Offbeat Accent Patterns
Here is a lesson on how to add offbeat accents when fiddling.
This is will help you to get that old-time sound. The lesson will cover the basic technique applied to offbeat accents on beats two and four. In later lessons, we’ll apply accents to more complicated rhythms.
If you practice these simple exercises, you’ll find that you naturally start to add accents to the tunes and songs you play on the fiddle. We’ll start out very slow so that you can do it with ease.
I recommend taking the beginner lesson first: Basic Accent Patterns
Overview
First, let’s work on the sound of the accent. Add a little extra weight at the beginning of a bow stroke. Think of it as a little grit. Practice this downbow and upbow in free time (without a beat).
First, just get the sound of the accent. Then review some simple accent patterns on the downbeat.
Quarter notes open D
Next, let’s try it with quarter notes on beats 2 and 4. This prepares you for adding accents to strings of eighth notes.
Quarter notes D major
Further Practice
The rest of the exercises are available to paid subscribers, along with full sheet music. Thanks for your support ?
Eighth pairs on open D,
Eighth pairs (2x) on D0-1
Eighth pairs on D major scale
Hoedown on open D
Exaggerate the difference between accented and unaccented notes.
Hoedown (2x) on D0-1
Hoedown on D major scale
Train on open D
Train (2x) on D0-1
Train on D major scale
Sheet music
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