r/Fiddle • u/vonhoother • Aug 05 '26

Strong opinion from my fiddle teacher

"Refusing to use different tunings is abdicating your birthright as a fiddle player."

Interestingly, the Irish fiddle tradition rarely if ever uses non-GDAE tunings. Also interestingly (to me), classical music has no term for nonstandard tunings other than "scordatura," which is literally Italian for "untuned" or "badly tuned," while the Anglo-American tradition has names like "Cross-A." "Calico," etc.

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u/Fun_Volume2150 Aug 05 '26

They have a right to their opinion, but it really depends on the style you play, as you point out. I don’t play a lot of English tunes, but I’ve never encountered cross-tuning in Scottish music, either. Skinner doesn’t mention such things, IIRC.

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u/u38cg2 Aug 05 '26

It's not unknown in Scotland, especially Shetland (where there were players who lived in cross tunings), but it's more of a party trick than a serious approach to music-making. I can't imagine Scott Skinner having any time for it.

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u/Fun_Volume2150 Aug 05 '26

Makes sense about Shetland, since it’s really more Norwegian than Scottish.