Fiddlosophy

How To Learn Tunes From Recordings

Can’t figure out how to play the B part of Bill Cheatham because the band is playing it so fast? You could have your teacher slowly teach you each part of the tune and then practice the parts on your own until you can play the whole thing. Or you could learn it with me … Continued

How To Improve Your Violin Playing Through Recording

You can accelerate your progress on the fiddle if you record yourself playing and then listen back to it. Do this on a daily basis. If you’re learning on your own, you need to Be Your Own Teacher, and so recording yourself is especially useful. Maybe even necessary. Recording provides you with the feedback you … Continued

Fisherman’s Blues

I recently did a lesson on how to play the solo from the song Fisherman’s Blues. My first girlfriend introduced to this magical album of the same title by The Waterboys. At the time I was a junior in college, learning jazz, playing in the university symphony and not doing any kind of fiddle music. … Continued

Slow Down To Speed Up

Music teachers are always trying to get students to slow down. Maybe they should tell them playing extremely slow is the Jedi-knight secret to playing fast. It may seem counter-intuitive, but if you practice slowly and carefully, you’ll be able to play tunes faster and learn them in less time. But don’t let speed be … Continued

Practice tip: Remember to Breathe

Are you holding your breath while you play? If so, take a break and focus on your breath. Then play an open string, then a simple scale or tune while keeping your attention on the breath. Don’t try to hard, just be aware. This practice will relax you and improve your performance. Remember, you can … Continued

Passive And Active Listening

To be a musician you need to do two things: Play every day. Listen every day. You can listen either passively or actively. Both approaches are useful and necessary. Passive listening Passive listening happens while you’re doing another activity such as cooking, cleaning or driving. Just let the music play. Don’t try to think about … Continued

Do You Play Every Day?

I recently made a post to a forum called FiddleHangout with some practice questions: Do you play every day? If so, do you have to discipline yourself somehow? Or do you do it simply because you love it? How did you successfully become a musician (someone who plays every day)? There were a lot of great … Continued

Student Stories: Fiona Higgins

Here’s a short video of my student Fiona playing, Uisce Faoi Thalamh, a tune she wrote while playing around with triads. Fiona started learning fiddle as an adult. Now, she plays regularly in beginner Irish sessions and with a group of some of my other students. I learn a lot from good students. At the … Continued

Easy And Hard

Some things are easy to understand but hard to practice. Perhaps you are learning to play double stops on the fiddle. You understand that you have to play two strings at once, and that it doesn’t take more energy than playing a single string. But you can’t seem to make it sound nice. Or, you’ve … Continued