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James Alexander now teaches violin in schools part-time, having taught full-time up until four years ago. He began teaching in 1979, initially as a supply teacher, taking over from his first teacher, Steven Merson, who had a brittle bone condition. Prior to this, James worked in agriculture, but had also qualified as a fiddle teacher. He teaches Scottish fiddle music along with classical music, and feels that a classical grounding is important when playing Scottish fiddle music as it helps to give a good technique. James noted: "I mean folk call it a classical grounding, but I guess it's just a good quality grounding that can be used to any style after that." He described the status of Scottish fiddle playing when he first began teaching in Moray:
KC: When you first took on that job … what was your job title?
JA: Yeah, it was string instructor, and one of the questions at the interview was: would I be willing to teach viola and also cello if need be, but there was never any reference to Scots fiddle music at all. There was no question, for example, to see if I had an interest in that kind of music, or any experience of playing it. Which, looking back on the situation was a bit strange, because I was destined to teach music in North-East Scotland where there was such a rich tradition, but no-one in the establishment, the education establishment, did any checking to see they were employing somebody that would continue to teach at least some of that. So, at that time, I got the distinct impression, not so much by contract or by word, I got the impression definitely that everything was orchestrally orientated, and a wee bit of Scottish music might not do too much harm, but, you know, keep it under control. So, it was a couple of years before I realised I was kind of, almost out on a limb, going down the road of teaching traditional Scottish music.
James presently spends most of his time teaching at schools in the Fochabers area, particularly Milne's High School. He also teaches at the three primary schools attached to that, and at some of the rural schools further inland. He talked about the "teacher tree" – the link between teacher and pupil – that is said by some to exist in the Scottish fiddle tradition:
KC: I've heard some people talk about the "teacher tree" in terms of Scottish music. Have you heard of that as well?
JA: Yes. I mean teacher trees exist right through all kinds of music to the extent, I guess, if you're taught by people like say Hugh Bean or Peter Mountain, you can trace your teacher tree back to someone like Paginini … Yes, Scots fiddle wise, there would be a lot of evidence of teacher tree technique, you could say. If you look at people like Dougie Lawrence, who's got the Hector MacAndrew style, and you can then see that reflected on people like Paul Anderson, so to that extent it's evidence.
Click here to see the teacher tree diagram relating to the fiddler Paul Anderson. James went on to say that fiddle teachers are not the only people responsible for how fiddlers play, however:
I guess it's not only a teacher tree. It's like people that you play with on a regular basis, you sort of pick up their little ideas and you know even playing mannerisms and you can end up, you're getting the, in Scots music, the grace notes and the ornaments that are used by certain people. And you know if you listen and play along often enough with people like Duncan Chisholm, you can get that nice West Coast ornamentation that he's got and I guess that's the same thing in a slightly different way that you're being influenced by someone, so therefore they are influenced by somebody before that and it goes on down to some person that's been responsible for it somewhere.
Thus, whilst the teacher may represent the figure of authority and seniority for someone learning to play the instrument, a fiddler's peer group can also have a considerable effect on their style of playing.
Find out more about James Alexander: James Alexander homepage - The Fochabers Fiddlers - Styles, repertoire and composition - Fiddles and bands
About the author - Acknowledgements - Bibliography - Celtic and Scottish Studies homepage - Conclusion - Fochabers homepage - Homepage - William Marshall homepage
Published by the Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh
© University of Edinburgh 2001
Last modified Wednesday, 26-Aug-2009 13:31:37 BST by Katherine Campbell