Mary’s Strathspey

Around 20 years ago a fiddle teacher named started organizing workshops and jams which ultimately became the Young Fiddler’s Association of Minnesota. It is not currently active but it helped a generation or more of students learn fiddle in its day. At some point I began teaching workshops and summer camps for them every year. This particular tune comes from a YFA workshop taught by Scottish fiddler Mary MacGillivray. She didn’t have a name for it other than Strathspey, so to differentiate it from other Strathspey’s, I have begun calling it Mary’s Strathspey. This type of Scottish tune, by the way, originated in Scotland in the valley (Strath) of the river Spey…hence the name!

Notes on Playing the Tune

• The first note in measure 1 can be super fast. It would be hard to make it too fast, in fact someone told me that Strathspeys should push the beat, almost rushing, in order to work well for dancing.

• To make the notes nice and crisp use medium bow weight and short strokes and keep the string crossings clean even though they are fast.

• I have marked some places where I like to stop the bow a little before the next note (marked with staccato and tenuto). This makes it more rhythmic than if they are long, I think.

• You can add the grace notes after you learn the basic melody. The turn symbols are meant to indicate that you play the note, add one note above and return to the printed note (all on the same bow). This would be shown as a mordent in the classical world, but is usually a turn in fiddle books.