Fiddling with life and learning with the occasional dad joke thrown in…

 

Jamming with the Pogues and the Dubliners

I finally get to jam with these musical heroes on the Irish Rover!   I’m also making some lesson videos for this on my Youtube channel.   Further learning Offbeat Accents On The Fiddle Improvisation Workshop Improv Playground   Return to the Fiddlosophy Blog >>

How To Play Violin In One Minute

 Here’s how to learn a fun song like The Irish Rover.   Play the first note, then Chain the first two…   Now you have the first musical Chunk   Go slow, allowing the fingers to easily reach the destination.   Then Loop on that Chunk until if flows.   Memorize it before you … Continued

Call-and-response Improvisation With Mary

Hey there fiddler, Join me for a short guided improvisation. We’ll play around with Mary Had A Little Lamb, the pentatonic scale, rhythms and call-and-response. This is yet another example of how you can practice advanced skills with simple, familiar songs.  Below you’ll find a simple, plug-and-play routine that you can use with any song. … Continued

Irish Rover – Slow Performance

Here’s a slow performance of this song. Listen to new songs for a week before learning them. Sing or hum this melody with me. Having a mental model of the song will make it way easier to learn it on the fiddle.   Further learning   Return to the Fiddlosophy Blog >>

How To Play Violin In One Minute

Here’s a quick video showing the essential skills for beginner violinist. I’ll show you how to: — Hold the violin and bow — Pluck rhythms on the strings — Bow the strings — Use left-hand fingers — Play a simple song All in one minute ⏱️. This is part of How To Play Violin – … Continued

Improvising With Rhythms

One way to make music practice fun is to improvise with Rhythms. Start with a long-short-short pattern known as Hoedown or the Nashville shuffle. Play it on scales like D Major Pentatonic: D0-1-2-A0-1 Do it with the Metronome. Alter the rhythm: Reverse it to create a short-short-long pattern Split it across two notes A more … Continued

What the heck is Mixolydian Scale?!?!

What the heck is Mixolydian Scale?!?! Play an A Major And lower the seventh step. Sounds cool, right? Mixolydian scales are built on the fifth step of a major scale. So now Play D Major: D Major Scale: D0-1-2-3-A0-1-2-3 | A3Then play the exact same notes but instead of starting on open D Start on … Continued

Alternate Between Chords & Melody On SwallowTail Jig

Here’s a fun way to practice fiddle tunes like Swallowtail Jig Play the first Chunk of the melody Then Play the chords. Eventually Play the melody with double stop chord accents. Once you can do each of those things on their own, do it in a continuous Loop. Add to Current Tabs bookmarks    Further … Continued

Offbeat Accents On The Fiddle

Overview One way to get that classic fiddle sound is to add offbeat accents. Start with a simple hoedown or Nashville shuffle: long-short-short. Then add accent beats 2 and 4, or the first short note of the pattern. Then add that pattern to scales and chords. Eventually add it to tunes. Further learning Offbeat Accents … Continued

Fiddling With Pink Moon

Here’s a fiddle version of “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake. Liner notes On the surface it sounds like a simple folk song. But both the guitar strum pattern and the vocal line are super syncopated. I listened to the song before and during practice sessions. Here’s the original… I tapped out the rhythm with hands on … Continued