Fiddlosophy

Fiddling With Flow

“Learning the fiddle is hard because there’s too much to remember all at once!”  I hear some variation on this a lot from people in comments and emails. As a student, it’s challenging to keep track of all the different things you have to do when playing the fiddle. Is the bow parallel to the … Continued

Old Town Road – Fiddle Cover

Pop song in G# Minor | Intermediate Here’s a fiddle cover of “Old Town Road,”a hip-hop country song by Little Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus. It’s the debut performance by KittyFiddler, a strange new character roaming the hills and valleys of San Francisco. While bringing unexpected joy to casual passersby, KittyFiddler’s very presence has also incurred … Continued

I Can’t Fiddle Fast Enough!

“I can’t play it fast enough! How can I speed up this tune to the right speed? Will I EVER be able to do it?” Before we get into how to play faster, I want to ask you something. Why do you want to play fast?  “Because I heard a famous fiddler play it fast.” … Continued

Six Ways To Overcome Fiddle Frustration

A lot of you have told me that you’re frustrated because your current level of playing is nowhere near where you want to be. You want to be ripping mind-crunching solos like Mark O’Connor. But it seems like you’ll never get there. In this Fiddlosophy post, I’m going to suggest six ways to overcome fiddle … Continued

Danny Boy / Kesh Jig – Electric Fiddle Solo – liner notes

A fiddlehed named Suzanne attended a Diego’s Umbrella show in Fairfax, Ca. and took video of my “solo solo”. This is the part of the show where I create a live looping drone and then play melodies over that. For this version of the solo solo, I start with a G drone. I create this on … 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

Tam Lin – Basic and Variation – Performance

Hey folks, Here’s a short performance of an Irish tune called Tam Lin. I play a very simple version and then play a version with some variation added. In this version, I added: In the A part I’m mainly adding double stops. A simple way to practice the bowing for this is to play G0-{G0D0} … Continued

Banshee – Basic And Variation – Performance

Hey folks, Here’s a short performance of an Irish tune called the Banshee. I play a very simple version and then play a version with some variation added. In this version, I added: A part, bar 1: Roll added to D3 (G) in bar 1 of the A part A part, bar 4:  D3 (G) … Continued

The Power Of Adding Variation

On The Endless Plateau So you’ve learned the fiddle and can now play a bunch of tunes. Do you feel like you’ve reached a plateau with your playing? Does it seem like you’re just going through the motions on a tune and it’s not sounding any better? Adding variations to scales and tunes is a … Continued

Practice Just To Practice

Why do you practice the fiddle? What do you hope to achieve? Do you want to be able to play a certain tune? Or do you want to be able to play with people? Do you see a vision of yourself doing something with music in the future? Before reading further, take a moment to … Continued