Studying the 'step' of a Donegal fiddler: Examining methodologies for the ethnographical study of issues of tuning, intonation and inflection with specific regard to the fiddle music of Co. Donegal

Through a reflexive examination of my own experience of performing the traditional fiddle music of Co. Donegal, this paper interrogates both process and musical from an ethnographic perspective. It is suggested that meaningful fieldwork can be achieved by the creation of individual hermeneutic arcs (Rice 1997) with the studied performers, as well as the analysis of their performance practices using audio software programmes, such as Melodyne. Through this dual method, I will argue that we can better account for and understand the relationship between performance practice and context, challenging existing paradigms within Irish Traditional Music studies.