In the spirit of fiddling, I arranged this classic melody as a folk waltz. Even though it’s a simple and recognizable melody, I think it’s an intermediate level tune because you need to use raised third finger on the G string.
Warm up:
D Major scale: D0-1-2-3-A0-1-2-3 | E0-1-L2-3-4
D Drone
Here’s a “performance” pdf without finger notation and chords. Use this to practice reading sheet music.
Or…
B major: G2D2
F# Major: GH3D2
Learn more holiday tunes here: Holiday Songs
Then put on a little show for your friends and family. Better yet, use your fiddle to lead them all in a song. 🎅🏿 🎄
This sweet version actually starts with a solo violin playing the end of the melody. It comes back an octave higher at 1:04.
Here’s a learning version with finger notation, brackets, and color-coded repeating patterns.
Here’s a cool way for you to improve your timing and practice tricky rhythms. We will “extract the rhythm” from a melodic phrase. Then we’ll practice the rhythm separately on:
I’ve been doing this with complex rhythms from Round Peak fiddle tunes (Appalachian/Old-time). It’s been challenging! I find I’m often working at my edge.
This is a good example of how a practice strategy can continue to serve you throughout your fiddle journey.
Full content for this lesson (all learning chunks, video loops, sheet music, audio and supplemental video) is available with a paid subscription. But you can use it NOW with a Free Two-week Trial Subscription.
We’ll do this with a few examples. Play the first bar of Shooting Creek.
Notice the rhythmic value of each successive note:
eighth-quarter-eighth-quarter-quarter
Let’s extract this rhythm to the open E string:
Once you do that, loop on it until you’ve mastered it.
Do this for different sized loops. Here’s an example from Cooley’s Reel , B Part, First Quarter
We can go deeper with this. Practice that rhythm extract on a two-note interval:
Once you get that to flow, practice the rhythm extract on each note of the D Major scale (see notation further down the page).
Now let’s take a more challenging step. Alternate between the basic version of the phrase and its extract:
By the time you do all this, you’ll be pretty good at this rhythm! Plus, you’ll more quickly get it the next time you see it. Furthermore, the more you do the process, the more confidence you’ll have in your ability to figure out rhythms.
This lesson is part of a series called “Power Practice Habits” 💪🏽. I’ve started to take notes on all the little unconscious things I do when I practice. I’m trying to translate these strategies so that you and other fiddlers can also use them too.
Many of these strategies are based on the idea of a practice loop; alternating between something basic and something more challenging (or at least different).
For example, practice loops can be used to learn and practice note-reading.
Learn more about this in the Note-reading for Fiddlers course. And you can find more Power Practice Tips in the How To Practice Fiddling course. Here are a few related lessons to check out:
You are separating the hands. When you play the rhythm extract, you’re putting your full attention on the right hand and timing. If you need to separately practice the left-hand fingering, you could slowly play the notes without any rhythm at all. Or you could slowly pluck them.
Creating the extract can be challenging. If it is, then use the micro-practice approach and start with a smaller piece. Start by doing this practice on easier tunes, or at least easier phrases from tunes you’re working on.
Let’s use the same process to practice string crossing. Play the first quarter of Swallowtail Jig:
Notice that the first three notes are on the D string, the fourth is on the A string, the fifth and sixth are on the D string. So this would be our rhythm extract:
This allows you to master that difficult string crossing. Place your left hand in beginner position (on the fiddle) and play it at different speeds.
Now let’s do a basic/extract practice loop:
We can extend the practice in some fun ways. Take the rhythm extract and start it on open G:
Then start it on open A:
You can add fingerings to this to create pedal patterns. See the sheet music for more detail.
This is also a great way to figure out slur patterns. I’m trying to learn and practice the intricate Round Peak bowing patterns. So I’m extracting the rhythms created by the slur patterns. See the example for Breaking Up Christmas in the supplementary video and sheet music below.
This practice is helping me to learn and remember the slur pattern. Another benefit of doing this is that I start to see that these tunes have certain common bowings. I’ll get into this in future lessons on bowing.
If you do this process on one tricky rhythm for a tune, it may unlock the entire tune. Don’t feel the need to do this for every part of a tune.
Furthermore, all practice strategies are just a way for you to get better at music. The point is, if this gets frustrating, return to just playing the tune as well as you can.
I’m truly excited about this practice of extracting rhythms. For my own practice, I think it will help me to crack the code of the music I’m working on. Then I can teach you better. But now you have the essential tool for discovering the underlying rhythms of a tune.
In the video below, I’ll demonstrate how to extract rhythms on other tunes from the FiddleHed course.
Thanks for being here 🙏
Here’s an intermediate lesson on the Figure 8 bowing. This rhythmic texture will help you to play Old-time, Bluegrass and probably any fiddle style on Earth.
It’s a string-crossing pattern in which you get your hand to move in a Figure-8 pattern. You bow primarily on one string and then add double stops accents using another string.
Full content for this lesson (all learning chunks, video loops, sheet music, audio and supplemental video) is available with a paid subscription. But you can use it NOW with a Free Two-week Trial Subscription.
Let’s learn Figure 8 by using some video loops. I’ll also give you audio play along tracks below.
Circular bowing on D0-A0 (separate bows)
Watch your hand move in a clockwise direction to trace a circle shape. Try to make an even circle.
Note: if you want to turn the video looper on or off, click the button in the lower left corner. Also, you can adjust the speed of the video by clicking the gear icon ⚙
Figure 8 bowing on D0-A0 with Slur 2
This creates a figure 8 (or infinity) shape. Pause and practice this for a bit.
See if you can smooth out the “loop ends” of the 8 shape. Lift your hand slightly to get a nice loop shape.
Now we’ll do a series of progressive exercises. In addition to these video loops, there are play along tracks for these and other exercises below.
Figure 8 bowing on D0-A0-D0, Triplets, Slur 3
Figure 8 bowing on D0-A0-D0, Hoedown, Slur 3
Figure 8 bowing on D0-D0A0-D0, Hoedown, Slur 3, with double stops
Now we’ll play a double stop (D0A0) instead of just a single note (A0). When you go to the A string, tilt the bow less so that you play both strings. Master this basic exercise.
Use he play along tracks below to learn and practice each step. If you master it on these exercises, then you’re ready to add it to tunes.
I’ve made some “Learning Chunks” to help you learn more easily. These focused exercises contain sheet music, tabs and mp3 snippets to guide you on your fiddle journey.
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This and the remaining tab, sheet music and mp3 snippets are available to All-access users. Subscribe here. And thanks for your support. 🙏
Note: “Learning chunks” for exercises 12-23 can be found here: Figure 8 – Advanced Exercises
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