jason kleinberg

Re-post: The Four Elements of Good Sound

Do you want to improve the sound of your fiddling? If so, separately work on these four things: tone, tuning, timing and flow. I recently updated an older post on this called The Four Elements of Good Sound. Thanks for reading, and thanks for making music…

Hang in There!

Faith, Evidence and Practice When learning a challenging new skill, we take a leap of faith that we’ll be able to do it. We feel uncertainty and fear, but also excitement and joy. But for the long haul, we’ll need more than just faith. We’ll need to see some evidence that our practice is working. … Continued

How To Use Evernote To Practice Music

I use an app called Evernote to help me track when I practice. It allows me to take text notes, record myself, and embed images all on one page. I can easily keep track of stuff I’ve been practicing over the last month. In this lesson, I’ll show you how I use this cool app. … Continued

America Fiddles – The Early Days

Written by Jim Guinn The Early Days Long a popular European musical instrument and because it was small and easily portable, the fiddle found its way to America packed away in the meager possessions of the first explorers, traders, and settlers to our shores. For years, the fiddle was virtually the only instrument found on … Continued

Hometown Requiem

Here’s a piece I wrote and recorded on Saturday night May 30, 2020; the night the George Floyd riots broke out across the world. I’m now living in LA, just south of the Fairfax neighborhood which was an epicenter of looting and vandalism. Deeply saddened by the situation. But I’ll let the music do the … Continued

What did you have for dinner last night?

When learning something new, try this trick. Pause on that new or challenging thing and try to remember what you had for dinner last night. Really try to picture it. How much time did it take to prepare it? What time did you eat? When was the last time you had that meal? How did … Continued

Figure 8 Bowing on Mary Had A Little Lamb

I’ve been practicing the figure 8 bowing, trying it out on simple things like Mary Had a Little Lamb. In the last office hours livestream I talked about it some. Later this year, I’d might  create a full lesson with exercises if you are interested. Let me know in a comment below…     View … Continued

Practice Loops

In a practice loop, you alternate between to areas of practice to improve a specific musical technique. Here are some examples: Alternate between a tune and its scale Alternate between listening and playing Fiddling with chords and melodies   For those of you who’ve followed and subscribed to FiddleHed, you know that looping is a … Continued

The Two-Minute Rule

How to establish a regular fiddle practice  Do you have trouble practicing on a daily basis? If so, the Two-Minute Rule may help you to establish this healthy habit. The term was coined by author James Clear in his book Atomic Habits. The basic idea: Make it easier to establish the habit by committing to … Continued

Clare Reel – Fiddle raga

I recently dug up this video…I played a ‘fiddle raga’ version of Clare Reel while with my girlfriend in Santa Barbara in 2018. Please forgive the wind noise…think of it as part of the performance ? I also made some lessons for this tune: Clare Reel – Basic Clare Reel – Variation These are part … Continued