Dwight Diller
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Dwight Diller
Dwight Diller (August 17, 1946 – 14 February 2023) was an American banjo and fiddle player and teacher. He was considered one of the most prominent exponents of the clawhammer banjo tradition. Diller lived in Hillsboro, West Virginia, and then Marlinton, and was an inheritor of the old-time music Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination ... tradition of the Hammons Family of West Virginia. He conducted banjo workshops around the United States and in England. He released a number of recordings and instructional videos. External linksDwight Diller official site
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Banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by African Americans in the United States. The banjo is frequently associated with folk, bluegrass and country music, and has also been used in some rock, pop and hip-hop. Several rock bands, such as the Eagles, Led Zeppelin, and the Grateful Dead, have used the five-string banjo in some of their songs. Historically, the banjo occupied a central place in Black American traditional music and the folk culture of rural whites before entering the mainstream via the minstrel shows of the 19th century. Along with the fiddle, the banjo is a mainstay of American styles of music, such as bluegrass and old-time music. It is also very frequently used in Dixieland jazz, as well as in Caribbean genres like biguine, calypso and mento. Histo ...
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Fiddle
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the style of the music played may determine specific construction differences between fiddles and classical violins. For example, fiddles may optionally be set up with a bridge with a flatter arch to reduce the range of bow-arm motion needed for techniques such as the double shuffle, a form of bariolage involving rapid alternation between pairs of adjacent strings. To produce a "brighter" tone than the deep tones of gut or synthetic core strings, fiddlers often use steel strings. The fiddle is part of many traditional (folk) styles, which are typically aural traditions—taught " by ear" rather than via written music. Fiddling is the act of playing the fiddle, and fiddlers are musicians that play it. Among musical styles, fiddling tends to p ...
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Clawhammer
Clawhammer, sometimes called down-picking, overhand, or frailing, is a distinctive banjo playing style and a common component of American old-time music. The principal difference between clawhammer style and other styles is the picking direction. Traditional picking styles (Banjo#Classic_era%2C_1880s-1910s, classic banjo), including those for folk music, folk, Bluegrass music, bluegrass, and classical guitar, consist of an up-picking motion by the fingers and a down-picking motion by the thumb; this is also the technique used in the Scruggs style for the banjo. Clawhammer picking, by contrast, is primarily a down-picking style. The hand assumes a claw-like shape and the strumming finger is kept fairly stiff, striking the strings by the motion of the hand at the wrist and/or elbow, rather than a flicking motion by the finger. In its most common form on the banjo, only the thumb and middle or index finger are used and the finger always downpicks, hitting the string with the back ...
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Hillsboro, West Virginia
Hillsboro is a town in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 232 at the 2020 census. History Hillsboro was named for pioneer John (Richard) Hill, from North Carolina, who built a log cabin near what is now Lobelia. Most of the early settlers were Scots-Irish and worked in agriculture and stock raising. In the 1800s the town of Hillsboro centered on the educational institution Little Levels Academy. Established in 1842, the school closed 18 years later at the onset of the Civil War. In 1865, the county purchased the building and ran it as a public school through the 1880s, and it became a school of higher order for boys called Hillsboro Academy. The basement of the Methodist Church served as a school of high order for girls called Hillsboro College, or Little Levels Seminary. Eventually the brick Academy was torn down and replaced by a wood-frame school for both boys and girls. Later the school was re-built in brick as Hillsboro High School. Millp ...
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Marlinton
Marlinton is a town in Pocahontas County, West Virginia, United States. The population was 998 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Pocahontas County and is known for its scenic beauty. History Marlinton is named for Jacob Marlin, who, along with Stephen Sewell, became the first non-native settlers west of the Allegheny Mountains, in the Greenbrier Valley in 1749. New Englanders Marlin and Sewell built a cabin in what would become Marlinton, but after various religious disputes, Sewell moved into a nearby hollowed-out sycamore tree. In 1751, surveyor John Lewis discovered the pair. Sewell eventually settled on the eastern side of Sewell Mountain, near present-day Rainelle. Located at Marlinton and listed on the National Register of Historic Places are the Frank and Anna Hunter House, IOOF Lodge Building, Marlinton Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Station, Marlinton Opera House, Pocahontas County Courthouse and Jail, and Pocahontas Times Print Shop. Located near Marlint ...
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Old-time Music
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination of fiddle and plucked string instruments, most often the banjo, guitar, and mandolin. The genre is considered a precursor to modern country music. History Reflecting the cultures that settled North America, the roots of old-time music are in the traditional musics of the British Isles and Europe. African influences are notably found in instruments such as the banjo. In some regions French and German sources are also prominent. While many dance tunes and ballads can be traced to European sources, many others are of North American origin. The term "old-time" Old-time music represents perhaps the oldest form of North American traditional music other than Native American music, and thus the term "old-time" is an appropriate one. Fiddlin' ...
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Edden Hammons
Edden Hammons (born 28 Feb 1875 Webster County, West Virginia, died 7 September 1955 ) was an American fiddler from West Virginia. He was known for his idiosyncratic style, creativity, and the many (often exaggerated) folkloric tales about him.Cuthbert, John A. (1984) Edden Hammons. In ''The Edden Hammons Collection Volume Two'' (pp. 3-25) D Liner Notes Morgantown, West Virginia: West Virginia University Press. Biography Edden Hammons was born to Jesse Hammons and Nancy Hicks on 28 February 1875 at Williams River in Webster County, West Virginia. He was the youngest in a family of seven. His three brothers (Paris, Peter, and Cornelius), as well as his father, played the fiddle. Edden took up the fiddle at an early age, playing on a fiddle made out of a gourd that his father made for him. His family was known for its musicians, woodsmen, and hunters. Edden progressed in his fiddle playing and soon obtained a store-bought fiddle. There are several different stories about this. In one, ...
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American Banjoists
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * Ba ...
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Appalachian Old-time Fiddlers
Appalachian may refer to: * Appalachian Mountains, a major mountain range in eastern United States and Canada * Appalachian Trail, a hiking trail in the eastern United States * The people of Appalachia and their culture ** Appalachian Americans, ethnic group native to Appalachia ** Appalachian English, the variety of English native to Central and Southern Appalachia ** Appalachian music * Appalachian State University, in Boone, North Carolina See also * Appalachia (other) Appalachia is a cultural region associated with the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States. Appalachia may also refer to: *Appalachian (other) *Appalachia (Mesozoic), a Mesozoic-era island * Appalachia, Virginia, a town in the ... * * Appellation (other) {{Disambiguation ...
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1946 Births
Events January * January 6 - The 1946 North Vietnamese parliamentary election, first general election ever in Vietnam is held. * January 7 – The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into four Allied-occupied Austria, occupation zones. * January 10 ** The first meeting of the United Nations is held, at Methodist Central Hall Westminster in London. ** ''Project Diana'' bounces radar waves off the Moon, measuring the exact distance between the Earth and the Moon, and proves that communication is possible between Earth and outer space, effectively opening the Space Age. * January 11 - Enver Hoxha declares the People's Republic of Albania, with himself as prime minister of Albania, prime minister. * January 16 – Charles de Gaulle resigns as head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, French provisional government. * January 17 - The United Nations Security Council holds its first session, at Church House, Westmin ...
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