Rock violin is
rock musicRock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
which utilizes violin in its instrumental lineup. This includes rock music only and does not include classical style music using melodic motifs from rock.
Rock musicRock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and
rock and rollRock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
bands typically utilize electric guitar for the high range and thus deploy violin only exceptionally. Nevertheless some rock musicians have experimented with violin in a rock setting as either part of the backup (such as
Paul McCartneySir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
's
Eleanor Rigby"Eleanor Rigby" is a song by The Beatles, simultaneously released on the 1966 album Revolver and on a 45 rpm single. The song was written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney...
) or as a dual lead instrument sharing the spotlight, or alternating, with lead guitar. Violin as the featured lead instrument in the rock genre is a rarity and is more frequently associated regional bands.
Early history
The emergence of rock music in the 1950s and 1960s is rooted in the basic instrumentation of drum kit, electric bass guitar and lead electric guitar; all of this instrumentation was fed into tube amplifiers until the emergence of the transistor. Building on this basic setup, other instruments were added as transistor technology advanced, typically the electric keyboard which became popular after the introduction of the Moog synthesizer. Rock violin emerged in the
art rockArt rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, with influences from art, avant-garde, and classical music. The first usage of the term, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, was in 1968. Influenced by the work of The Beatles, most notably their Sgt...
movement which had experimented with classical instruments and musical influences associated with
early musicEarly music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...
. Examples include Jethro Tull, King Crimson and Velvet Underground. In the same era that
Ian AndersonIan Anderson may refer to:* In music:**Ian Anderson , head of the rock band Jethro Tull**Ian A. Anderson , folk musician and editor of Roots magazine**Ian M...
popularized the use of
fluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
in rock, others added violin to their line up. These bands included
Jefferson AirplaneJefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
,
Fairport ConventionFairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
, Mahavishnu Orchestra and
John MayallJohn Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...
's Bluesbreakers.
Technical basis
Rock violin is played on solid body
electric violinAn electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument purposely made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body...
s or on violins fitted with electric pickups. These are mounted on the bridge, on the sound post or stuck onto the body much as is done with acoustic guitar. Sizzling effects are achievable using aggressive bowing technique and runs high up the neck up to the limits of human hearing range. Due to the typical accompaniment of electric guitar, bass and rock drums, playing into the microphone may lead to impossibly high levels of
feedbackFeedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
.
Later history and development
Rock fiddle, like rock music in general, owes much to blues. Incorporation of violin into rock, as with jazz, has been a slow process, resisted by some critics as an "unlikeliest and perverse misuse of an instrument". Categorization is more appropriately conducted using the flexible methodology of
fuzzy logicFuzzy logic is a form of many-valued logic; it deals with reasoning that is approximate rather than fixed and exact. In contrast with traditional logic theory, where binary sets have two-valued logic: true or false, fuzzy logic variables may have a truth value that ranges in degree between 0 and 1...
insofar as the categories tend to overlap and ambiguity. However, rock has roots in
folk musicFolk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
particularly the American folk revival of the 1960s, and thus as a matter of usage some writers refer to "rock fiddle" when discussing playing by classically trained musicians who join rock bands and thus import classical style rather than fiddle style into their playing. Rock is itself highly varied and violin is used in some forms more than others, notably
art rockArt rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, with influences from art, avant-garde, and classical music. The first usage of the term, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, was in 1968. Influenced by the work of The Beatles, most notably their Sgt...
,
electric folkElectric folk is the name given to the form of folk rock pioneered in England from the late 1960s, and most significant in the 1970s, which then was taken up and developed in the surrounding Celtic cultures of Brittany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man, to produce Celtic rock and its...
rock such as
Fairport ConventionFairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
,
Southern rockSouthern rock is a subgenre of rock music, and genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals...
, in a different manner more reminiscent of
American fiddleThis page is about fiddle music in the USA. For other North American styles, see Fiddle#Fiddling_styles.American fiddle playing began with the early settlers who found that the small viol family instruments were portable and rugged. According to Ron Yule, "John Utie, a 1620 immigrant, settled in...
styles.
Instrumentation
Rock violinists often use solid body
electric violinAn electric violin is a violin equipped with an electronic output of its sound. The term most properly refers to an instrument purposely made to be electrified with built-in pickups, usually with a solid body...
s to reduce feedback. Rock is an international phenomenon, and rock violin is consequently influenced by cross fertilization from rock players such as Ashley MacIsaac Nevertheless American rockers continue to experiment. For instance, eclectic rocker Natalie Stovall, a graduate of Berkelee Conservatory, covers Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Michael Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, The White Stripes, Lynard Skynard, Jimmi Hendrix,all the while alternating between standard rock vocals and fiddle/violin riffs.
Violin orchestration in art rock
As lead instrument
Progressive rock, or
art rockArt rock is a subgenre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, with influences from art, avant-garde, and classical music. The first usage of the term, according to Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, was in 1968. Influenced by the work of The Beatles, most notably their Sgt...
, moves beyond established means by experimenting with different instruments, including violin. From the mid-1960s
The Left BankeThe Left Banke is an American baroque pop band that formed in New York City in 1965 and disbanded in 1969. They are best remembered for their two U.S. hit singles, "Walk Away Renée" and "Pretty Ballerina"...
, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys, had pioneered the inclusion of harpsichords, wind and
stringA string orchestra is an orchestra composed solely or primarily of instruments from the string family. These instruments are the violin, the viola, the cello, the double bass , the piano, the harp, and sometimes percussion...
sections on their recordings to produce a form of Baroque rock and can be heard in singles like
Procol HarumProcol Harum are a British rock band, formed in 1967, which contributed to the development of progressive rock, and by extension, symphonic rock. Their best-known recording is their 1967 single "A Whiter Shade of Pale"...
's "
A Whiter Shade of Pale"A Whiter Shade of Pale" is the debut song by the British band Procol Harum, released 12 May 1967. The single reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June 1967, and stayed there for six weeks. Without much promotion, it reached #5 on the US charts, as well...
" (1967), with its Bach inspired introduction.
The Moody BluesThe Moody Blues are an English rock band. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, most notably in their 1967 album Days of Future Passed....
used a full orchestra on their album
Days of Future PassedDays of Future Passed is the second album and first concept album by The Moody Blues, released in 1967. It was also their first album to feature Justin Hayward and John Lodge, who would play a very strong role in directing the band's sound in the decades to come...
(1967) and subsequently created orchestral sounds with synthesisers. Classical orchestration, keyboards and synthesisers were a frequent edition to the established rock format of guitars, bass and drums in subsequent progressive rock.
Papa John Creach
Papa John CreachPapa John Creach played for Jefferson Airplane , Hot Tuna, Jefferson Starship, Jefferson Starship - The Next Generation, the San Francisco All-Stars , The Dinosaurs , and Steve Taylor...
played with (Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, Hot Tuna) played in a style more closely approaching true fiddle as opposed to violinistic style. He is reputed to have started playing as early as 1935 before joining Chicago's
Chocolate Music Bars.
Sugar Cane Harris
Sugar Cane Harris played with
John MayallJohn Mayall, OBE is an English blues singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, whose musical career spans over fifty years...
Bluesbreakers,
Frank ZappaFrank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
's Mothers of Invention and later fronted
Pure Food and Drug ActThe Pure Food and Drug Act of June 30, 1906, is a United States federal law that provided federal inspection of meat products and forbade the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated food products and poisonous patent medicines...
. Other credits include
John Lee HookerJohn Lee Hooker was an American blues singer-songwriter and guitarist.Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues. He developed a 'talking blues' style that was his trademark...
: Folk Blues – 1959 Little Richard: Little Richard is back – 1964 and with
Johnny OtisJohnny Otis is an American singer, musician, talent scout, disc jockey, composer, arranger, recording artist, record producer, vibraphonist, drummer, percussionist, bandleader, and impresario.He is commonly referred to as The Godfather Of Rhythm And Blues.-Personal life:Otis, the son of Alexander...
.
Mahavishnu Orchestra 1970
Jerry GoodmanJerry Goodman is an American violinist best known for playing electric violin in the bands The Flock and the jazz fusion Mahavishnu Orchestra. Goodman actually began his musical career as The Flock's roadie before joining the band on violin. Trained in the conservatory, both of his parents were...
played violin with jazz-rock fusion pioneer
John McLaughlinJohn McLaughlin may refer to:*John McLaughlin , Scottish professional footballer who played for Clyde, Greenock Morton, Millwall, Dunfermline Athletic and Motherwell...
, first on McLaughlin's third solo album and thereafter with the Mahavishnu Orchestra which included Billy Cobham on drums, Rick Laird on bass guitar,
Jan HammerJan Hammer is a composer, pianist and keyboardist. He first gained his most visible audience while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early 1970s, as well as his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the popular 1980s...
on electric and acoustic piano and synthesizer. The first major release was 1970 on John McLaughlin's album
My Goal's BeyondMy Goal's Beyond is the third solo album of John McLaughlin. The album was originally released on Douglas Records in the US. It was later reissued by Rykodisc....
(1970) followed by Mahavishnu Orchestra's,
The Inner Mounting FlameThe Inner Mounting Flame is Mahavishnu Orchestra's first studio album, released in 1971 and consisting solely of original compositions by John McLaughlin....
(1971) followed shortly thereafter with
Birds of FireBirds of Fire is Mahavishnu Orchestra's second album. It was released in the first half of 1973 and is the last studio album by the original Mahavishnu Orchestra line-up, before the group dissolved, although Between Nothingness and Eternity, a live album, was recorded and released later that same...
(1973).
Jean-Luc PontyJean-Luc Ponty is a French virtuoso violinist and jazz composer.- Early years:Ponty was born into a family of classical musicians on 29 September 1942 in Avranches, France. His father taught violin, his mother taught piano...
played on subsequent albums
ApocalypseAn Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
and
Visions of the Emerald BeyondVisions of the Emerald Beyond is an album by the jazz fusion group Mahavishnu Orchestra, and the second released by its second incarnation....
.
Scarlet RiveraScarlet Rivera is an American violinist. She is best known for her work with Bob Dylan, in particular on his album Desire and as part of the Rolling Thunder Revue.-Early career:...
played with Bob Dyan on "Hurricane Carter".
UK players
- Ian Anderson
Ian Anderson may refer to:* In music:**Ian Anderson , head of the rock band Jethro Tull**Ian A. Anderson , folk musician and editor of Roots magazine**Ian M...
, briefly, on Thick As a Brick.
- John Cale
John Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
, the Velvet Underground, notable tracks include "Heroin"
- David Cross
David Cross is an electric violinist born in Turnchapel near Plymouth, England, best known for playing with progressive rock band King Crimson during the 1970s...
. King Crimson (Lark’s Tongues in Aspic part 2)
- Eddie Jobson
Edwin "Eddie" Jobson is an English keyboardist and violinist noted for his use of synthesizers. He has been a member of several progressive rock bands, including Curved Air, Roxy Music, U.K., and Jethro Tull. He was also part of Frank Zappa's band in 1976-77...
(Curved Air, Roxy Music, Frank Zappa, UK and Jethro Tull)
- Bob Loveday (Van Morrison, Paul McCartney, Jeff Beck, Bob Geldof, Penguin Café Orchestra.)
- John McCusker
John McCusker is a Scottish folk musician, record producer and composer. An accomplished fiddle player, he had a long association as a member of the Battlefield Band beginning in the 1990s and was later a band member and producer for folk singer Kate Rusby...
(Mark Knopfler)
- Linzi Stoppard
-Biography:Linzi Stoppard started taking violin lessons at the age of four. She grew up in Surrey, and was trained under the Suzuki method.At the age of eighteen, Linzi Stoppard signed her first modeling contract, while still teaching and playing session violin...
American players
- Carrie Bradley
Carrie Bradley is an American violinist and vocalist. She was a founding member of the alternative folk band Ed's Redeeming Qualities, and has played in The Breeders and 100 Watt Smile. More recently, Bradley has appeared as half of the San Francisco-based musical duo The Great Auk.-External links:*...
- Ann Marie Calhoun
Ann Marie Calhoun is an American violinist.- Personal life :...
- Jane Clark
- Randy Crouch
Randy Crouch is an Oklahoma-based multi-instrumentalist. In eastern Oklahoma, Crouch is best known as a fiddle player. Although he has been referred to as "the world's best rock fiddler," Crouch also plays guitar and pedal steel among other instruments.-Biography:Growing up the son of a...
- Ryan Delahoussaye
- Vito Fossella
Vito John Fossella, Jr. is a U.S. Republican politician from the state of New York who formerly represented the state's 13th Congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for six terms, from 1997 to 2009 serving as the lone Republican from New York City. Fossella, a Staten Island...
- Lisa Germano
Lisa Germano is an American singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has released seven albums featuring her often-hushed vocal style, confessional lyrics, and distinctive violin. Her 1994 album Geek the Girl received widespread critical acclaim, including being featured as a top album of...
- Jessy Greene
Jessy Greene is a violin, cello, and vocal musician from Sheffield, Massachusetts, USA. She has released two albums, Blue Sky , and A Demon & Her Lovers . She was a former member of Geraldine Fibbers and The Jayhawks. Jessy has also played with a number of artists including Wilco, Atmosphere,...
- Petra Haden
Petra Haden is an American violinist and singer. She is or has been a member of several bands, including That Dog, Tito & Tarantula, and The Decemberists; has contributed to recordings by The Twilight Singers, Beck, Mike Watt, Luscious Jackson, Foo Fighters, Green Day, Queens of the Stone Age,...
- Lucia Micarelli
Lucia Micarelli is an American violinist and actress best known for her collaborations with Josh Groban and classic rock band Jethro Tull, and her role as Annie in Treme.-Early Life:...
- Chris Murphy
Chris Murphy is a violinist, band leader, and composer that has been composing and performing music for over 15 years.His music combines jazz, blues, country, classical, ethnic, and electronic music. Chris has performed in over 40 U.S. states, including Hawaii, and in England and Ireland...
- Novi Novog
Novi Novog, born in North Hollywood, California is an American viola player. She is sometimes simply credited as "Novi" and is the cousin of Lauren Wood .-Albums :...
- Lorenza Ponce
Lorenza Ponce is an American violinist, vocalist, string arranger and composer. She has recorded five albums of her own music and is well known for her collaborative and supporting roles with other musicians, most notably as a touring musician with Bon Jovi and a member of the Jon Bon Jovi ...
- David Ragsdale
David Ragsdale, violinist for Kansas since 1991, started violin at the age of three. After studies with renowned classical teachers and a stint at the Tulsa Philharmonic, David's violinist duties took him out of the largely classical area and into rock and roll.Through the years he has performed...
- Robby Steinhardt
Robert Eugene Steinhardt is a rock violinist and singer best known for his work with the group Kansas, for which he was co-lead singer / "frontman" and emcee along with keyboardist Steve Walsh, from 1973–1982 and 1997–2006...
- Boyd Tinsley
Boyd Calvin Tinsley is an American violinist and mandolinist who performs as a member of the Dave Matthews Band. Within the band, Tinsley has collaborated in writing songs, harmonizing, and singing backing vocals.-Early life:Tinsley was raised in a musical family...
- Mark Woods
Mark Winthrop Wood is an electric violinist, as well as the founder of Wood Violins, a company that makes unique electric violins. He is also an Emmy-winning composer. His music and strings education program has been featured on news programs nationwide....
Guest appearances in rock ensembles
- Byron Berline
Byron Berline is an American fiddle player.-Biography:Berline started playing the fiddle at age five and quickly developed a talent for it. In 1965, he recorded the album Pickin' and Fiddlin with the Dillards...
primarily a bluegrass stylist with extensive rock connections Rolling Stones, Gram Parsons, Flying Burritto Brothers
- Rufus Thibodeaux
Rufus Thibodeaux was an American Cajun music fiddler.Thibodeaux played guitar from age six and fiddle from age twelve. He played in local dance halls at 13, and joined Julius Lamperez's Cajun band in 1949. He worked extensively as a studio musician for J. D...
Cajun fiddler who played with Neil Young
Video documentation
Jane Clark with Steffen Schackinger