Fiddlosophy

A Fiddlosopher’s Guide to New Years Resolutions

I set out to write a funny and helpful post on making New Year’s resolutions. It would insightfully connect the process of learning the fiddle to living a good life. But then I started to get lost in thinking about it all and blocked by anxieties about the new year. Similar to beginning music students, … Continued

Practice Notes – December 22, 2018

Here are some notes on my current fiddle practice as of December 22, 2018.  In general, I’m practicing the “sawmill tuning” which is AEAE. So the G string is tuned up to A, the D string tuned up to E, the A and E strings stay the same. This makes the fiddle resonate much … Continued

Practice is the goal

We don’t practice the fiddle to get better at the fiddle, we just practice to practice. In other words, when you just do what you’re doing to the best of your abilities then you’ve arrived at the goal, which is realizing there is no big goal to reach other than the present moment. In other … Continued

Rolling Waves – basic and variation performance

Hey folks, Here’s a short performance of an Irish tune called Rolling Waves. I play a very simple version and then play a version with some variation added. In this version, I added: Jig Swing Triplet variation Mordents Rolls If you’re interested in adding variation to tunes, start by adding variation to one little phrase. … Continued

Thanks for everything, no complaints whatsoever!

Are you grateful? How often do you feel gratitude? It’s ThanksGiveMeMoreToEat day! The first thing thing most people think about when they hear the word “Thanksgiving” is food. Then maybe they think about the logistics of travel and seeing everyone they want to see. On the day itself, people reflect on the year and find … Continued

Mary Had A Little Lamb – Fiddle Raga

Here’s a fiddle raga performance of Mary Had A Little Lamb. What the heck is a fiddle raga? The short answer: it’s an improvisation based around a fiddle melody accompanied by a drone. Here is a downloadable mp3 for your listening pleasure (so you can listen to this while walking the dog, doing laundry or … Continued

Mary Had A Little Lamb – Five Fiddle Variation Performance

Hey folks, Here’s a performance of Mary Had A Little Lamb in which I add five different types of fiddle variation on each pass of the tune: -Hoedown -Melodic variation -Triplets -Cuts -Rolls Here is a downloadable mp3 for your listening pleasure (without all my rambling and yammering): I also made step-by-step lessons on how … Continued

Kerry Polka – Basic And Variation Performance

Hey folks, Here’s a short performance of an Irish tune called Kerry Polka. I play a very simple version and then play a version with some variation added. In particular, I added mordents and triplets.  Here is a downloadable mp3 for your listening pleasure:  I also made step-by-step lessons on how to play each … Continued

Kerry Polka – Fiddle Raga

Here’s a fiddle raga performance of Kerry Polka. What the heck is a fiddle raga? It’s an improvisation based around a fiddle melody accompanied by a drone.  Here’s an mp3 for to listen to here or download to your device so you can listen while walking the dog, doing laundry or going to sleep … Continued

Hector The Hero – basic and variation performance

Hey folks, Here’s a short performance of a Scottish tune called Hector The Hero. I play a very simple version and then play a version with some variation added.  Here is an mp3 that you can stream or download for your listening pleasure:  Both versions are taught in step-by-step lessons in the Irish Fiddle Variation … Continued