jason kleinberg

Listening is practice too

If you’ve watched FiddleHed videos on Youtube or this site, you may have heard me say “Listening is practice too” a few hundred times by now. It may annoy you to hear that over and over. But it’s such an important point, I think it should be put more strongly: 86% of being a musician is … Continued

The Ant and The Grasshopper

In Aesop’s most well-known fable, a grasshopper plays the fiddle in the summer while the ant works to store up food for the future. When winter comes, the grasshopper begs for food and the ant refuses. The original message was “Idleness brings want” which gave the ant the moral high ground. But later interpretations portrayed … Continued

Social Music

Traveling through Ireland I’ve come around to a more primal and pure way of doing music. Making music here is a social activity. This is probably so obvious to people here that they don’t even think about it. Instead of being on a stage in front of an audience, the audience is on the stage, … Continued

Fiddle Around The World: Ireland

A few years ago I had this crazy idea: go to a new place every year and learn about the local music. The word “fiddle” in the title is both a noun and a verb, depending on how you look at it. As a noun, I’m going around the world to study and share the … Continued

What The Heck Is A Polka Anyway?

The polka is a Central European dance and genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Polka remains a popular folk music genre in many European countries, and is performed by folk artists in Germany, Austria, … Continued

Don’t Break The Chain

  Jerry Seinfeld is credited with a great productivity tip (though he claims to not remember talking about it). He felt that to be a great comedian, you had to write every day. His technique will be useful for you as you learn: Buy a wall calendar and hang it on the wall where you … Continued

Make Music Now

Even if you are an absolute beginner, you can make music right now. Even if you are playing a single note it can sound like music. Always return to a good sound. As an absolute beginner your first goal is to just create a single good sound. Of course it won’t be perfect right away, … Continued