Learning Fiddle/violin: a Review

Pick up on posts you missed or want another look at!

Last time, I put up a Musical Musings Review of articles I’ve written here — a sort of index you can use to read about topics that interest you.

Today, I’ll do the same for the more fiddle-centric articles, since this publication alternates between posts of general musical interest and those that help fiddlers/violinists improve their playing. Some readers have told me that many of these also have general ideas that apply to their instrument as well.

If you have any favorite topics or requests, by all means let me know.

Linking you to past posts, here are 5 sayings that give you a special perspective on practicing.

And below are some links to fiddle games. I call them “games” rather than exercises because, like games, they’re puzzles that you get to know and aim to do better each time. Meantime, they develop your skills almost without your knowing it.

Here are a few warmup games we’ve talked about in some detail, good for anyone beginner to pro — Relief for your thumb for a more relaxed bow hold, the Windshield wiper for pointer & pinky, Long bows for timing and sound, and for your left hand, the drumming game to remind your fingers how easy it can all be!

For more advanced games to improve your control and sound, check out Notches and Breathing Bows.

Here’s a bit of basic body mapping so you can experiment with how your fingers and bow arm really work, rather than how we sometimes imagine they move.

Have you considered that each joint has a different job when we bow? I call them the controllers of the right arm.

Everyone wants to play in tune, plus an online app for finding finger relationships and fingering in all keys. While you’re focusing on finger relationships, check out the four most important one-octave scale patterns to learn and use. Then there’s the pentatonic scale, widely used in fiddling and actually in all forms of music. Learn about this and hear samples.

Of course, more important than playing in tune is finding the beat, whether by feel or on paper. Here’s a look at the difference between the pulse of a real human musical beat vs a mechanical metronome. One of the real bugaboos for many players is managing the beat that’s not played., for example in a longer, dotted, or syncopated note. And for those who have trouble with the beat, some tips on how to feel it just like when you step on the gas pedal in the car. You might also find some unusual rhythm stories of interest.

One of the real bugaboos for many players is managing the beat that’s there but not played. And for those who have trouble with the beat, some tips on how to feel it just like when you step on the gas pedal in the car. You might also be interested in some unusual solutions to rhythm troubles.

Lots of fiddlers wish they could play faster. There are three posts on how to make that happen.

Playing with others is one of the best rewards of playing music. Read some ideas about playing in a session, or about hosting or leading one. If you get to know your scales and arpeggios/chords, you can train your ears to join in on tunes with one-finger chords! Or maybe you’d like to learn to make harmonies to play with others.

I recommend you try to write your own tunes, which we can all learn a lot from, and here’s how to go about writing a tune.

There are so many fiddle styles — try to understand them from the inside instead of merely copying them from the outside.

Part of our speaking and singing and musical language are what we call grace notes — these ornaments are natural to us (though they don’t look that way on paper!). You can play slow grace notes just with the bow, and add quick ones with a finger. Once you have that sorted out, here’s how to combine them to good effect. If you combine slow & quick just right you get the Irish roll!

Phrasing is at the heart of all music. It’s a huge part of understanding and communicating what you play, and a big part of many posts in this publication, especially the ones linked above about playing faster. Pickup notes are also present everywhere, and if we think about them right, we can make more musical sense of our tunes and play them better!

All music is improv; here’s some ideas on normalizing improvisation so we can all do it and think of it in a helpful way.

Some ideas about expressing yourself musically never go wrong; there’s always room for more expression, and despite all the dynamic markings in some written music, this is not a mere technique; there’s a lot more to it than can be written.

The artistic canvas for many fiddlers is the medley, and here are some ideas on how to put medleys together.

And finally, playing the fiddle/violin, or any other instrument, is a very physical activity. Here are some tips on how to avoid injury.

I hope you find many of the above articles useful, and again, I look forward to hearing from you if you have thoughts, additional ideas, or requests!

By the way, if you get a lot out of these posts, and believe them to be worth the equivalent of a 5-minute private lesson once a month, that’s what it costs to become a paid subscriber! It’s a big help to me, and is much appreciated — many thanks.