I very much enjoyed this video about the 1974 World Diddling Championships. It surfaced on the BBC Archives youtube a few weeks ago. I was fascinated firstly by the fact that a mainstream magazine show in the 1970s would devote a substantive 9 minute slot to any feature – let alone a slightly off the wall one. The depth of coverage seems a far cry from The One Show!, and secondly any footage from an era that seems increasingly distant is fascinating – the clothes, the lady smoking in the front row, the streetscape….

But of course it’s the content of the film that grabbed me. I was aware of the term Diddling – meaning to vocalise a tune with almost random diddle dee syllables replacing the words (there’s no real rules about which syllables to use as far as I can tell – it’s about flow and capturing the tune). But I’d really thought of it as a learning tool for musicians – I certainly do it all the time – singing is definitely a way to get a tune in your head if trying to memorise it, and diddle-iddle just fits so well – especially with jigs, slipjigs, and compound time tunes. An essay on Irish Fiddle Player Rowan Piggot’s website – Diddling & Fiddling: The Importance Of Vocalising European Dance Music goes into the use of such techniques for learning into a lot more depth (and I’ll be trying to Diddle more seriously when learning tunes from now on!)

Anyway- until now I had not realised that it was a competitive event! Quite how it was scored/ judged isn’t completely clear, and I suspect there is a bit of tongue in cheek and mischief about the whole endeavour.

Wordless diddling does pop up in mainstream folk music a fair bit and certainly can be elevated to a higher plane – especially with harmonies, an art perfected by Lady Maisery: