Twin Fiddling in Western Swing

Hello! In this lesson, we're going to talk about twin fiddling, which is an important feature of Western swing.

The Role of Harmony

We've already mentioned that Bob Wills would often play the melodies, and sometimes there'd be a harmony from another fiddle player. He was particularly lucky at one point when he had Joe Holley playing with him. Joe was a left-handed fiddler, and together they created a great symmetry on stage.

If you're fortunate enough to play in a band with a second fiddler, it's great to know how to create the required harmony. Very often, the harmony is a third above the melody.

Exploring the D Major Scale

Let's look at a simple D major scale:

• Scale: D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D

The harmony, if it's a third above, would be:

• Harmony: F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, E

However, when you play that note a third above, it gives you what's called a major seven harmony between the two notes. This doesn't work very often in this style of music.

Modifying the Harmony

To get the harmony to sound right, we need to modify it. Instead of playing the note a third above, take the note one step up the scale.

Let's listen to that harmony. We'll hear this scale played twice with the backing track:

1. First Time: I'll play along and just play the scale.
2. Second Time: I will play the modified harmony, and you'll hear what that sounds like.

Practicing with "Goodbye Liza Jane"

Now, we're going to try a tune called Goodbye Liza Jane. We'll do the following:

1. First, we'll play the melody with the backing track.
2. Then, we'll play the same melody but add the harmony a third above.

Your Assignment

Your assignment is to look at Yellow Rose of Texas and Red River Valley, and try to work out the upper harmony using the same principles. Challenge yourself to play along with those tunes!