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Mr Will Anderson was born in 1929 at Lochinver
outside Elgin and presently lives in Mosstodloch, about a mile from Fochabers.
His father farmed at Lochinver up until Mr Anderson was about nine years old,
and then the family moved to Auchenreath at Tynet on the road between Fochabers
and Buckie just before 1939. His father was born in Kellas outside Elgin and
farmed first of all at Birnie. He was a fiddler too, and used to play for
dances locally. Mr Anderson said that his father played "in the First World War
at Fogwatt Hall, just a piano and himself, and that was the band".
Mr Anderson started playing the fiddle at age fourteen or fifteen, and explained: "I cycled over to Buckie and has lessons wi Alec Nicol, a good fiddler, a music teacher over there in Buckie. I had the fiddle strapped onto the back of the bike, football boots over the handlebars of the bike." After his fiddle lesson he would go for a game of football at Arradoul. He went for six months, once a week, for lessons which lasted half an hour each, "and then he [Nicol] says, 'Well, you can play a march and a strathspey and a reel, will that dae ye?' And I says, 'That's fine'," and the lessons ended.
The repertoire he played at the fiddle lessons consisted mainly of tunes by Scott Skinner, such as "Flower of the Quern". Will Anderson was not sure if his father had received tuition on the fiddle, but said that his father sent him to Alec Nicol to get a "right grounding" in the instrument. Will's first fiddle came from his father, and was a Japanese instrument that belonged to his uncle. He remembered that it did not have a "great tone", but said that it was useful for playing for dances as it could make quite a loud noise. This was important, he said, as "you hadna much amplification then". His father later obtained another fiddle as a result of bartering some produce from his farm for the instrument, which had been owned by a local butcher.
Although Mr Anderson learned to read music at his fiddle lessons, he does not feel confident in doing so. He said: "I'm nae a good reader. If I don't know a tune, I couldna just pick up a sheet of music and pick up the tune off it, unless I heard it first. … I play by ear more than anything." Mr Anderson did not do much practice when he was learning to play the instrument, and stated: "I didn't practise unless there was somebody come in for a tune or that." He grew up in a musical environment, and his brother, Frank, also played the accordion a little. Whilst Mr Anderson sometimes "had a tune" in the house with his father, they did not usually start playing unless someone "came in aboot". Mr Anderson sometimes also accompanied his father's playing using a guitar.
Mr Anderson remembered pianos and fiddles being played when people came to visit the farm at Lochinver near Elgin in the 1930s. After the Second World War, however, he said that fewer musicians came to visit and less fiddle playing went on in the area. He was not clear about the reasons for the decline, but mentioned that "there were just so many other things to do" as being a factor.
Find out more about Will Anderson: Playing at dances - Current fiddle playing
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