Playing Fiddle

I’m still practicing nearly every night, even though I’ve (hopefully temporarily) stopped taking lessons. I have my music organized in a binder, separated by categories. I also have my practice lists. I try to start with the practice lists and see if I can remember the songs I learned earlier merely by name. If not, [...]

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Due to budget issues, I made the hard decision to stop taking lessons for a while. My teacher is WORTH every penny, but my income fluctuates a bit and my expenses are up a bit due to some circumstances. First, I tried cuting down to every other week but that was less than satisfying somehow. [...]

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Other than my lessons, I haven’t played with other people all summer. I have a small group I play with but we fell apart during the summer. I have been playing, with records and on my own and at my lessons. But there’s a big benefit to playing with other people that are right in [...]

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Okay, this is embarrassing but perhaps I can save someone ELSE the embarrassment. I was playing the other day and heard this odd vibration. I shook my fiddle a bit and thought I heard something inside it. Now, when I used to play guitar and mandolin sometimes I’d drop my pick inside (sloppy I know [...]

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I own 4 fiddles at the moment. (Brian, if you find this, do NOT tell me about the next one I need!) I started playing fiddle on my grandmother’s old violin. And I love it! I will never get rid of it just because of that connection. I never heard her play but gather she [...]

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I’m committed to working on my bowing this week. I’m sloppy. I don’t get the pronate thing naturally. I tighten up. My shoulder moves. But I look at these guys who play without any extra movement and I’m blown away. I can sight read songs and memorize them. But the bowing is the key. Well, [...]

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I got a new cross-A tune to learn today, Camp Chase, from this mp3 available on Amazon: Falls Of Richmond/ Camp Chase. That, among other things, led me to update my practice lists. I keep the new stuff in the front of a binder and the old stuff separated into rough categories, somewhat alphabetically. But [...]

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I’m trying to memorize Jenny’s Welcome to Charlie this week. My teacher likes the Frankie Gavin version but I’m having an easier time listening to Martin Hayes slower version, Jenny’s Welcome to Charlie. Last night I tried to play through most of the Celtic tunes I’d memorized at some point or another. Many needed some [...]

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As I was practicing some newer pieces tonight, I realized, anew, that sometimes just getting the right rhythm is far more important than the right notes. And I know this blog is supposed to be about playing fiddle, but I think that’s true in life as well. If you hit at least some note in [...]

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Learning a new tune for St. Paddy’s day, The Moon and Seven Stars. When John first introduced the backwards building concept I absolutely hated it. But, being me, if I’m paying someone for advice I do try to listen! So I kept trying it out–and lo and behold it works! It’s now normal, and oddly [...]

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