Strings magazine is proud to partner with fiddler and chop-master Casey Driessen as he raises funds for Fiddle/Sticks: The Drummer Project. During this year-long journey, Casey will post on this website mini-documentaries detailing his collaborations with some of the world's leading percussionists.

 Here’s what Casey says about Fiddle/Sticks:

“The thought of this project becoming a reality makes my metronome race with excitement. I've never been satisfied exploring the fiddle just from the fiddler's point of view. Rather, I've discovered my creative turning points through other instruments and genres—adopting the five-string fiddle over the conventional four-string to play bebop alto saxophone lines by Charlie Parker; learning odd-meter time signatures from syllabic rhythm practices of classical Indian music; incorporating funk slap-bass lines; mimicking rhythm of a glass shard filled tin can shaker from Madagascar; and, of course, my pivotal watershed moment, imitating the mandolin chop in a childhood bluegrass band lacking mandolin.

 “I am continually searching for new thought processes, inspiration and challenges to push the limits of my musical voice, and I believe the unconventional pairing of fiddle with drums and percussion will do so in an awesomely unpredictable way.”

kck.st/fdl-stx

Added by Greg Cahill on Jun 22, 2012 at 3:12pm –