When I teach trad ornamentation, slides are not one of the three main types of ornaments I discuss. In fact, if a student asks about slides, I usually say "they aren't used much". But after a very perceptive student recently pointed out to me that this isn't actually true - rather, that trad fiddlers (including myself) do make frequent use of what she and I decided to call "microslides" - I did a self-analysis and realized that yes, we should discuss slides as another layer of the proverbial trad music cake.

In order to do this, I picked a reel that I use quite a few microslides on as a case study. The tune is "Eddie Kelly's," the dramatic reel in D minor. There are quite a few tunes called "Eddie Kelly's," as you surely know. It's the second one in this set: https://youtu.be/N9774mhOq3U (Note that when this CD was printed, the track listing was accidentally offset from the tracks and this was never corrected, and so the names of the tunes don't match up correctly.)

Who's this for: All instrumentalists who want to learn the tune, although be aware that we'll be discussing the fiddle-specific technique of microslides.
Level: Intermediate/Advanced (Level 5/6)