Fiddlosophy

How to send a private message to other Fiddlehed folks

We have a new feature on the site that creates a social network within Fiddlehed. I made a tutorial video on how it works. The most important thing to know is how to send a private message to other FiddleHeds. This will allow you to support each other, share videos, and form your own practice … Continued

Practice What Matters Most

It would be nice if we could make music all day long. But life gets in the way: work, chores, social obligations, health issues. Shoot, sometimes we just need to relax on the couch with Netflix. So most of us have a limited amount of time to practice music each day. The question is, how … Continued

Thanks to you, thanks for everything…

Happy thanks-give-me-more-to-eat-day. Grateful to everyone who’s part of the FiddleHed journey…   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by FiddleHed (@fiddlehed)

Mary’s on The Orange Blossom Special

I’ve been combining the Orange Blossom Special simple tunes like Mary had a little lamb. Simple melodies are a great way to practice any new technique (whatever is challenging to you). You get the added bonus of reinventing the melody in a creative way.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by … Continued

Practice breaks: Zollie’s Retreat

Hello from the land of ice and snow (Lake Tahoe). Here’s a tune called Zollie’s Retreat. I heard it on a new fiddle album by country singer Tyler Childers. As I started to learn it I used a recording by Dirk Powell. But when all is said and done, it’s just music 🎶 The fiddle … Continued

Foxhunter’s Jig – Fiddle Raga

Here’s a short performance of an Irish tune called Foxhunter’s Jig – Fiddle Raga. Thanks for reading, and thanks for making music…

Play music as a work or study break

  View this post on Instagram   Music breaks: I’m experimenting with short music breaks throughout the day. I’ll be writing short blog posts on Fiddlehed about how music affects concentration, memory and learning (follow the link the bio). A post shared by FiddleHed (@fiddlehed) on Nov 9, 2020 at 10:19am PST Though I’ve been … Continued

Re-post: Play It Casual

What do you do when you realize you’re struggling? Do you keep pounding away at that challenging thing? Or do you change your approach? In this post, I suggest a practice called “Play it casual” which will help you to let go of mental obstacles so you can focus on the task at hand: learning … Continued

Origin of the Fall Practice Challenge

The Fall Practice Challenge was not invented out of thin air. Like good ideas (philosophy, inventions, fiddle tunes 🎻), it represents one step in an evolution of thinking. A few years ago, I heard about something called the 21-day No Complaints Challenge in an article by Tim Ferriss. The challenge was originally designed by a … Continued