How long did it take you to learn?

[mlhewett]

I finally gave into my craving and bought a cheapie student violin and am attempting to learn the basics on my own before I sink more money in on lessons.

My question to you fiddlers is how long did it take you to learn? I am guessing that those who can play by ear learn it a little faster than paper people. I am definitely a paper person. Blame it on lack of talent and a sad piano teacher.

When I taught myself the penny whistle I would have to go to the keyboard and translate songs in to the key of D (cause that's what the whistle was) before I could play anything. For some stupid reason I can only think in the key of C. I am still very limited on the penny whistle and mostly just play kid songs for my preschoolers. LOL I am a sad, sad musician.

It's a pity too. Cause I love music so much.

Lowell

[fidlmaker]

Fellow fiddle enthusiast,

I was a guitar player for 35 years when I got the itch to try out the fiddle. I'm strictly an ear player. I can make out the notes on sheet music at the rate of about 4 measures per hour on a good day, so I generally don't bother with it. I've been fiddling for 6 years come August and to my own surprise have become a pretty competent fiddler. I practiced at least 2 hours every day for the first few years, now it's about 1/2 hour a day. I also get a few hours a week at the jams. Although we all want to copy our favorite music, the heart of bluegrass and country fiddling is improvisation. The key to improvisation is intimate familiarity with the intervals between notes. Some of the best advice I ever got was to try to play every melody that I could thing of from Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to The Star Spangled Banner. Try them all at different starting notes. If you set your mind to it, you can probably think of hundreds of melodies that you can repeat mentally or vocally. This excercise eventually gets your fingers to automatically go to the note you want to hear next. It REALLY works! Another couple of tidbits that really got me off on the right foot were: As soon as your fingers can find each of the 4 strings, don't look anymore. Let your ear tell you when you're in the right spot. The art of bowing is all in the wrist. If you are using any muscles above the elbow to bow, you're working too hard and slowing yourself down. THe side-to side movement of your wrist should be as loose as a noodle, and grip the bow just enough to keep from dropping it. Lead with the wrist and let the inertia of the bow do some of the work for you. As important as doing it right might seem to a student, it's equally important to just experiment around and just see what kind of noises you can make. Bow lightly, bear down, fast short strokes, long slow ones, screech, wail, scratch and hiss, slip and slide. Every cat in the neighborhood will run for cover! But the value of messing around with it gives you a quicker feel for what works and what doesn't, what sounds pleasant or awful, and how much bow pressure and speed gives you what you are aiming to hear. John Hartford and his buddies used to sit around and see how close they could come to imitating human conversations, complete with emotional subtleties including anger, laughter, crying, yelling, whispering, all just to improve their expressiveness on the fiddle and become more familiar with its capabilities. He said it would drive his wife nuts, but it really improved his fiddling.

I know this is alot more than you asked for, but I hope you find some of it useful. If you have a passion for it, you will definitely learn it.

Happy fiddlin'!
Martin

[Fiddlechic Erin]

I've been playing the fiddle for about 10-11 months now, so I'm a beginner also. However I'm more of an ear player, even though I can still read music well enough. Fidlmaker is completely right- it's great practice to think of songs you know well like Twinkle twinkle Little Star and try to play them. When I met Darol Anger, he told me The first ten years are the hardest. That's what I always tell myself when I need to practice, it's a great motivator. Good luck from a fellow beginner,:D
Erin[noise]

[matt the fiddler]

Darol Speaks Words of wisdom!

apart from being my favortie fiddler, i look to him as being a great musical mentor.


i have been playing 12-13 or so years.. it is so hard to keep track.. and i am still not where i wish i were technically. [just about anyone who says they are in all areas.. probably has lost the drive to be a musician..]

it is a process.. you are always learning.. luckly there is easyer music out ther for less advanced players who are newer to fiddling.

i remember darol saying someting like...... there are types of fiddling for every level of expirence.. some easier for the beginnier, and some more complex for the advanced. yet everybody is having fun, and making music, and expressing..

that is the import thing... is making music as much as you can. not how good you are at it.
i think back to some of my days as a beginner which.. after lisening to some of the recordings from back then... i was horrible... but i was having fun.. and got so into the music and the expression it didn't make a bit of difference that i was horrible.

matt

[mlhewett]

Thanks for the help, advise, and encouragement! I'm just going to give it a shot and see what I can come up with.

Lowell

[SindarinElf]

I've been playing in the middle of what you guys have, extremely long, or extremely new at this. I also play by ear, and my dad programmed this 'slow CD' thing, where you record the part of the song you want, or the whole song, and slow it down however much you want. It certainly helps while learning 'House of Tom Bombadil' But, I suppose if you are a 'paper' person, then you can either buy sheet music, (books of sheet music are cheaper) or copy it off of the internet............ Anyway, those might not help for Nickel Creek music........

[NCFan4Ever]

I SOOOO wish I could play an instrument! The best I can do is play Heart and Soul on the piano!

[SindarinElf]

Yes, My cousin taught me that when I was 6, and then at 7 I took piano lessons, and then at 9 I started Violin, and continued to take piano until this last year when I started to get tired of it, but now I am really interested in Fiddling, so anyway, get a piano teacher.

[moonstargirl675]

Well, Im 14 now and i have been playing since i was 10, and it took me about half a year-year to learn all the fingerings, and flats and sharps, and a couple songs like Mary Had a little lamb, but that's b/c i had lessons once a week, if you practice a lot you could get everything down a lot faster than i did. Honestly, it's not hard to learn by paper or by ear, my grandfather learned banjo by ear and he got it in half a year so, if your not sure what everything is maybe paper is a better learning tool until you get started.

[Fan4HITZ]

I've been thinnking lately about trying to learn how to play the fiddle or mandolin... Only thing is, it's very expensive and I'm only 16... (And I already have a guitar and a keyboard) I have a love for music and a longing to play it.... Any advice?

[kokomo88]

How much does a piano teacher/lessons usually cost?? I had my teacher for 8 weeks but she wasn't really doing too well as she hadta teach 7 other kids and it was an after school program.....I play by ear and I can write stuff and read a good many notes,,,,I however have absolutely NO CLUE what B flats are and sharps...??? and there are certain fingering positions?? argh...this is really confusing now....is there a RIGHT way and a WRONG way to play the piano/keyboard??? I certainly hope not since I thought I was on a roll..hehe, but I'm only 13 and I've only been playing since late April, once a week lessons til late May....I suppose I have tons of time to learn right??
are fiddle lessons expensive??? I'm confoosed. pweesh help..

[mlhewett]

I pay $60 a month for a 1/2 hour lesson once a week. So it's $15 a lesson. That seems like it may be a little steep. I don't know for sure. It is a private lesson and I am allowed to tape my lessons to refer to during the week. I absolutely love them and hope that I can continue. I'm running into time issues though.

My boss teaches piano for $7 a lesson but I'm not sure how long the lessons are.

Hope that helps,
Lowell

[kokomo88]

I think it does...Thanks!!!!!

[atlekvia]

hi! :-)
I've played fiddle for a year, and I can play almost all the tunes by nickel creek and chris thile ++ alot of other bluegrass tunes, very precise! [noise]
-Atle