Katrina from Australia shares her story…
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This was taken while my husband and I were traveling and camping around New Zealand in February. I take my fiddle everywhere because I want to play every day. As Fiddlehed is online, it doesn’t matter where I am, I have access to the music lessons.
Your fiddlosophy has been an inspiration, Jason – it got me through the excruciating beginner sound, frustrations and learning ups and downs. I only started playing fiddle last year. Your method of teaching and online resources have helped me develop my ear and attitude to learning.
I’m able to play all the songs from memory, which is so much better than relying on sheet music. I truly didn’t realize that this was possible. I still have a long way to go, but you make that journey fun, and attainable. I couldn’t believe it the other day when I was playing the G scale along to the G drone, then suddenly found myself transposing songs from other keys into G. I’m really looking forward to your improvisation lessons!
I’m a primary school teacher but took six months off to go traveling with my husband. We made it to New Zealand, but never got to Europe because of COVID-19, and had to go into lockdown at home as the rest of Australia did. We were recently allowed to travel within our state and so drove 2000km west of Queensland to visit friends on an ex-cattle property, now a nature reserve, on the Northern Territory border.
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I took my fiddle (as always) and played as we camped next to billabongs and on red sand dunes. No one to hear me stuff up out there! I’m just getting confident enough to play with others and am thinking of joining the local ukulele club, who are happy to have fiddle accompaniment. If you have any lessons on that I would love to learn more about that – playing accompaniment to support the melody, or do nice little fills.
The way you teach just makes so much sense.
Thanks guys! I’ve now started playing with the local ukulele club, trying to do some little fills and chord/bass back up. Really challenging because I have to work out what key it’s in by looking at the chords they are playing. So I’ve been learning the circle of 5ths, scales and the make up of chords. Even though I’ve played other instruments (not very well) this is the first time I’ve actually understood and seen a reason to learn. Nothing better than someone saying ‘that sounded good’!
Well said, Katrina!! Sounds great to be traveling (with a fiddle); way to “walk the walk., “fiddle goes where you go. i am the same way. Forward!
Owen O.
A nice story Katrina. Congrats on your success. I have only been at it for about 5 weeks so the “excruciating beginner sound” is still a factor..lol. But from my banjo and mandolin experience I know that it is a slow and gradual process and I have plenty of time to pursue. Jason’s lessons are the only practical way to progress without an in-person teacher in my opinion. One difference in my learning is that I am taking the time to learn to read standard notation something I never needed to do on the banjo (impractical even if I had wanted to, and never bothered with it on the mandolin.) But there is so much standard notation available for the fiddle that it ‘opens doors’ for learning. But memorization will still be the way I will play. It works fine on the banjo and mandolin and obviously on the fiddle also.
jas
Thanks, jas, I’d love to learn banjo and mandolin! But violin is going to keep me busy for a long time. Good luck with the reading of notation. I still need to improve reading music!