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yay! when do you think you’ll publish them? 🙂

This all sounds very exciting! I am really looking forward to these lessons.

No, playing out of tune or even doubting one’s tuning in a session really is no fun.

It’s a matter I wish more people took seriously. And I’ve noticed that, rightly or wrongly, many people assume that fiddle players should be deferred to in matters of tuning, especially if they seem like violinists fiddlers.

Thistle, I am glad the tuning for…[Read more]

Looking forward to the lessons!

Thanks Casey – hope you have as much fun as I did!

Thistle – Wasn’t tired til I got home! Was so out of my comfort zone, I had to try and keep up (was just playing alternate notes in the beginning) but kind of started speeding up after a couple of hours as there is no time to think or second guess yourself – There were 2 other classical ladies in…[Read more]

Sounds SO fun, Aysha!! A bit exhausting, too? …:-)

Yea that video was so valuable to me and made me feel like I had a place to start. Thank you to Megan!

Awesome, Aysha. Sounds like you found your people!! I’m heading out myself for a week-long bluegrass jamming festival this coming weekend. There are great times to be had there! Good job jumping into some jams.

Thx for posting that video, Thistle. Megan just recorded an updated version of the same lesson to be published on this site shortly.

C

Should have watched this before I went to camp – Great vid….went to camp – had a blast – got shuffled up to the advanced class, I think was based on reading music (felt way out of my league!) Totally awesome people, they packed 6 hours of lessons into each day, 6 teachers rotating every 45 minutes with new tunes, tons of funny old fiddle…[Read more]

Great! It’s no fun playing on an out of tune fiddle. 😀
Cheers!

Update: All the tips helped! What works for me now:

I bring my tuning fork to my chair with me. During some of the pauses between songs, I’ll tap it on my knee and vibrate it on my violin. Its high soft A is actually easy to hear above the chitchat, plucking, etc.

Once I get the A in my head, I can do a quick tune.
Works great, and is a…[Read more]

Hi, Sunbreaker. Niall generally plays an AES violin. He plays one London 5 and one Dahlia 5. Strings are D’ Addario Helicore, and shoulder rest is Mach One. Tuner is also a D’ Addario Micro Violin Tuner. Cheers!

I have a question. How do you memorize a tune. I can read music, but the music that I play doesn’t stick in my head. I will play the tune onto a recorder and then learn it note to note to get it in my head. But the best contest fiddlers have so many tunes memorized, which first had to be technically worked out before getting memorized. I’m so…[Read more]

Dang, Mark. Glad to hear you’re in recovery mode, sir!

Megan will be in the Fiddlevideo studios July 27-August 1. She’s also scheduled to be back for a couple of days in late September. We’ll have guitar recording and other production work to do after she records, but you can expect her first batch of lessons to be published later this fall.…[Read more]

I’ll keep it in mind for a future instructor, Sunbreaker!

I hope Megan comes soon. I’m looking forward to her tunes. I have a couple of requests, Wyatt’s Waltz and Fifty Years Ago Waltz. And I’ve memorized Casey’s Beaumont Rag and working on Tugboat, then Cane Rag. I’m recovering from a broken neck and as I lose weight I can get my elbow under to reach the fourth finger drone on G-string for tunes in…[Read more]

Niall does Gypsy jazz?! It would be awesome to have a gypsy jazz teacher on the sight!