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Hi, Sal. I just sent you an email, but hadn’t seen this post yet. I’ll pass along your request to Kevin for the next time he is in studio. Thanks!

Thanks! Those were interesting to watch. I’ll give it a try!

Hi Dana. I would say that at some point, it does make sense to teach this song, despite my aversion to it…

I have several partner teacher recording sessions lined out in 2016, but I’ll add this song to my list as something to record in the future.

In the mean time, have you looked at the basic and advanced hokum bowing exercises?? I cover…[Read more]

I guess you are right about the “doctoring” of Mairead’s sound 🙂

I have seen Danish folk music fiddlers hold the bow the same way and in the same place as Mairead does, but I am sure that there is not ONE corrects way of bowing; you just have to find one (or more?) that work for you and your instrument and the type of music that you are…[Read more]

Great! That’s a really groovy tune! Keep up the great work, Dana.

Awesome! Thanks for the suggestion!!

Thanks, Ulla. It was very pleasant to listen to this video, and I know what you mean about Mairead’s bow hold. Very “fiddlerish” here: but, I’ll bet she didn’t do that in her graduate and postgraduate classical violin exams!

In such a performance the sound is so “doctored” by the mixer who had loaded this sound with “suitable reverb” and used…[Read more]

You bet. Working on it now. Not super happy with the visual, but I’ll tweak it and figure out how to remove the search box from mobile display…almost there!

Yes, if you are using WP as a backend, there are a lot of good search widgets out there that allow you to leave directories and files out of the search.

Thank you!

Hi there, Dana. I’ve had this same thought recently, what with over 70 full lessons now available on this site (not counting the technique videos). We’ve tried to make the navigation intuitive for subscribers, but we’re getting to the point where it is a little cumbersome, just given the sheer number of videos up on the site.

I’ve researched…[Read more]

You shouldn’t feel guilty about it 🙂 There are great fiddlers who don’t seem to use their pinky very much; check out Celtic fiddler Mairead Nesbitt’s bow hold in this video:

Just saw your email and figured I’d reply here, Dana…

I think that sounds like a great approach. I bet you can likely pull the bowing from the instructional video. Just remember that I may play it a couple of different ways…pick one that works for you and practice, practice, practice!!!

Ah, I emailed Casey just this morning on this topic! I wasn’t sure where to put slurs in part B of Swallow Tail.

This kind of “figuring it out” varies a bit from the lessons I get from my in-person teacher. With her I’m learning the classical style, all from books, which show ornamentation gradually as we go.

I’ll watch, listen, and play…[Read more]

Hi, Bondi, Blossom and Casey, its nice to see this discussion thread because all of us that play folk music strive to include the accents of a particular style without it sounding like its been rehearsed a million times…. Right?…. I would resonate Casey’s remarks that as your accomplishments on your instrument grow so do your choices on how to…[Read more]