What's the difference between a fiddle and a violin ?
Who cares - neither one's a guitar

eph221
What's the difference between a fiddle and a violin ?
Who cares - neither one's a guitar

[pedantic]
Actually, as soon as Jimmy Page used a bow with his guitar, it became, by definition, a fiddle.
 
HTH.
[/pedantic]

George Harrison:  Segovia...he's the grandaddy of us all!
 
Segovia..(when told what harrison said)  They're not even my illegitimate grandchildren!
 
This is the cervantes like atmosphere I grew up in with classical guitar.  I've become more of a rodney king character in this polemic.
 

Feel the beat?

I was once told that a "violin" is played by a classically trained and disciplined musician. A "fiddle" is played by a novice who is just "fiddleing" around with it. Therefore the instrument's name is determined by the gravitas of the player. Maybe true, maybe not, but it makes a good story anyway.....

I never gnu that, thanks savageopera!

eph221
What's the difference between a fiddle and a violin ?
Who cares - neither one's a guitar

They're the same thing, it depends what music is being played on it (violin - classical, fiddle - folk/traditional)
 
Sometimes fiddles have a flatter bridge to better enable chords and drones for folk/bluegrass style music.

I'm just finishing up my 1st year of violin/fiddle lessons. I set out to learn "fiddle" as opposed to violin. My teacher grew up playing Irish "fiddle" but she's a music major in "violin". So I'm kinda learning both :)
 
Basically if you learned fiddle, you need to go back and  re learn everything the right way .

Starise
Basically if you learned fiddle, you need to go back and  re learn everything the right way .

Or if you learned violin you need to g back and re-learn everything the right way :-)

It depends on what you want to play really. Though there's a strong argument that the traditional fiddle styles of Britain/Ireland/Scandinavia and the US fiddle styles that are based on those are a direct descendant of the way the violin was played in the Baroque era with a short bow stroke, emphasis on rhythm, the use of drones and double-stops and minimal vibrato.

The warm, slow attack, soupy, warbly vibrato style coming along later and being given a big boost by the popularity of Fritz Kreisler in the early 20th century.

jamesg1213

eph221
What's the difference between a fiddle and a violin ?
Who cares - neither one's a guitar

They're the same thing, it depends what music is being played on it (violin - classical, fiddle - folk/traditional)
 
Sometimes fiddles have a flatter bridge to better enable chords and drones for folk/bluegrass style music.

As subtly pointed out above...
 
A violin is a fiddle, but not necessarily the other way around.  A cello is a fiddle.  A viola is a fiddle.  Jimmy Page's guitar became a fiddle.
 
A fiddle is any stringed instrument that is used with a bow although musical genres have become a second definition almost (violin for classical and jazz, fiddle for bluegrass, country and folk).