Fiddlosophy

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

 

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

Fiddle Goals For 2024

Are you someone who benefits from having a goal? Or do goals make you anxious? I suggest three goals that I think you and all my students can achieve. No matter what your skill level is. Three Goals For 2024 Play Every Day Practice Well Good Mindset If you think about it, these are just … Continued

Chaining And Chunking

Here are two practice strategies that feel like games. I use them every time I play. You can Chain together single notes to form musical chunks. Then loop the chunks. That’s how I teach tunes in the live workshops: But you can also take a top-down approach. Take a tune or skill, and break into … Continued

Practice Blocks

Pick a song and a skill, and then practice in 25-minute blocks with intention. Strategy Pick a strategy to guide your session. Use this card for a week to understand how it works. For example: Chaining Plan-Do-Reflect Play Slowly Loop Fiddling With Micro-Motions Song | ⏱️10m Learn a song you like. Discover what’s challenging about … Continued