Learn Roots Music

Cam Neufeld

Fiddle Improvisation

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Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine - December 2008


Cam Neufeld - Fiddle Improvisation


Cam Neufeld is an accomplished fiddler adept in several styles of fiddling. Here he lays out, in concise and readily comprehendible logic, the keys to improvisation. It would be wonderful if we could push a button and be able to improvise. Some folks seem to be able to do just that. Improvisation is the result of knowledge and the skill acquired through that knowledge. The skill is also the result of the repetition, required to make the skill. All of the insights provided in the DVD are just jumping off places for learning how to improvise.


Using a few simple tunes in different modes, Neufeld explains how to expound on the melody and make a tune your own. He goes into using chord tones, improvising using time via quarter, eighth and sixteenth notes, adding notes to the chords, using slides mixing rhythms for syncopation. His descriptions of modes is most lucid. Where old-time musicians speak of modal tunes (they are all modal, technically speaking) , he helps to clear up the tonal differences of each mode, and he demonstrates tunes in the different modes. He explains musical styles and their ties to specific modes.


Vibrato, minor blues progressions, and chord arpeggios are discussed along with 9th and 11th notes and their role in tune development. Using the tune 'Minor Swing,' he touches on the basic notions of swing fiddling. Solid improvisation skills are the result of hard work. This DVD provides the target for your energy so that you can develop those skills. There is a certain amount of extrapolation that you will have to do to take these skills to different keys but having the bsic modes and theories explained as well as they are here will put you well ahead of the curve. This is certainly as important addition to any fiddler's educational library.


For the fiddle player who knows a few fiddle tunes and wants to explore new improvisation techniques, this is a clear, concise lesson. Using modes, altered scales, chord tones, creation and release of tension, chromatic techniques and more, this lesson removes the mystery behind soloing for the modern fiddle player.

Cam starts this 90 minute lesson by demonstrating the basic melody to a popular fiddle tune and then teaches how to spice it up, adding lots of great ideas that you can apply to all your fiddle repertoire. From there, he moves into the 'jazzier' scales and modes giving the student a wealth of new tools and where to apply them in improvisation.


This lesson includes:


Crooked Stovepipe

Loch Lomond's Castle

The Flamenco Sound

Old Joe Clark

The Diminished Chord (Gypsy Swing Feel)

Minor Swing

Twenty years ago, Cam was on the road with the Caravan Stage Company playing fiddle, mandolin, and guitar. Since then, he has played bluegrass with the Grassland Boys out of Saskatchewan, did a stint with Doc Leonard's Road Apple Revue and Musical Remedy Co. in Manitoba, and played Irish music with Coel Na Gael in Alberta. Other bands he has worked with include Crooked Creek, The Fractals, and as a sideman for many groups ranging from straight ahead country to free improvisation. He's busked across Europe and Canada. In addition to his solo show, Cam plays with the honkey-tonk and western swing band, John Henry, and the Hot Club influenced Swing Manouche.