Jim Taylor

One thing I forgot to mention was that you could probably use a mute if you are going to take your instrument on “vacation” with you. It will significantly reduce the volume.

I’m seriously considering taking up my fiddle journey that I abandoned 2 years ago. I totally get the practice method you laid out. My question is how does everyone deal with your practice when you go on vacation? I’ve tried takin my instrument(s) with me but find it hard to make the wanted/needed practice time away from home. Any thoughts?

Absolutely stellar advice for learning songs/tunes, especially for those that the fiddle may be their first foray into music/a musical instrument. Also a great reminder to all of us old timers who tend to forget this when learning a tune. Rome was NOT built in a day, folks!

I think optimism is somewhat of an inborn trait. Can it be learned? Perhaps. To me there are 2 kinds of optimism – 1. Always having a viewpoint that everything will turn out to the positive before even beginning something, and 2. Optimism created by seeing progress in something you are doing that, although you may have doubted what you could…[Read more]