Fiddlosophy

Sawmill Tuning Questions

How do you know the correct note in sawmill tuning? A FiddleHed named Lizzy wrote in asking, “How do you know when you have the correct sound/note for sawmill tuning? I usually use a guitar tuner for tuning.” Thanks for that question. You can still use your electronic tuner. All notes on the A and … Continued

Can you do too many double stops?

A FiddleHed named John wrote to me asking, “Can you do too many double stops?” I would answer with another question. Do you like the way it sounds with lots of double stops? If you love it, then keep it!  Keep in mind that the melody is not quite as clear when you add double stops. … Continued

How To Overcome Stage Fright?

A FiddleHed named Sue wrote me asking about how to overcome stage fright. Like anything else, this is something you can practice. Even if you think you’ll never perform, I think you might find the following tips to be helpful… Be prepared Learn the music as well as you can before performing. If possible memorize … Continued

Listen As You Play

When you’re a beginning music student, it’s hard enough to learn the instrument, let alone play with other people. I remember when my first violin teacher would play piano accompaniment to whatever beginner piece I was learning, I struggled to hear what she was doing and what I was doing. And when I first played … Continued

Overcoming Fiddle Demons

It’s almost Halloween, a strange holiday when we get to try on different identities. By dressing up as demons, ghosts, zombies and other monsters, we explore the dark side of our personality: fear of death, doubts and self-loathing. Are these monsters real? Do they actually exist? I can’t say for sure. I’ve never seen a … 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

Are scales really necessary?

Somebody recently wrote to me asking, “Are scales necessary to learn if all you play is old-time music?” The short answer is no …but scales will help you tremendously. And you might be surprised by how fun they can be. Maybe you had a bad experience with a draconian music teacher. And now you fear and … Continued

Leverage

A FiddleHed named Bob wrote to say that after playing banjo for seven years, he became fascinated with what his fiddler pals were doing. “How on earth can those fiddle players do that?” he asked himself. “I decided I’d give it a try.” Hats off to you Bob! Though I haven’t learned banjo, I have studied … Continued

Play Every Thing Twice

A good rule of thumb is to play everything at least twice on the fiddle: scales, exercises, melodic phrases, and full tunes. Notice what happens the second time through Do your hands relax a bit? Can you listen more closely to what you’re playing? Does the mind relax? Can you move from thinking to playing? … Continued

What are the best scales to learn on the fiddle?

The better you know your scales, the more quickly you can pick up tunes. Scales don’t have to be torture.  There’s an art to making them fun. Practice them along with tunes that use that scale. Simply alternate between a tune and it’s scale. Then you’ll start to hear the scale in the tune. And you’ll hear … Continued