Amber Thompson
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 7 years, 3 months ago
Why do you practice the fiddle? What do you hope to achieve? Do you want to be able to play a certain tune? Or do you want to be able to play with people? Do you see a vision of yourself doing something with music […]
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 7 years, 6 months ago
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 […] -
jason kleinberg wrote a new post 7 years, 8 months ago
Lilting Banshee – basic and variation
Here’s a short performance of an Irish jig called Lilting Banshee. I play a very simple version and then play a version with some variation added.Β By listening to a […]
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This is so helpful and I love this tune! Thank you! I can feel my understanding expanding 😁
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Thanks for your feedback Kayli, great to hear how it’s going for you.
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Thanks!
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In practicing this repeatedly, a sixteenth note duplet just came out of me for the first measure a part, like you did for the first measure of the b part..I’m so happy that variations are coming more naturally to me with this course!
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Ah yes, progression towards natural familiarity to what we want more of is a great thing π
And always coming back to the simplest form is so helpful for making space for new experiences to arise.
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 7 years, 9 months ago
The FiddleHed lessons are taught in a style I call “Incremental Learning”. We learn small pieces of things and then put them together into bigger pieces. It’s like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. And as […]
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I’m barely one year in to fiddling and am thrilled at how this has reignited musical skills I learned nearly 50 years ago as a Music major, but never used in my career. (I’m recently retired.) So this lesson hits me deeply, and gives me yet another reason to be very thankful that I came across FiddleHed.
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I also did the 50 year hiatus thing! Played violin from age six to twelve, and then not again until age 62. Just a short break. LOL.
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 7 years, 10 months ago
Renew With Review
Think about the word “review”. It doesn’t sound as fun and exciting as the word “new”. It sounds like maintenance, which sounds like cleaning toilets. But review can be a lot […]
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 7 years, 11 months ago
What does it mean to have good sound? It seems clear when something sounds bad and when something sounds good. But exactly do we mean by “good sound?”Β What are the components? Knowing this, how can you improve […]
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years ago
Fiddling: The Magical Keystone
My quest as a music teacher is to understand help people practice better. Not only is this the key to becoming a successful musician, but it effects other behaviors and habits […] -
jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years, 2 months ago
Memorization is a dry-sounding word that conjures up memories of that seventh grade world history class that you always fell asleep in. I fell asleep in history classes until 11th grade when I had a teacher named […]
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I just did a 4 day music camp where it was expected to play by ear and the instructor was very reluctant to hand out the sheet music. I practically had to beg her for it before getting an ulcer. I am 60 years old and have never played by ear. I can do one quarter then get overwhelmed when we move on. If I get the next quarter, Iβve forgotten the first. I feel like itβs a lost cause ☹️ Should I continue to stress over it? Keep trying? Or just enjoy playing with my music?
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Hi Kathy, thanks for sharing this. Sounds like a great challenge you had at camp with learning by ear. It was nice they ended up supporting you with sheet music. Makes sense to keep trying to learn by ear, at your own pace, and respect that it’s good to try it (to any degree) in a higher pressure environment like you did, and that the pace was too quick for you to learn fully by ear at that time. Keep working on it though, as slow as the process may be, it’s so beneficial to develop that skill.
I have also relied on sheet music for alot of my playing years and find it quite difficult to go the route of learning by ear when I know I could learn it much faster by seeing the music. (Similar to going for the processed snack food that is already made when I could otherwise go into the garden or fridge and take some time to make something from scratch.) I continue to remind myself that the skill of learning by ear is what I need to develop and it is it’s own path, much different than the one I am more comfortable with/impulsively drawn to. π
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years, 2 months ago
You can learn an instrument (or anything) if you simply ask yourself, “What is the hardest part?” Once you identify that, practice it. Then once again ask, “What is the hardest part?” (of the hardest […]
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years, 3 months ago
I recently took a musical field trip to India to learn more about Hindustani classical music. I took lessons, learned informally by playing with people, went to a lot of concerts and even did a recording session […]
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years, 4 months ago
Think of learning a tune as a relationship. Like an old friend, the relationship will change over time, revealing new things about you, your playing and the tune. Tunes are not something to check off a list before […]
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years, 5 months ago
It’s no wonder I flunked out of that life coaching course π
There are lots of ways to think of goals. But ask yourself, what are they for? If you reach the goal you have some gratification. But that […]
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Good to hear this Liz. I’ve been threatening to do improv lessons for some time, but it’s happening this year!!
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Good lesson, but here’s a mundane question: How can I mark this lesson as Complete so the donut graphic for Mod 2.2 will show as 100%?
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This is awesome! Thank you for the motivation!!
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years, 6 months ago
Myth: I’m too old to learn how to play an instrument.
Maybe you don’t need to hear this, because you’ve already proved it wrong! But there might come a day when you feel discouraged. Then you will need to […]
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I always wanted to play the fiddle but with family and career always put it off. When I retired I picked up a fiddle and never looked back. Actually I surprise myself with my progress. I play everyday and love the way Jason teaches.
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years, 7 months ago
Learning how to practice is the heart of the FiddleHed method. There are two complementary ways of working on music: micro-practice and macro-practice.
Micro-practice is focusing, figuring things out and […]
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years, 7 months ago
If you want to get better at the fiddle, you need to carefully work at the edge of your abilities. Strike a balance between easy and hard.
Try to practice things that are in the “Goldlilocks zone” of […]
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years, 8 months ago
Can’t figure out how to play the B part of Bill Cheatham because the band is playing it so fast? You could have your teacher slowly teach you each part of the tune and then practice the parts on your […]
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years, 8 months ago
How To Improve Your Violin Playing Through Recording
You can accelerate your progress on the fiddle if you record yourself playing and then listen back to it. Do this on a daily basis. If you’re learning on your […]-
Hi Lisab~
Great question, maybe others will chime in on this.
I use voice memos quite a bit as well and ensure I title it ASAP if I’m keeping the recording so I can find what I’m looking for later.
Google Drive can be a good platform for storing/organizing recordings.
If you use your iphone to video record, I’d suggest right clicking on the video your going to keep and adding it to an album to access more easily later.
Calling Apple support can be a great help for getting this all familiar and easy to do π
Looking forward to hearing how you make out with this, a challenge we can all relate to in these times! -
I’ve recorded myself playing with the webcam on my photobooth thingy on my imac. It is helpful-the video showed I’m making huge movements with my left hand instead of keeping my fingers as close to the strings as possible. Part of why I do that is that I started out playing 12 string guitar and when I play from sheet music I’m looking at the notes instead of my fingering. Watching myself on video is quite instructive… my motto this week is : The best time to take up learning a musical instrument, like the best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago…the second best time is right now.
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Also, the trees I planted 10 years ago are doing pretty well, I’m more critical of my fiddle playing , since I look at video recordings of myself I find myself distracted by how grey my hair is getting, so I’m switching to audio recordings on my handheld sony digital recorder that I record lessons and tunes I want to learn on…eliminating the vanity distraction..
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years, 8 months ago
Music teachers are always trying to get students to slow down. Maybe they should tell them playing extremely slow is the Jedi-knight secret to playing fast.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but if you practice […]
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wow! That was beautiful! is this song in the library? I’m going to look π
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This is probably, for me, the best and hardest advice to follow. I am not a very patient person. I always want to move along and see what’s next, but, I am learning that playing slowly does have many benefits.
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Thank you for shedding new light on this, Bill. It’s amazing what can come from slowing our endeavours, and takes continuous gentle efforts to come back to this focus. 🙂
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years, 8 months ago
To be a musician you need to do two things:
Play every day.
Listen every day.You can listen either passively or actively. Both approaches are useful and necessary.
Passive listening
Passive […]
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jason kleinberg wrote a new post 8 years, 8 months ago
Student Stories: Fiona Higgins
Here’s a short video of my student Fiona playing, Uisce Faoi Thalamh, a tune she wrote while playing around with triads. Fiona started learning fiddle as an adult. Now, […]
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Every practice isn’t going to be great or even good. However, you are actually learning. It comes as little surprises for me. Holding the bow; I struggled just trying to hold it properly to rosin. The struggle to hold it properly and also be able to move it sort of to my will lasted about 4 days. Then, half way dreading the struggle, I started to practice bowing when I realized I had tightened the hair and started to practice with no struggle. WOW. How tight is just right? Sweatsweat. Then I started making small adjustments. Start at “my little finger”, start at same width as the bow. I finally just tightened it, then adjusted it til it sounded good and didn’t bounce. I AM THE MASTER OF MY BOW. Well we’re still in negotiations but I feel relaxed adjusting it. Same with shoulder rest and position. When it comes, it just feels natural and I become so very impressed with myself.