A Place Among the Fiddlers
longreads.comThis article could use some videos:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/QnO5TH6I-wQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC3zoCoK4ZU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4Z-CpXQiAc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94AYKVibjaQ
> Over time, Scottish fiddle tunes evolved, as oral traditions do, and began to mix with the musical traditions of enslaved Africans, who had brought with them gourd instruments that would evolve into the American banjo, along with rhythms the Scots had never heard before.
If you haven't heard Rhiannon Giddens you have no idea what you're missing. Here's a decade old interview where she talks about the blending of the instruments and traditions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H7DtIh8akk
She lives in Ireland now. Here she is preforming The Wayfaring Stranger:
I play banjo in bluegrass jams. Fiddle is not an easy instrument to play—- being fretless, it takes a lot of practice to catch a chord perfectly. The jams I go to usually have a mix of male and female fiddlers, and they tend to skew to the older side.
I think when people have fairly mastered guitar or banjo they’ll sometimes pick up fiddle next. They can make awesome music or terrible noise, depending on the skill of the player.