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| More Good Questions | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Is it hard to learn how to play the fiddle?
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It's not so difficult to learn how to get a tune out of a fiddle. It takes some work, some practice, but if you're patient with yourself it is only a few hours before you can find a simple tune on the instrument and play it. I usually recommend finding "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star." It helps to have someone who knows how to play, put thin strips of cheap tape on the fingerboard where you place your fingers for notes. I emphasize cheap tape because when the tape wears off you should no longer need it -- kind of like training wheels on a bike. Ask a fiddler which fingers to use where and practice faithfully. When you're just starting out - maybe ten or twenty minutes at a time. What! Ten minutes, you say. Yes. Give everything time to sink in, then go back after an hour or so and play some more if you want. Be patient with yourself in learning how to hold the bow. I don't suppose a person new to the fiddle has often had to hold a long thin stick in their fingertips for any length of time. So ask someone how to hold the bow, or get a book with a picture. Then play with the fiddle. A person who is set on learning can generally get some decent tunes out of a fiddle by ear after about five or six weeks of practice. Build up your practice time as you become more proficient. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Get a fiddle. Get a cheap one if you have to. Get a fiddle, a bow, a case and a block of rosin. Get a cheap one unless you get lucky and happen to get or have a good one. It's like this, if you decide you love to play and have a real affinity for playing the fiddle, you can always upgrade - and sell the one you started with to another aspiring fiddler for $100. If it just wasn't for you (or your kid, or your mate, or your mama...) you can always sell it for $100. | I wish I could learn to play. What's the first step? | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Overcoming a handicap |
I have had folks with missing digits come to me and ask if they could learn to play the fiddle. Yes. If they want to. A man I knew from here in Pennsylvania was Red Edwards. Red was an excellent fiddler who lived to be 82. After hearing about Red for several years and being somewhat awed by what folks would say about his fiddling, I once had opportunity to play with him on stage. I was in heaven. He was so good. And I was honored. He did as I expected and fiddled circles around me. I had heard that Red could do that with most any fiddler. After a spell we sat down and I saw him rubbing his left hand (the fingerboard hand, the one that makes the notes) and heard him cursing his hand. "What's up, Red," I said. "Ah!" he says, "Ever since I had those three strokes I can't move my fingers!" (Picture my eyes popping out)"What do you mean you can't move 'em? Then how are you playing?" Oh," he says. "I just move my whole hand real fast." | |||||||||||||||||||
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