Classes, jam sessions, dances at fiddlers event

MOSES LAKE — The subject was pretty technical. The instructor was demonstrating the best way to hold a violin bow (or a fiddle bow) to facilitate changes in tempo. At first glance not the sort of topic to cause music to break out all over. But music broke out all over.

Students in the weeklong workshop sponsored by the Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association just can't stop making music. Individuals started experimenting even as the instructor circled the room.

This is the fifth year the WOTFA has held its workshop in Moses Lake. Classes are scheduled all week long for fiddle players, banjo, mandolin, guitar and bass players.

There’s just something about the music. “That’s what this week is all about, is old time fiddle music. There’s a certain thing that gets into your blood about it,” said Bill Crabtree, Shelton, WOTFA president.

“It’s acoustic music. A shared body of music where you can get together with people you don’t know and make music,” said Terry Sawyer, Spokane.

John McTernan, Kirkland, has played classical flute, but he’s new to the old-time sound. He’s been impressed with the musicians. “At night they all get together (for jam sessions). Somebody calls out a tune,” and that’s all it takes.

Tyler Hagood, Kirkland, started playing when he was 6 years old. “My grandpa taught me. And I just got stuck on it.” It’s a true old-time sound, dating all the way back to colonial times. “It’s roots music,” Sawyer said.

The workshop included classes for every skill level. A national champion fiddler was teaching a master class in one room of the Moses Lake Christian Academy campus. And in another room children were learning how to make sounds on the fiddle.

Each child received an animal mask, and they were trying to make the violin – no, the fiddle – make animal sounds. And the fiddles were indeed making sounds.

“For me, it’s just watching the kids,” Crabtree said. Classes had students of all ages, but each had a substantial number of kids. Anders Daly is “almost 10,” and he plays the fiddle. “There’s so many different ways to play it,” he said. This is his fifth year at the workshop, and “everybody” in his family plays, with the exception of his 2-year-old brother. “My mom plays bass,” and his dad plays the banjo. His dad Mike called it “a musical outlet” for kids and parents alike.

“It’s fun music, it’s dance music, it’s a great community to be involved with,” Hagood said. He’s been attending the summer workshop almost every year since 1997, he said. While he’s experimented with other kinds of music, he’s sold on the old-time sound. “I messed around with classical when I was a kid, but this is what I always come back to.”

Classes continue through Thursday, with performances, dances and jam sessions in the evening.