The Fiddle Lessons Blog

One of the questions you want to ask a teacher before you commit to regular lessons is this one: Do you use tunes to teach violin basics, or do you use exercises? I think using tunes whenever possible is the right answer.

The thing with exercises is that they can be designed to repeat a specific movement over and over without playing anything else. This is good if you are trying to attack a specific bowing or fingering problem. But, they can be incredibly boring! This is bad, no matter what you are trying to accomplish.

So, if your teacher has the ability to arrange a tune to focus on a fingering or bowing issue that is challenging you, this is terrific. This teacher is a rare find. This is an ability that separates a good teacher from a great teacher.

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t always possible. Even at fiddlehub.com, where I have tried to keep things as tune-oriented as possibe, I still have several finger exercises that are just that–exercises. Boring maybe, but sometimes unavoidable.

Technorati Tags: fiddle, Fiddle Lessons, violin, Violin Lessons

Tags: fiddle, Fiddle Lessons, violin, Violin Lessons

Were you inspired to learn violin because you heard a fiddler play a really exciting version of Cripple Creek (or some other popular tune)? If you were, you’re not alone; and when you get to your first lesson, you’re probably going to say “I want my first tune to be Cripple Creek.” If your teacher responds with something like “We can get to that in about 6 months,” you’re going to be seriously disappointed.

If this happens to you, it will be because your teacher just uses the versions of tunes that are generally available in sheet music form. That’s not so good if you’re a beginner. The versions of these popular tunes that are found in most books are more complicated than is suitable for someone just starting out. They’re just too hard to play if you’re still struggling with the basics.

So what is the cure for this problem? Your teacher needs to be willing and able to rearrange the tune–to simplify it so that you can play it. This isn’t necessarily easy. It takes some talent and experience to take notes out of a standard arrangement, make is simple enough for a beginner to play it, and still leave the basic character of the tune intact.

It’s even more difficult to rearrange the tune time and again, to keep it at the right level to challenge you as you improve. If you are lucky enough to find a teacher who can do this, and is willing to do it, you’ve found a gem. Stick with ‘em.

Technorati Tags: fiddle, Fiddle Lessons, Fiddle Tunes, violin, Violin Lessons

Tags: fiddle, Fiddle Lessons, Fiddle Tunes, violin, Violin Lessons

It might seem downright weird in this technical age, but some violin/fiddle teachers don’t want their students to record their lessons. As I understand their reasoning, these teachers want the students to get all their information from the written music. They want the information coming in through the eyes, not the ears. I don’t know whether this attitude is useful for teaching classical students–maybe it is; but I can tell you that these teachers don’t know much about fiddling.

If you’re taking up the violin in hopes of playing fiddle tunes instead of classical pieces, make sure your teacher allows you to record the lessons before you sign on. You’ll get a lot more for your money. When your teacher plays a tune for you to demonstrate how it goes, you ‘ll leave the lesson with more than just a memory of how the tune goes. You’ll have the actual recording to play over and over until the next lesson.

If you have the recording in digital format, you’ll be able to download it to your computer. Then you can set the player to repeat the tune endlessly while you practice along.

This is really crucial to learning to fiddle. Trying to play along with your teacher is the time honored and most effective way to learn. If your teacher won’t allow you to record your lessons, get someone else.

Technorati Tags: fiddle, Fiddle Lessons, violin, Violin Lessons

Tags: fiddle, Fiddle Lessons, violin, Violin Lessons

One of the things you should ask your violin/fiddle instructor at the outset is whether he or she uses fiddle tablature to teach. If your instructor is strictly a violinist (classically trained), the answer is almost certainly going to be NO! If you don’t read music and you want to learn to fiddle, this can be a real problem.

Standard (classical) notation is fine if you already know how to read it and apply it to the violin; but if you don’t, what do you do? It can take weeks, or even months, to get good at reading standard notation, and in the meantime, you won’t be learning much fiddle.

For many beginning fiddlers, fiddle tablature is a better option. Why? Because it’s simple. Standard notation is designed to be read by any instrument, so it is quite complex and it conveys a ton of information that you don’t really need to just play a tune on your violin. Fiddle tablature, on the other hand, conveys only what you need to know, namely which string to bow, which left hand finger to use, and how long to play the note. Some tablature systems (like the one I use at fiddlehub.com) also tell you which direction to bow the string and how long to bow.

If you’re not real handy at standard notation and you want to learn to play fiddle tunes as opposed to classical violin pieces, I think you’ll be better off with a teacher who uses tablature to teach the tunes.

Technorati Tags: fiddle, Fiddle Lessons, fiddle tab, fiddle tablature, violin, Violin Lessons

Tags: fiddle, Fiddle Lessons, fiddle tab, fiddle tablature, violin, Violin Lessons

What should be you looking for in a fiddle teacher? What traits should this person have? A good fiddle teacher needs to have many qualities, and I’ll be discussing several of them in future posts. Today, though, I want to talk about a skill that is crucial: Your teacher needs to be able to play by ear.

What does “play by ear” mean? To me it means the ability to listen to a tune a few times, keep the melody in mind for later, and later play the tune without looking at music.

Why is this important? Because fiddle music is an aural tradition. It has passed from generation to generation by ear, and for the most part the essence of good fiddling can’t be written down. It can’t be captured on a page. Fiddlers don’t perform fiddle tunes by sight reading them off a piece of sheet music the way a violinist does. For fiddlers, sheet music is just a means of learning a tune (if they don’t have a recording to learn it from), or keeping it in mind for later. The essence of good fiddling is in the liberties taken with the written tune. That’s a big part of what makes it fun.

Playing by ear is also important because fiddling is largely a social interaction. Much of the fun is playing with other fiddlers, guitar players, banjo players, bass players etc. You won’t get very far in a jam session if you’re tied to a page of music. You need to be listening to those around you, and interacting musically with them. It’s a very loose, dynamic process, and written music gets in the way.

So, if you ask your fiddle teacher to play “Cripple Creek” and he or she gets out a tune book and starts reading the tune off the page, your teacher is probably not a fiddler. A good violinist maybe, but not a fiddler. If your teacher can’t play by ear, chances are pretty slim that he or she will be able to help you learn to do it. My recommendation: Find another teacher.

Now, none of this means you shouldn’t have several tune books. They’re great for learning the basic melody of a tune if you don’t have a recording, and they are a huge help in answering the perennial question? “How does that tune go, anyway?” If you don’t have any fiddle tune books, then start with The Fiddler’s Fakebook. If you’re between teachers, there are free lessons at my website, fiddlehub.com.

Technorati Tags: fiddle, Fiddle Lessons, Fiddle Music, fiddle teacher, violin

Tags: fiddle, Fiddle Lessons, Fiddle Music, fiddle teacher, violin

Sooner or later, your fiddle strings are going to wear out. Sorry. No way around it (except to stop playing–bad idea). They fray or unravel, and old strings can sound really awful. Sometimes beginners mistakenly blame their bad tone on their “beginnerness,” when the real culprit is worn out strings. If you’ve reached the point where you can’t avoid changing strings any longer, here’s how to go about it:

Open the packet and make sure all four strings are there and that they are called G, D, A and E, bottom to top. Don’t get them mixed up (the D and A can look a lot alike; but they’re not). Now take a good look at the peg box on your fiddle. You want to make sure you have a good mental image of which string connects to which peg. Here is what you should see. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Peg_in_box.jpg I recently found this image on a forum at fiddlehangout.com (which is a website that should be on the favorites list of any aspiring fiddler, BTW). This picture does a great job of illustrating just what is going on in the peg box. Notice that each string is wound over the top of its peg, and that the A string passes over the top of the D string peg-not under it.

Now, you should change only one string at a time. DO NOT take off all the old strings before you put any new ones on. Why? Because you want to keep as much pressure on your top as you can while you are changing the strings. This is important because it is the downward pressure created by all four of your strings that keeps your soundpost in place (It’s the little stick that you can see inside your fiddle if you look through the right f-hole). If the soundpost falls down and starts rattling around inside your instrument, you have a problem that will require professional assistance. Even if it moves only a little, that’s not good; so just make sure you change only one string at a time.

After you change the first string, tune it up to pitch as close as you can before you release the tension on the next one. Use your pitch pipe or electronic tuner if you have one, or click here to get the tones you need.

Once you get all the new strings on, you’ll notice that your fiddle won’t stay in tune very well. It’ll take a couple of days before your instrument gets used to its new strings. After that, you should be back to fiddling, and with the new strings you’ll be thinking: “Wow! I sound fantastic!”

Technorati Tags: Fiddle Lessons, Fiddle Strings, violin

Tags: Fiddle Lessons, Fiddle Strings, violin

So you’ve decided to take fiddle lessons. Congratulations! What’s next? You need to find a teacher. It’s a good idea to take private lessons, even if you have tried fiddlehub.com and it’s working for you. If you don’t know any fiddle teachers personally, and don’t have anyone in mind to ask for help, here are some things to try:

First, most communities have somebody who teaches fiddle (maybe several somebodies), and they might be listed in the “services for hire” section of the want ads in your local paper. If you don’t find anyone there, pay a visit to your local music store and ask if they provide fiddle lessons. Even if they don’t, they might have a bulletin board in the store where teachers can post their availability and contact information.

Still no luck? Contact your local chamber of commerce and find out how to get in touch with any folk music, country music, Irish music or Celtic music clubs in your area. The people who are active in these kinds of groups are the very folks who will know where the fiddle teachers are hiding out in your area.

Finally (or maybe you should start with this), fire up your computer and google “[your town's name here] fiddle teacher” or “[your town's name here] fiddle instruction.” That should turn up a few leads.

Once you have some names, there are several things you need to ask each teacher before you make a final decision. In later posts, I’ll get into exactly what questions to ask, and why.

Technorati Tags: Fiddle Lessons

Tags: Fiddle Lessons

I hear from many people who are keen to start taking fiddle lessons, but they have just one problem: They don’t have a fiddle. No fiddle? That’ll slow you down, but what to do? If you’re not lucky enough to find one in your grandmother’s attic, you might have to buy one. I know, say it ain’t so; but it happens.

I usually tell people they should go to a violin shop. Not a music store–a violin shop. How do you know one from the other? First, a music store might have 3 or 4 instruments to choose from. A good violin shop is going to have dozens, maybe hundreds. Second, a violin shop will have someone who works there who can at least do minor repairs and who has the skills and experience needed to set your instrument up properly. A music store won’t have anybody who answers this description. Third, a violin shop will probably have someone immediately available who can play one or two instruments in your price range for you so you can hear how they’ll sound once you learn to play. If you are a newbie, and can’t play the thing yourself, this is a huge plus.

By now, you’re getting the idea. If you’re new to fiddles and you need to acquire one, you want to go someplace that has both wide selection and expertise on site. There is a lot to this, so I’ll talk more about buying your first instrument in later posts.

If you already have a fiddle and are ready to get into fiddle lessons and fiddle tunes, there’s more coming on those topics too.

Technorati Tags: fiddle, Fiddle Lessons, violin

Tags: fiddle, Fiddle Lessons, violin

Maybe today is your first fiddle lesson; maybe you’ve had several lessons. No matter. Here’s one thing you always need to do before you get to your lesson–you need to tune your fiddle. You don’t want to be using up valuable lesson time (time that you are paying for), trying to get your instrument into good tune.

Even if you don’t know much about the fiddle yet, don’t despair. If you have a pitch pipe made for the violin (more on this accessory and lots of others in later posts), then the four reeds should be marked E, A, D and G. These are your open fiddle strings from high to low.

Just blow on the reed marked E and pluck your high E string. If the string sound is neither higher nor lower than the sound the pitch pipe makes, then great. Leave it there. If the string sound is not the same as the pitch pipe, then use your tuning peg or the fine tuner to change the pitch up or down until the pipe and the string sound the same. Repeat for the other strings. You want to do this on the same day as your lesson, so the strings don’t have a chance to change too much before you get there. Your fiddle teacher will thank you for the effort, and you’ll be more confident.

If you don’t have a pitch pipe (or a tuning fork, electronic tuner, etc.) just go to fiddlehub.com and use the tuning guide I make available there. The recorded notes (tones) for each open string are here: http://fiddlehub.com/Public/Lessons/Fingering/Fingering_Tuning.html

Even if you’ve already started lessons or are working your way through some fiddle tunes, it’s a good idea to make sure you know how to tune and to at least check the tuning every time you play.

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Tags: Tuning Fiddle, Tuning Violin