Fiddlosophy

A blog about music, practice and life with the occasional dad joke thrown in…

 

 

Danny Boy / Kesh Jig – Electric Fiddle Solo – liner notes

A fiddlehed named Suzanne attended a Diego’s Umbrella show in Fairfax, Ca. and took video of my “solo solo”. This is the part of the show where I create a live looping drone and then play melodies over that. For this version of the solo solo, I start with a G drone. I create this on … Continued

New Lesson post: Blackest Crow – variation

Here is a lesson on how to add variation to an old-time tune called Blackest Crow – variation.   Click here to go the lesson page for Blackest Crow – variation.

New lesson post: Cantina Band Theme!

Here is a lesson on how to play the Cantina Band Theme from Star Wars on violin and fiddle. This is one of my favorite melodies! I’ve done it with a few different bands and it never gets old. It’s more challenging, using notes from the chromatic scale.   Click here to go to the … Continued

Redemption Song – Fiddle Version

Hey folks, Here’s a fiddle version of Redemption Song by Bob Marley. I recently heard a version of the tune by Macy Gray which planted the seed for doing a fiddle version. I was surprised how easily it translated to a solo fiddle format. It’s rare that a song is so sad and at the … Continued

Tam Lin – Basic and Variation – Performance

Hey folks, Here’s a short performance of an Irish tune called Tam Lin. I play a very simple version and then play a version with some variation added. In this version, I added: In the A part I’m mainly adding double stops. A simple way to practice the bowing for this is to play G0-{G0D0} … Continued

Banshee – Basic And Variation – Performance

Hey folks, Here’s a short performance of an Irish tune called the Banshee. I play a very simple version and then play a version with some variation added. In this version, I added: A part, bar 1: Roll added to D3 (G) in bar 1 of the A part A part, bar 4:  D3 (G) … Continued

The Power Of Adding Variation

So you’ve learned the fiddle and can now play a bunch of tunes. Do you feel like you’ve reached a plateau with your playing? Does it seem like you’re just going through the motions on a tune and it’s not sounding any better? Adding variations to scales and tunes is a magic key to improving … Continued

Practice Just To Practice

Why do you practice the fiddle? What do you hope to achieve? Do you want to be able to play a certain tune? Or do you want to be able to play with people? Do you see a vision of yourself doing something with music in the future? Before reading further, take a moment to … Continued