Transcript

File: macdonaldpaul-oh-slowgrace_M.mp3

Speakers:

PM – Paul MacDonald

KP – Curator Ken Perlman

PM: The other type which is considered a grace note in fiddle music but I think in guitar music it's most often referred to as a hammer-on…

KP: Like a slow grace, you mean.

PM: That's what it is. It's kind of a note that leads into the next one, just to give you a bit of a delay. That's what most fiddlers call it, a delayed note. That is used an awful lot. I just can't stress how much that is used.

KP: Could you give us an example?

PM: Now, an example would be – There are several ways of doing it. You can use any finger leading up to it but mostly, if a tune goes. . .

Demonstrates Phrase Without Slow Grace

PM: And then and the way we'd usually start it is…

Demonstrates Phrase With Slow Grace

PM: See, you can see there instead of going…

Phrase Without Slow Grace

PM: I was…

Phrase With Slow Grace

PM: See, I'm always doing it. It's a non-ending cycle of always adding that.

KP: It's kind of like an appogiatura.

PM: Yes, but it is really different because you can do it in so many ways. But it's done so much.

KP: I've seen some people kind of come into a doubled-note that way.

PM: Oh, yes, I do that a lot, like if there's a tune that I played there a second ago that goes…

Demonstrates Phrase from Different Tune

PM: OK, now when I'm playing that….

(demo) Demonstrates Phrase Again

PM: I'm doing it there as well. I'm using a doubled- note for the effect. That's done an awful lot. And in Scottish [Cape Breton] music when it is not done it stands out as something different.