Just be careful with shuffles though too.

I got "locked in" to shuffles early on and when I started taking lessons with a teacher he said I needed to become "ungrained" from subcionciously playing shuffles to everything without realizing.

They can really get in your head and be habit forming LOL

Schaick said
lol!!  And since I have found this!!!

Yeah he's talking about the first time he met famous Bluegrass fiddler "Kenny Baker" and Brian nervously asked "Kenny, what do you think about using shuffles? 

And Kenny said with that ole Kentucky accent ( like my grandfather )

"SON........I think that people that use a shuffle....got a loooonnnnggggg way to go!"

hillarious....he was a crabby ole Kentucky coal miner who'd lived a very hard life..LOL but ohh such talent!! If only I could bow like him!

He uses shuffles at times also, but only as ornaments, or when he wants too. He was talking mainly about old time fiddlers or newbie Bluegrass fiddlers ( such as myself ) that think that everything is played with a shuffle LOL. The problem is like what I mentioned above...when you get so locked into a shuffle, that you interpret everything you learn with it. It's easy to do, they can get habitual and locked into your head if one isn't careful.

fiddlinsteudel said
That's such a hilarious story.

As you know....my late grandfather was an old Kentuckian, farmer and basically a man of the "hills" he came from a completely different era and way of life...

That's the way the ole Kentucky men were....very blunt and direct...and they didn't teach you stuff, you learned by "emulation"

You watched, heard, listened..... and then went out over the hillside or out behind the barn LOL and worked it out on your own and in your own way. I'm sure that's the way Kenny learned, but it's amazing how he was able to develop such a rich, smoothe and professional style all on his own living in those isolated mountains. Eastern kentucky is about as close to the middle of nowhere as you can get LOL.

Some of the best musicians I ever heard up in Kentucky were just coal miners or simple Tobacco farmers or whatever. Really simple folks with maybe not a whole lot of formal education....but easily could have gone to Nashville or anywhere and made alot of money as session fiddlers/musicians. But, they are just down home family folks, liked to stick close to home and family...no interest in becoming professional. To them getting together was just a hobby, entertainment....it's amazing...I'm talking "fantastic" talent and really trained and learned musicians.

Sorry I digressed a bit....this video with Kenny just made me think of that...