Fiddlosophy

Practice Notes February 19, 2019

It’s been raining a lot in the Bay Area. It’s been nice. I’ve been hibernating, catching up on work, detoxing and practicing a lot ? Here are some notes I’ve taken from my practice in the last two months. It’s fairly longwinded so I’ll summarize briefly here, and then start blowing wind. (That sentence didn’t … Continued

Rights Of Man – Fiddle Raga

Here’s a fiddle raga performance of Rights Of Man.  Here is a downloadable mp3 for your listening pleasure (so you can listen to this while walking the dog, doing laundry or going to sleep at night):  Performance liner notes I’m playing a fiddle strung with viola strings tuned DADA. It’s similar to old-time “saw-mill” tuning, … Continued

The Surfing Fiddler

It’s humbling to learn something new. At the moment, I’m living in Bali for a month, updating FiddleHed.com and building a new course on improvisation. I’m also re-learning how to surf. Out on the ocean, it’s pretty clear that I’m a beginner. Struggling to paddle out, getting battered by oncoming waves, not gaining enough speed … Continued

Fiddle Around The World: Bali

Sometimes you just wake up and realize you’re somewhere else. Though I booked this trip to Bali a few months ago, I’ve been so busy with FiddleHed that I haven’t had time to plan anything or even look forward to it. The only thing I really did was book a flight. And now, I find myself … 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

Practice Notes – December 22, 2018

Here are some notes on my current fiddle practice as of December 22, 2018.  In general, I’m practicing the “sawmill tuning” which is AEAE. So the G string is tuned up to A, the D string tuned up to E, the A and E strings stay the same. This makes the fiddle resonate much … Continued

Practice is the goal

We don’t practice the fiddle to get better at the fiddle, we just practice to practice. In other words, when you just do what you’re doing to the best of your abilities then you’ve arrived at the goal, which is realizing there is no big goal to reach other than the present moment. In other … 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 – Fiddle Raga

Here’s a fiddle raga performance of Mary Had A Little Lamb. What the heck is a fiddle raga? The short answer: it’s an improvisation based around a fiddle melody accompanied by a drone. Here is a downloadable mp3 for your listening pleasure (so you can listen to this while walking the dog, doing laundry or … Continued