File: macdonaldhilda-oh-gettingstarted_M.mp3
Speakers:
HM – Hilda MacPhee MacDonald
KP – Curator Ken Perlman
GM – George MacPhee (Hilda's nephew)
HM: I guess I was six; as soon as I could hold the fiddle I started to learn.
KP: (to George MacPhee) This was your grandfather who played the fiddle? (to Hilda) and his name was Roderick MacPhee?
HM: Roderick MacPhee.
KP: Was he a well-known fiddler; was he a considered a very good fiddler?
HM: Oh, yes, he was. He used to play at all the parties, and the weddings. In his younger days he did it anyway.
KP: Did he encourage you to play the fiddle?
HM: Yes, he took great pains to teach me to play.
KP: How did he teach you to play?
HM: Just little by little.
KP: Did he show you how to hold your hands?
HM: Yeah, where to put my fingers, where to catch the bow. Learned mostly by showing me where to put my fingers to play the tune. That was mostly the way he showed me to play the tune cause I was so young, you know.
KP: How did he show you to bow? How did he show you to use the bow?
HM: The way he used it.
KP: Did he put your hands on the bow and then move it with his hands
HM: No, I don't think so. I guess I did that myself; I don't remember that part of it.
KP: Did you watch him and then try to copy it?
HM: Yeah, I used to watch him playin' I guess.