Activity

Great Beginner Group Session yesterday, thanks for everyone joining in and the great topics that arose through the group.
Here are our group attendees, for connection reference:

Claudia – @csoxley
John – @lavonjohn
Steve – @ripton
Robin – @rbingham
Deborah – @fixkids
Beth – @emeraldemma
Jocelyn – @jahcey

Feel free to reach out directly to folks via their FiddleHed account, and also make replies from this post to continue the interaction with this whole group.

Here are a few notes I took from our session:

D major – start from top – long bows, 3 counts – identify what part of bow could use more focus and play in that range of bow

Drones mentioned

Rhythm variations with scales – refer to references below

Value of Scales discussed – help us understand and know what songs can/are in a specific song – helps tune our ear to the key, also helps us identify what key a song is in
Pentatonic good for improvisation – Triads/arpeggios helpful for Chording and imrov.
Can be a huge help with reading music
Scale book suggestion given – Steve, please reference the books you use if possible. I am not seeing book suggestions on FiddleHed – Scale page references below
– also having blank sheet music paper to write up scales

Identifying key of a song – good to value this, ask one another – some tips shared such as 1st note in melody and last note of song can be related to the key (not always though) – listening to song closely – I didn’t mention this in our session, though I tend to often try to narrow it down by determining what notes are in the song, writing those notes down, then seeing from those notes what key it could match – quite often, people who can identify/know the chords for the song can fairly easily determine the key

Memorizing keys with flashcards
Circle of fifths chart reference

References:

Deborah mentioned a couple in person groups she is engaging with and could share with local folks, such as Robin.
PineCone Bluegrass Hour – at a music shop – includes slow jam, beginner jam
Also a group of ladies, Deb may be able to elaborate 🙂

Drone Central

Drone Central

Here are some posts discussing value of scales further:

Are scales really necessary?

Should I memorize scales?

Scale Central

Scale Central

Rhythm references

Hoe Down Lesson

Mary Had A Little Lamb – Hoedown Variation I

Practise Journey

Hoedown Journey

Easy Georgia Shuffle

Easy Georgia Shuffle

Here is also the reference Deborah shared in regards to Chords on the Fiddle:

Above is the Youtube link with the lesson. Below I sent what I print out and glue one chart on front and the other on the back of an index card.

A I D  IV E  V
G I C  IV D  V
F I Bb IV C  V
E I A  IV B  V
D I G  IV A   V
C I F  IV G   V
B I E  IV F#  V

G D A E
Normal 1 A E B F#
Lo 2 Bb F C G
Hi 2 B F# C# G#
Normal 3 C G D A