When fiddle music found a new home on Cape Breton Island in the late 1700s, it changed in some ways because life here was a little different. For example, pianos are often played with fiddles on Cape Breton Island but not in Scotland. People started to play the two instruments together when organs came to the island. Later, the organs were replaced with pianos. A special style of piano playing has grown on Cape Breton to go with the fiddle music.

Another difference between fiddle music on Cape Breton Island and in Scotland is how fiddlers learn the music. In Scotland, fiddle players usually depend on written music when they learn a tune. Because they are reading the music, rather than hearing it played, the rhythm will be exactly as it is written in the book. Fiddlers on Cape Breton usually learn to play aurally. They listen carefully and then try to play what they have heard. In this way, a certain tune might come to be played with a certain rhythm, even if it is not written in the book that way.

Many fiddle players on Cape Breton Island later learn to play music by reading, too. The island’s fiddlers also enjoy playing tunes composed locally. Some composers from the island, like Dan R. Mac Donald and Dan Hughie MacEachern, are well known and respected.

Cape Breton Island fiddle players gave new life to fiddle music. They took music from Scotland and added their own special touches to it. The music continues to change as new fiddlers add special touches of their own.