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You seem to already know the notes and intervals, so my suggestion is to listen to the different styles of playing for getting cadence and rhythm. Each trad musician has her/his own style and well and being immersed in a particular genre.

Even for non-trad music, like ska or reggae or rock or swing, still listen and note the rhythm and how it is…[Read more]

Very cool on both counts, Rob. I’ve never heard of a clog fiddle before, but there’s a ton I don’t know about the fiddling that goes on in that neck of the woods. Have you checked out the Vasen Nyckelharpa player? Awesome stuff.

Thank you for the encouragement, Rob!

On sheet music – I totally agree! I’ve got a book of fiddle tunes but they are never charming when just played straight from the page. When you hear them played, is when they really come alive.

On having fun – thanks, was excited to find this site! I live in a small town where the nearest Session is a long…[Read more]

Thanks Lisa! I’m going to check out the people you mentioned! 🙂

Yea, I know what you mean about how it’s easier to play folk on another instrument instead of the one you trained in…
Like, I can copy the phrase out of the video nicely when following along, but then two days later when I play the tune myself from memory, then it’s back to…[Read more]

Do you ever listen to Rachel Barton Pine? She seems to be amazingly versatile — even dipping into metallica, I think. Really great question and I’m also interested in hearing perspectives. I got interested in Mark O’Connor and learning about his teaching methods for this very reason. I wish there were courses offered online versus singleton…[Read more]

Martin Wynne (Kevin Burke video) – love it!

Casey, you will learn foot tapping and not regret. It was the very first thing I remember learning from Andre a couple years ago. I now find myself doing it without thinking when I play fiddle or listening to fiddle tunes, haha. And yeah I know what you mean about how many tunes there are 🙂

Very cool…so many tunes and so little time!!

I’m also considering trying out the foot tapping thing as well as working through Niall’s chopping series…those are two things I’ve never tried and think would be cool to add to my bag of tricks…

Thanks for the input, guys. I’ll do some research on Discord to see if I think that would be a good solution/enhancement…stay tuned. Feel free to chime in with other thoughts, folks…

Dipping my toe into Quebecois music for the first time! I’m starting with a somewhat familiar one (Valse du Chef du Gare, which I’d actually heard Andre play on a CD) and hoping to work my way up to Beaulieu Reel and La Gigue de Terre Bonne. I’m also going back through a lot of Hanneke’s stuff and practicing the ornamentation now I have the notes down. 😛

Le Jig à Ti-Toine (Hanneke Cassel)! Paired with Cypress Jig. I love them!

For whatever reason, David Benedict uses Discord to complement his Patreon site. I’m more familiar with Slack since a lot of tech companies use it. I’ve used free groups to facilitate communication in graduate classes that I teach.
Lisa

I’m currently learning Maid Behind the Bar, memorizing the notes. Can’t wait till I can slowly speed it up… 🙂 Also working on Beaulieu from Andre’s lessons. One of my favorites.

Discord is typically used for social gaming connection, but I can see discord possibly being used for this as well. I haven’t tried the other two.