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

 

 

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

The Ultimate Beginner Pitfall

A FiddleHed named Dave wrote to me because he was struggling with the advanced version of Blackest Crow. In his email, it became clear that he hadn’t been playing very long. That version of the tune is challenging if you are new to the fiddle. It involves double stops, tricky triplets, slides and some fast … Continued

How can I clean up the bow sound on the violin?

A student named Shauna asked me this during office hours. You can clean up the sound of the bow by adding little pauses in between the notes. This is especially good for string crossing (I call the practice “stop n’ rock” when adding pauses to string crossing). Stop n’ Rock You may notice some sloppiness … Continued

So Long Old Pal

A few days after Christmas, I said goodbye to Kitty. What can I say? Best Cat Ever. Every pet owner thinks that and they’re all right. The days leading up to his passing were anxious because his condition was so uncertain. He stopped eating. The vet thought it might be pneumonia, but after an array … Continued

Tone-building And Looping

In this post, I’ll show you how to alternate between tone-building with looping. This to make your practice fun and productive. Say you’re working on the first quarter of any tune. I’ll use Blackest Crow in the video. Use the practice of tone-building to make each and every note sound good. Some tone-building techniques: Throw-away … Continued

Redemption Song – Fiddle Version

Hey folks, Here’s a fiddle version of Redemption Song by Bob Marley. I recently heard a version of the tune by Macy Gray which planted the seed for doing a fiddle version. I was surprised how easily it translated to a solo fiddle format. It’s rare that a song is so sad and at the … Continued

A Fiddlosopher’s Guide to New Years Resolutions

I set out to write a funny and helpful post on making New Year’s resolutions. It would insightfully connect the process of learning the fiddle to living a good life. But then I started to get lost in thinking about it all and blocked by anxieties about the new year. Similar to beginning music students, … Continued

Rolling Waves – basic and variation performance

Hey folks, Here’s a short performance of an Irish tune called Rolling Waves. I play a very simple version and then play a version with some variation added. In this version, I added: Jig Swing Triplet variation Mordents Rolls If you’re interested in adding variation to tunes, start by adding variation to one little phrase. … Continued

Thanks for everything, no complaints whatsoever!

Are you grateful? How often do you feel gratitude? It’s ThanksGiveMeMoreToEat day! The first thing thing most people think about when they hear the word “Thanksgiving” is food. Then maybe they think about the logistics of travel and seeing everyone they want to see. On the day itself, people reflect on the year and find … Continued

Mary Had A Little Lamb – Five Fiddle Variation Performance

Hey folks, Here’s a performance of Mary Had A Little Lamb in which I add five different types of fiddle variation on each pass of the tune: -Hoedown -Melodic variation -Triplets -Cuts -Rolls Here is a downloadable mp3 for your listening pleasure (without all my rambling and yammering): I also made step-by-step lessons on how … Continued