Lessons for Beginning Fiddle Students
Dry and Dusty
Dry and Dusty is an old cowboy tune that puts me in mind of a long ride on horseback through West Texas. You can hear the wide-open space in this one. This is a really good tune for beginners: it’s in the beginner-friendly key of D and moves along at a nice, easy pace — not too fast.
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How to Practice
In this lesson, I share a few tips I’ve learned from teaching and from my own playing that will help you make the most of your practice time.
Lazy John
Lazy John is an old-time fiddle tune that can be played and sung.
It’s also a perfect tune for fiddlers who are just starting out. This tune can be played without ever using your second finger. This version gets a little fancy — I use the second finger once toward the end of the time. But don’t let that throw. The left hand on this tune is very easy. Jump on in!
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Left Hand Position
In this lesson, I’ll teach you an easy step-by-step routine for positioning your left hand correctly. Eventually this will become second nature to you (trust me, it will!), but for now, this lesson will help you take the guesswork out of your left-hand technique:
Sail Away Ladies
Sail Away Ladies is a classic bluegrass and old-time fiddle that’s a standard in both worlds. Bluegrassers tend to play this one a touch faster, with fewer double-stops. Old-time players tend to take it a little slower, with more double-stops. Sail Away Ladies is closely related to another tune called Sally Ann.
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Intro to Shuffle Bowing
Shuffle bowing is simply a repeated bow pattern that fiddlers use to create a driving rhythm. At least in bluegrass and old-time music, we don’t use drums, so fiddlers, the groove is almost entirely in your hands. Shuffle bowing is far and away the most important technique to know when it comes to groove creation.
In this lesson I’ll teach you three shuffle patterns: the Nashville shuffle, the simple shuffle and the Georgia shuffle. If you click on the link below and subscribe to my email newsletter, I’ll send you the practice tunes that accompany the video.
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Note Reading
Learn to Read Music on the Fiddle or Violin in Fifteen Minutes
In this lesson, true to its title, I’m going to teach you how to read music on the fiddle or violin in about fifteen minutes. No kidding. Really.
This is a streamlined approach to note-reading that will teach you only what you need to know to play your first couple of beginning tunes.
Usually, when students first start learning to read music, they’re also just learning how to play their instrument. Learning what’s essentially a new language while learning to play a new instrument is kind of a lot to take on all at once!
That’s why this note-reading method is helpful. It lets you put off learning some things about note reading that, until you’ve been playing your instrument for a little while, you really won’t have much use for anyway.
Of course there’s more to reading notes than can be taught in fifteen minutes, and you’ll need to know that stuff before you play more advanced tunes, but if you’re a beginner, this will get you started reading music today.
About Your Fiddle
Get to Know Your Bow Part 1: An Introduction to the Violin Bow
In this lesson we’ll go over the parts of the bow, what they’re called and how they work. This is a good introduction for students who’ve just opened up the case of the first fiddle and are wondering what to do with that stick that came with it.
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Get to Know Your Bow Part 2: An Introduction to Bow Care and Maintenance
In this lesson we’ll go over the basics of taking care of your bow: how to tighten it, how to loosen it, what to do with rosin and what to do when you break hair.
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