![\"Tracy](\"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/images\/Silverman-1.jpg\")
Tracy Silverman<\/p><\/div>\n\n
And with Silverman, at least to a degree. While he enjoyed playing classical music on his chosen instrument, he bemoaned the lack of relevance it had to himself and those around him. He yearned to break free, beyond the traditional boundaries of classical composers.<\/p>\n\n
So did he take up guitar after all? Well, for a while. After graduating from the famed music school Julliard, he ditched his violin and picked up a guitar. But he soon realized that wasn\u2019t the answer. \u201cIf I worked hard on guitar, I could be one of a million mediocre to fairly good guitarists,\u201d Silverman says.<\/p>\n\n
Since he was already more than proficient on violin, he just decided to make it work like a guitar. So he decided to add two bass strings to his violin and properly electrify it.<\/p> \n\n
Why reinvent the wheel, or in this case, the violin? After all, it\u2019s served players for some six centuries. Cue \u201cThe Wind Cries Mary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty simple: I wanted to sound like a guitar,\u201d says Silverman. \u201cMy inspiration was to be relevant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Silverman and his friend Mark Wood began experimenting, inviting charges of heresy by adding bass strings and frets to a solid body. \u201cI wanted \u2026 not just amplified acoustic, but real electric, for rock and roll, not jazz. I was very much in the rock and roll and pop world. I was writing pop, playing violin in guitar-like manner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
It was all going so well when he suddenly found himself plunged back into the world of the traditional acoustic four-stringed violin. With a twist: He was asked to play jazz with the Turtle Island String Quartet.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI had always been a jazz fan,\u201d he says, and was playing whatever was needed on a gig. With a but: \u201cI was not looking to play jazz.\u201d Indeed, the draw of distortion, wah-wah and feedback and playing rhythm like a guitar was always the inspiration. \u201cI wanted to be the first rock violinist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
So when TISQ (now shortened to Turtle Island Quartet, or TIQ) came calling, he had a decision to make. And somewhat surprisingly, it was the acoustic jazz setting that won out. \u201cI had gotten nowhere as a rocker. When the gig came along, there was a record deal, a manager \u2013 real stuff.\u201d And just like that, he was back playing in that most traditional string setting, a quartet with another violin, viola and cello. Only instead of Bach, Beethoven or Mendelssohn, it was music by Monk, Miles, Trane and Bird. With an occasional nod to his rock side, as the odd composition by Hendrix sometimes made its way into the band\u2019s setlist.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt was absolutely the right decision,\u201d Silverman says today of his four-year tenure with the band. \u201cIt was my first big gig. It put me on the map. I loved it. I had a different (long-term) vision, but knew it would be foolish to pass up this.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI tell my students all the time, know what you\u2019re shooting for, but anything is better than waiting to hit the bullseye.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
He played with the band from 1993 to 1997, but eventually he did pursue that other vision, and his quest for relevancy continues to this day. Armed with his latest six-string electric axe, Silverman is just as liable to play Led Zep as Mozart, though he still performs as a soloist with orchestras. He\u2019s performed electric violin concertos written specifically for him by composers such as John Adams, Terry Riley and Kenji Bunch, as well as writing and playing three concertos of his own.<\/p>\n\n
For Silverman it all goes back to those guitarists he grew up on, who would set up the song or the solos by locking in on the rhythms, reveling in the power of the groove. Which he says is not respected the way it should be. \u201cGrooving on the violin is common in bluegrass, folk, Cajun and Celtic music,\u201d he says. And in dance music as well, whatever the century. \u201cBach based his dances on it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n
He now works to advance the power and respect of rhythm playing and the groove, both through his playing and by working with students. He\u2019s authored two books on his innovative strum bowing rhythm playing, The Strum Bowing Method: How to Groove on Strings, and The Rhythm String Player: Strum Bowing in Action, as well as several etude books and teaching online courses on his Strum Bowing Groove Academy.<\/p>\n\n
And yes, there\u2019s still that rock thing. He formed a number of bands over the years, and is currently working with a group dubbed the Tracy Silverman Project. It includes a former student, Tim Kampen, on baritone cello, who Silverman says is a monster groover \u2013 \u201cThe two of us are becoming a movement!\u201d Kampen also plays bass guitar, while Futureman (Roy Wooten) from Bela Fleck\u2019s band the Flecktones serves as percussionist, and Silverman\u2019s son Toby plays guitar.<\/p>\n\n
![\"Tracy](\"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/images\/Silverman-2.jpg\")
Tracy Silverman<\/p><\/div>\n\n
The group plays what Silverman calls \u201ccreative derangements\u201d of Stevie Wonder, Jimi Hendrix, Jean-Luc Ponty, Bach, Pharrell and others, as well as a mix of Silverman\u2019s own rock and jazz-infused compositions. \u201cI\u2019m all about advancing for this way of playing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n
![\"Ross](\"https:\/\/www.stringsbymail.com\/images\/SBM-Ross-100.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"