Hobart’s Transformation

Old-time Reel in A Dorian / Intermediate

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

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. It’s a little easier to split up the long note

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

Table of Contents

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.