Activity

Also Mist Covered Mountains of Home, or by its Scottish name ‘Chi Mi Na Morbheanna’. Johnny Cunningham does an ethereal version from the Celtic Fiddle Festival. Would love Hanneke to teach us this one too.

I recently saw Patti Kuskurok do her version of La Belle Catherine on YouTube . I love that tune!! I know it is French, but can Hanneke teach it to us? Or Patti too. Would love to see it on the site.

Susan, lone fiddler from the Bahamas (I think I’m the only one!)

I agree with Roland and Casey. I generally warm up with scales, arpegios in the key of the tune that I am working on. Generally do about 15 minutes of this. I will work on my bowing at this time, and rythum of the tune I am working on. I will then start slowly if i am not familiar with the tune and gradually build up speed. This does not take…[Read more]

Hello Casey,

Well, first one to post…not a surprise : when i saw your topic, i jumped on it !! 😉

I have so many things to ask to Hanneke :

– First, i’ll request a technique tutorial about CHOP : i talked about that before, i’d like to learn how to do this and have exercices. May i also suggest to Hanneke to feel free to “chop” in her…[Read more]

My favorite fiddle player is Casey Willis, of course! His playing is fantastic, but I especially love that he has made this wonderful website we can all learn from and enjoy. I also love Luke Price, Alex Hargreaves, and Daniel Carwile; I have taken a few lessons from each of them and they have been so nice and inspiring to learn from. I am also…[Read more]

Hi everybody! I’m from Corvallis, Oregon, but am going to school in Arizona. There aren’t any other materials engineering students I’ve met who love Texas and bluegrass fiddle, so I’m happy to find this online community of likeminded individuals.

Could Naill (or anybody) make a fiddlevideo.com tutorial for Minor Swing??? I found Naill playing this song on YouTube and was transfixed! It is so fun to listen to and looks like a blast to play.

I’d settle for any swing tune like this 🙂

Great thread. I feel like I need a “like” button…

Zale – would agree with your approach above.

Oliver – if I was starting out, I think I would approach as you describe…getting basic melodies under your fingers and then moving on to new tunes….

So my 2c is:
If you’re a beginner player, focus on getting to a point where you can play the m…[Read more]

Nice to hear all these great comments on focused practice techniques. Thanks all for sharing in a nice convo thread and I’m sure other FV members will benefit as well.

As for my two cents when it comes to practice is to do 3 things per practice under the format:
1. Warm ups, Bow, Fingers and Ears.
2. Specific Technique or New Tune Practice.
3.…[Read more]

Good to hear other folks methods regarding learning tunes. I tend to bounce around a bit much going from one tune to another. One thing I have done that seems to work when it come to polishing a tune is to put it on the shelf, so to speak, for a while and when I come back to it, the tune seems to flow easier.
Thanks Zale, Oliver, and…[Read more]

Hi Zale,

Thanks, it seems to work for me. I don’t have much to compare it to but I’m happy with how it’s going anyway.

I really look forward to the point where I can start to focus more on the expressive details of a tune like you say. For the moment if I try to include double stops in a tune I usually get all sorts of whistles happening from…[Read more]

Hi Oliver:

Sounds to me like you have a great system figured out. I don’t practice for that long each day anymore. But I always try to have a new technique I’m working on, plus a review of the tunes I know. I always try to play a bit each day.

One of my main efforts these days is to learn to improvise licks while other play and sing, so I try…[Read more]

Hi Uncleted,

I did reply, but for some reason it’s not showing up on the forum, so I will try and repost it below here…

Hi Uncleted,
I Was thinking about asking a similar question. I was curious how other people go about it too. I’ve only been playing for just under 4 months so still very early days. Because of this, my finger speed and…[Read more]

I’m envious of you folks in Qualicum! Enjoy your workshop. It’s a bit too far to travel down from Smithers, or I’d be there. I love learning the notes for new tunes but I have to really push myself to work on the advanced lessons. So I tend to move on a new tune before I’ve really got a handle on the first. Not ideal, but my goal is to keep…[Read more]

I work up one tune at a time. Generally it is easy for me to learn the notes, but it takes lots of practice to get up to speed. This means I usually go over one phrase at a time and work through the piece.

By that point I don’t need further instruction and I tend to overwork my bow hand to the point of causing repetitive strain injury, so I…[Read more]

Hi FR, You bet, keep your eye on Bend there are a couple of music festivals over the early summer. Cheers, Roland