops that would allow you to transition from one chord to another.

Let's hear that with the backing track.

Adding Melodic Fills

Finally, we can do something similar: walking from one chord to the next, but instead of keeping on walking, we can do a little melodic fill in the gap of the vocal.

In this case, we have a mixture of two approaches:

• The simple walking
• The little fill

You could do just the walking without the fill, or the fill without the walking. But it's really satisfying to do both.

Let's hear that with the backing track.

Your Assignment

For this, your assignment is to:

• Listen to and choose a couple of Hank Williams songs that you like.
• Work out the chords
• Try to work out a double stop walking line to follow those chords.