Hobart’s Transformation
This a great tune for learning fourth finger (pinky). I usually teach this first once a student gets stronger with fourth finger.
Learning Chunks
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. The idea is to start with small musical bits, get good at those, and then put them together into bigger pieces until you have the whole tune. I call it Micro-practice.
For those of you who read (or want to read), all snippets use this key and time signature:
Preparation
Warm up with A major scale using A drone.
A part, first quarter
Warm up:
E0-3
E3-4
↓
E3-4-3-L2
Practice this with the A drone:
↓
First quarter: E0-3-3-4-3-L2-E0-3-3-4-3-L2
A part, second quarter
Warm up:
E0-A3
↓
Second quarter: E0-A3-E0-1-L2-1-L2-1-E0-A3-E0-1-L2-1-L2-1
A part, third quarter
Third quarter: E0-3-3-4-3-L2-E0-3-3-4-3-L2
A part, fourth quarter
Fourth quarter: E0-A3-E0-1-L2-1-L2-1-E0-A3-L2-0
Interlude
Centering on sound
Let’s pause for a moment and pay attention to how we practice.
- Just hold the fiddle in a relaxed manner and breathe evenly.
- Just play an open D string.
- Put your full intention into relaxing your body, breath, and mind.
- Simply enjoy the sound.
- Next, return to the D major scale, keeping that same good sound and relaxed feel you had on the open D until the scale sounds just as good.
- Review the A part, keeping that same good sound and relaxed feel you had on D major scale until the tune sounds just as good.
- Cool, now that you’ve centered yourself, let’s continue to learn this awesome tune. ? ?
B part, first quarter
First quarter: A0-0-L2-1-0-D3-A1-0-1-0-D3-1-1-3
B part, second quarter
B part, third quarter
Third quarter: A0-0-L2-1-0-D3-A1-0-1-0-D3-1
B part, fourth quarter
Fourth quarter: (A0-1)-L2-1-0-L2-1-0-D3-A0-1-0-0
Practice idea:
Practice the first quarter of the A part in a lower octave: D1-A0-0-1-0-D3
Then alternate between the two octaves: D1-A0-0-1-0-D3 | E0-3-3-4-3-L2
Play Along Track – Full Tune – 55 bpm
Play Along Track – Full Tune – 65 bpm
Play Along Track – Full Tune – 75 bpm
Play Along Track – Full Tune – 85 bpm
Play Along Track – Full Tune – 95 bpm
Drone in A – No Beat
Use this to practice the whole tune.
Hobart’s Transformation – Full Tabs & Sheet Music
A part
First quarter: E0-3-3-4-3-L2-E0-3-3-4-3-L2
Second quarter: E0-A3-E0-1-L2-1-L2-1-E0-A3-E0-1-L2-1-L2-1
Third quarter: E0-3-3-4-3-L2-E0-3-3-4-3-L2
Fourth quarter: E0-A3-E0-1-L2-1-L2-1-E0-A3-L2-0
B part
First quarter: A0-0-L2-1-0-D3-A1-0-1-0-D3-1
Second quarter: (D1-3)-A0-D3-A0-1-L2-3-E0-1-0-0*
*The recording has just a long E0 (half note) at the end of this phrase.
Third quarter: A0-0-L2-1-0-D3-A1-0-1-0-D3-1
Fourth quarter: (A0-1)-L2-1-0-L2-1-0-D3-A0-1-0-0
Sheet music
Sheet music video
Learn to intuitively read sheet music with this animated video. If you’re an absolute beginner, then I suggest you don’t worry about fo it for the moment.
This is here for continuing students who want to learn about sheet music. It’s part of the Note-Reading For Fiddlers course.
Continue on to Mix Up Your Music Practice With Interleaving >>
Return to top of Module 2.1 >>
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I had never heard this song before, but I love it! Fourth finger has always been a challenge for me because I am double jointed, but I am determined to master it!
I agree, Brooke, I love learning this song through Fiddlehed too! So great your motivated through this lesson with 4th finger mastering 🙂
No matter what speed you play this in it still sounds beautiful!
I love this too.😊
I love this piece; also love how there are three speed available to practice the entire piece. Never heard this one before, but I like the wide variety of tunes Jason teaches.