Free Inquiry Project Introduction

Since the age of about 8 year old, I have been surrounded by fiddle music. I grew up playing piano in my local youth fiddle group for a total of 10 years. Because of this, I have always had an itch to learn fiddle myself but never really had the time between learning other instruments and schoolwork. So, I thought this free inquiry project would be a great opportunity to learn some fiddle tunes!

I have a little bit of experience from my undergrad as I took a string techniques course that focused on violin for one semester and cello for the other semester. So while I have some very basic knowledge, there will definitely not be shortage of things to work on throughout this project. In each weekly post I will likely include an example of some technique I’ve been working on as well as a tune that I’ve spent some time on.

My plan is to choose a few fiddle tunes that I would like to have polished by the end of this project. I’ll be able to adjust my goals of what is manageable as I get going but some ideas I have are:

• French Folk Song
• Egan’s Polka
• Flop Earred Mule
• Tennesse Waltz
• Mairi’s Wedding
• Tear Drop Waltz
• Ashokan’s Farewell

It is pretty easy to find sheet music online for fiddle music and there are quite a few websites that I have found that give tips and tricks. One website that has sheet music for beginner tunes can be found here. I also play piano currently for a fiddle group here in Victoria called West Coast Barn Dances that holds monthly fiddle dances. Luckily for me I have many fiddle friends so I may even ask for a lesson or two.

This week I mostly focused on scales and technique. Bow control has been a big challenge and is something that I will continue to work on. Here I am playing a scale focusing on bow control by practicing long and short bow strokes. In the second video I play French Folk song which is a tune I have played before and am using to become familiar with the fiddle again.