Learn to play fiddle in minutes? I don't think so.

Not too long ago, I saw an ad on the internet claiming that you could learn to play fiddle in just a few minutes. If you have been struggling and wondering why you don't sound great after only a few minutes, forget it. It doesn't happen for anybody. Learning to play the fiddle takes awhile, even if you are very gifted and have a great teacher. I don't know what can be learned in a few minutes, but it sure won't sound like anything that you, or anybody else, will want to hear. There is no "miracle method" that instantly will turn you into a good player. Patient, steady progress over time is the key.

Should you play the notes as written?

Sometimes, maybe; but definitely not if the tune is a jig. We don't have many jigs in traditional American fiddling, but in the Irish tradition they are a mainstay. In most tune books featuring standard music notation, jigs are written in 6/8 time with two barred sets of 3 eighth notes per measure. On the page, each eighth note has the same value. If you play it like that, though, it sounds pretty awful. The trick is to play the first note in each set of three notes for a little longer, and shorten up on the time devoted to the middle note in the set of three. The last note in the set is not shortened or lengthened--It gets the time value of a regular eighth note. You'll get the hang of this if you try holding the first note almost the value of 2 eighth notes, and then quickly squeezing the middle note in just before you play the third note. Click HERE to hear the difference. In the first part of the clip I play the first few notes of Connachtman's Rambles as they are written in most books. The second part shows how the tune sounds if you accent the first note in each set of three, draw it out so that there is very little time left for the second note, then squeeze the second note in just before the third note, and then play the third note as a normal eighth note.

Become a better fiddler

For me, much of the fun of playing the fiddle comes from constantly trying to become a better player. Even after 35 years, I get the most satisfaction from improving. I know there are fiddlers out there who have been playing the same tunes for years, always exactly the same way, and apparently they are happy with that. I'm not. The really good players I know became really good players by always trying to improve. They love working on a new tune, or a new riff or ornament, or adding something new to an old tune that takes it to a new level. That's where the real fun is.

Because I like playing fiddle so much, I tend to give it a fair amount of thought. In the past, most of these flashes of insight have just disappeared because I have not written them down. Sad, really; but no longer. This blog will have my tips and observations on lots of fiddle-related stuff, including the care and feeding of the instrument, how to practice, how to play music with others, session and pickin' party etiquette, sources for good fiddle music, sources for learning tunes, good ways to approach learning a new tune, etc.