Swallowtail Jig Practice

[Jim Guinn]

Jason, or anyone else, I have been “playing” for 8 months, now. Other than the nursery rhyme tunes that everyone learns in the beginning, I only have about 4 tunes I can play all the way through without a lot of mistakes, and none of them are up to tempo. I realize part of the problem is because I jump around to much…i.e. I hear a tune I like, start to learn it, and before I can really play it, I hear another tune I like and jump to that…never really learning the previous tune all the way through!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I decided I was going to take Swallowtail Jig, learn it and play it up to a “reasonable” tempo BEFORE I move to anything else. So, other than doing scales and playing my very short repertoire once a day so I don’t forget these few tunes, I have been spending all of my time on Swallowtail Jig. I still make mistakes, not so much when I play it slowly, but only when I begin to get the tempo to a certain point, but my tempo is improving! It is a real chore, but all in all, I am pleased with my progress…and that feels good!

My question is…is it common to have to practice a tune for so long to learn it and get it up to tempo so it sounds good? Or, is this because it is the first time I am really sticking through this process? I imagine as time goes on, it will not take as long on future tunes…as my ability, especially bow movement and fingering improve…especially my ability to move my fingers faster and with a softer touch.

[kaceysmith2]

My personal experience with this tune (I tried it early on) is that it is difficult to make it sound like Jason can even after a lot of practice for a beginner. I feel like it’s just not the kind of tune that sounds good played slowly and that as I sympathize with the jumping around tendency from my own experience (I switch around a lot between modules 1 and 2), I’d say, pick a different tune to “perfect.” Don’t give up!! Kay

[jason kleinberg]

Personally, I recommend not pushing the tempo too much at this point. Find a comfortable speed and loop it for WAY LONGER than you think. If you do that, something magical happens. Your body and mind relax.

If you do want to push the tempo, do it incrementally using a metronome, keeping track of your fastest tempo.

Also, enjoy the sound of all tunes at slower tempos. It’s different but beautiful in its own right.

If you practice steadily at medium tempos now, you’ll be better postioned to play faster later.

[Jim Guinn]

kaceysmith2… I won’t sound like Jason for a long while, but I want to stick with this tune for now. It has become a “project” for me.

Thanks, Jason. Today, I kept trying to push the tempo, and kept making mistakes…like my fingers kept forgetting where to go. I slowed down again, and played it great…just looping over and over and over again. It does sound beautiful played below tempo. I am not a fan of fast tempo…just feeling like I should be playing it faster, but perhaps not at this point. Thanks for the insight.

[kaceysmith2]

Nice. The two week challenge thus will be a great boost for all of us. A fiddle friend helped me yesterday to connect the music notes to the tab better for The Butterfly, which is one I am working on both slowly and up to tempo. Yes, so many beautiful melodies played at any speed. I discovered that my practice suffered from staring/practicing the individual quarters and then not making sure to connect them with proper timing.
Jason – am I wrong or does The Butterfly not have a full play along track on the site? No matter though I just re-wind your intro.
~Kay

[Jim Guinn]

https://storage.googleapis.com/fiddlehed-wordpress-uploads/2017/03/butterfly-full.mp3?_=31

[Jim Guinn]

Sorry for just that audio link…still having problems posting here. The page that contains the full Butterfly play along track is /level2/fourth-finger/the-butterfly/

You can download the play along track and use a program like Audacity (it’s free) to slow down/speed up the track as you need.

[kaceysmith2]

thanks! don’t know why I didn’t see it before. Soon as I figure out how to link I will post my audio progress on the song.

[Jim Guinn]

You are so right, Jason! Today, I didn’t even try to play it at a faster tempo. I simply played it slowly over and over again. I discovered three things: 1. It sounded better the more I played it; 2. I was able to begin to “forget” about the hand movements and they just began happening; 3. I was able to play longer than I think I have ever done (probably because I became more relaxed and didn’t have to stop to relax my hands and arms.) I can “see” how this “way longer” looping will eventually result in “naturally” increasing the tempo when I am ready for it! Geez…you were right! You should be a fiddle teacher! LOL 🙂

[Ginny]

Moonshadows, thank you for posting your question, I had been wondering about that exact thing. I will try the looping WAY LONGER advice from Jason.

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