Rockingham Road

Amateur musician Bruce Haney is proud inventor of the Fiddlewidget
Wednesday, May 26, 2004

By VINCE STATEN
Columnist

Bruce Haney's efforts at learning to play the fiddle inspired his invention, called a Fiddlewidget, to guide a player's finger positions. Ken Murray photo.

Bruce Haney never considered himself the musical genius of the family. "That would be Rosemary. I'm the engineer."
Rosemary is his wife.
"In high school Rosey was first chair All-State band, I think, three straight years. She can sight-read anything."
Bruce played trombone in the Dobyns-Bennett band, but his only concern about his chair position was making sure it was under his behind.
"I couldn't sight-read hardly a lick, but I had a good ear for melody. That's how I survived. I can read, but it slows me way, way down."
So it was the engineering side, not the musical side, that led Bruce to conjure up a device that helps musicians like himself find chords on the fiddle.
He calls it the Fiddlewidget.
It resembles a slide rule, but folks who have tried it swear by it.
And Bruce just stumbled on his invention.
"After I went over the wall at Eastman in a hail of bullets, in the purge of 1999, my brother-in-law Hancel Woods talked me into taking a fiddle class with him. He quit, but I didn't. I didn't know any better. How hard can it be to play a piece of wood with four strings?"
As it turned out, quite hard, particularly for an old trombone player.
"They say it takes seven years to learn to play the fiddle. I'm in my fourth year, and I believe it. A fiddle doesn't have frets. You just have to fish around to find notes. My first fiddle teacher was forgiving, but my second teacher was not. A fiddle player has to think in scales, and I never did. My teacher gave me a couple of charts, and I said, ‘I think I can simplify this.'"
He called his simplification the Fiddlewidget, and his fiddle teacher flipped over it. This cardboard cutout with a slide inside really worked. It showed fiddle players where to put their fingers so they could play in any key. But it did more.
"This differs from other musical slide rules because it works on real music theory. It doesn't require theory to see it. But if you really look at it and use it, you learn theory, sort of the backdoor way."
That's when Bruce decided to try it out on a tougher audience.
"I took it to Curtis Morrell at Morrell Music, and he thought it was a great idea. He said, ‘I'll sell it. But I want you to come up with one for every instrument.'"
Bruce has now done one for the fiddle, the guitar, the banjo and the mandolin.
"I'm going to do it for the stand-up bass. The only thing slowing me down is I don't play bass. But if I make a widget I'll know how."
His humble invention got a boost recently from old-time fiddler Bobby Hicks. For folks who don't fiddle or follow fiddling, Bobby Hicks is a fiddling legend. He played with Bill Monroe; he played with Ricky Skaggs for 20 years; he won a Grammy.
"His wife had found a sample one at a Mississippi Festival. He thought it was cool and wanted to get them for his students."
Bruce has now been back and forth to visit Hicks in North Carolina twice and is planning a third trip next week. It could even lead to collaboration on a fiddling manual.
Bruce has a business plan and a marketing strategy for his Fiddlewidget.
"My business plan is: Don't lose any money. My marketing strategy is: Make pickers happy."
He is still in the marketing phase. He hasn't gone to retail yet, but he says he'll sell you one out of his house for less than what he estimates will be the eventual retail cost - $15. He'll be happy just to talk to you about it, even bass players. Just call him at 349-6715 or e-mail him at bfhaney@chartertn.net

For information and/or bookings, call Jim Hunter at (423) 928-7914
or email at hunterjr@chartertn.net.