Sally Goodin

Well friends and fiddle lovers, it was inevitable we’d get to this point. There was no way we were going to do a whole series of #texasstyletuesday videos without getting to Sally Goodin. It is the national anthem of Texas style tunes, after all. (I do realize that some of you might think it’s “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas, You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band” but if that’s what you think, this series may not be for you.) Now, most of us have just been playing some interpretation of the Eck Robertson version since he recorded it in 1922. (He spelled it Sallie Gooden and he probably knows better than we do but I’ve chosen to go with the most common modern spelling and don’t even get me started on Goodwin.) I actually really like playing this tune. It used to terrify me. Not because it was hard - I actually never had any real trouble learning it or playing it - but because it represented the thing that I found the most intimidating about this entire style of music. The IMPROVISING. Ugh. I learned a “version” of this tune (stolen primarily from Matt Hartz and Tony Ludiker and I think Jimmie Don and Terry and maybe Dale Jr., of course, because 1985) and that’s all I knew how to play and the idea of just sitting down and calling this tune in a jam seemed overwhelming and downright ridiculous to me. Honestly, being in a jam at all seemed ridiculous, let alone playing Sally Goodin in one. In any case, once I got past that fear, this tune seemed a lot more fun and less symbolically scary and as it turns out, I don’t really play it all that different than I did when I first learned it. But now I’m comfortable with that and well, with age comes greater peace and contentment and a lot less concern about what people think. Oh, I mean, it’s not all unicorns and self-confidence over here. But it’s a hell of a lot closer than it was in 1985. If you’re going to play this tune, focus more on the bowing than on the variations. That’s the key. And go ahead and do the chop chops at the beginning, especially if you’re playing with someone who isn’t as hip to Texas style backup. We tend to start the melody with C# instead of A which really throws people who are expecting you to play it like Earl.

#fiddle #fiddlestar #fiddlelessons #texasstyle #threenoteslurs #sallygoodin

[markbyrum]

Excellent! Especially the Jazz Hands beginning! ;-)

[jftucker]

Your style on Sally Goodin has been the one I’ve always compared myself to as the “gold standard.” So clean and fresh, but also a good blend of the technical and showmanship.