Fiddle rhythm becomes a written language

Casey Driessen (photo: Laura Ruiz)

All fiddlers, especially (but not exclusively) those involved with innovative music, should be aware of the Chop Notation Project devised by Casey Driessen and Oriol Saña. More detail is given in a feature by John Lawless on Bluegrass Today: this includes several video examples of rhythm licks, and a twenty-seven minute video (also on YouTube) in which Casey Driessen demonstrates not just rhythm licks but a new system of notating them. A forty-page handbook is available as a free download PDF document - it includes an illuminating account by Richard Greene of how his rhythm playing developed while he was a Blue Grass Boy.