Fiddle Studio

Klezmer violinist and composer Alicia Svigals is widely considered to be the world's leading klezmer fiddler, often called the Queen of Klezmer. She was a founder and a longtime member of the Grammy-winning group the Klezmatics. She has performed with and written music for violinist Itzhak Perlman. Alicia Svigals has worked with everyone in every possible way: soundtracks, compositions, genres, in plays, on tv, and on stages all over the world. She has a brand new album out called Fidl Afire!

Alicia Svigals: https://aliciasvigals.com/
Fidl Afire Album: https://borschtbeat.bandcamp.com/album/fidl-afire
YouTube video on krehts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyz0Dg-_ssU

Email me at [email protected].

Listen and subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, or Buzzsprout. Find me on YouTube and Bandcamp.

Here are my Fiddle Studio books and my website Fiddle Studio where you can find my courses and mailing list and sign up for my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

Hey, it's episode 100! We hear from Charley Beller, Irish flute and guitar player and contra dance musician from Baltimore, Maryland and my spouse. Charley has played guitar on most of the podcast episodes, but this is the first time he shares on the podcast! 

What's it like to learn a dozen musical instruments? Why would a person practice all the time? How does Charley view the first few months of learning a new skill?

We also chat about Clifftop and Charley asks me about a few questions as well. The tune is Greg Hooven's Won't Come Till Morning and the audio is from the Clifftop Open Fiddle Contest.

Going forward the Fiddle Studio Podcast will be monthly, on the first Tuesday of the month.

Email me at [email protected].

Listen and subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, or Buzzsprout. Find me on YouTube and Bandcamp.

Here are my Fiddle Studio books and my website Fiddle Studio where you can find my courses and mailing list and sign up for my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

Why does the fiddle squeak? If only we knew. Hang on, we do know! I offer lots of diagnosis and advice for how to get to the bottom of squeaking. Together we can not squeak as much.

The tune for this week is Marion Reece's version of Cumberland Gap. 

Email me at [email protected].

Listen and subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, or Buzzsprout. Find me on YouTube and Bandcamp.

Here are my Fiddle Studio books and my website Fiddle Studio where you can find my courses and mailing list and sign up for my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

What is the best age to start? There is an exact and definite best age to begin playing the fiddle and if you don't start then you're doomed. I'm kidding.

The tune for this week is Horses in the Canebreak. 

Email me at [email protected].

Listen and subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, or Buzzsprout. Find me on YouTube and Bandcamp.

Here are my Fiddle Studio books and my website Fiddle Studio where you can find my courses and mailing list and sign up for my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

People play the fiddle for all kinds of reasons, and as a fiddler and fiddle teacher they often tell me all about it. I talk about some of the variety of reasons I've heard from adult fiddlers for why they're voluntarily choosing to take up this rewarding and challenging new hobby!

Our Tune this week is a funky Sally in the Garden I got from Marion Sumner's recording. 

Email me at [email protected].

Listen and subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, or Buzzsprout. Find me on YouTube and Bandcamp.

Here are my Fiddle Studio books and my website Fiddle Studio where you can find my courses and mailing list and sign up for my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

Busking is playing in the street for money. I've done it. In fact, I've done in New York City in the subway! A few thoughts on busking, and some busking stories. 

Fun tune this week, Old Aunt Jenny With Her Night Cap On.

Email me at [email protected].

Listen and subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, or Buzzsprout. Find me on YouTube and Bandcamp.

Here are my Fiddle Studio books and my website Fiddle Studio where you can find my courses and mailing list and sign up for my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

Recently I tried to play jazz. It got me thinking about jazz, so I share some thoughts about playing jazz as a violinist, how I approach it, what it's like, how I practice, and how I take a solo.

The tune is Ed Weaver's Cluck Old Hen. In the words of my friend Shane, it's a "nice, meditative tune".

Email me at [email protected].

Listen and subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, or Buzzsprout. Find me on YouTube and Bandcamp.

Here are my Fiddle Studio books and my website Fiddle Studio where you can find my courses and mailing list and sign up for my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

Have you thought about playing the mandolin? You could do worse. Welcome back to our regularly scheduled episodes, featuring a bunch of Old-Time tunes for the rest of June and July. We get caught up and talk about the mandolin. You may already know this, but the mandolin is tuned the same as a fiddle. Interesting!

This week the tune is Shippensport, a G major reel based on West Virginia fiddler Burl Hammond's playing.  This tune is very fun to play!

Email me at [email protected].

Listen and subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, or Buzzsprout. Find me on YouTube and Bandcamp.

Here are my Fiddle Studio books and my website Fiddle Studio where you can find my courses and mailing list and sign up for my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

Starting summer vacation this week so I'm replaying an episode I recorded in December of 2022 about double stops and drones. I'll be back next week with Old-Time tunes.

My course for double stops and drones can be found here.

This episode covers how Megan helps her students learn to play double stops and drones and presents a setting of Tail Toddle from a workshop with Jeremy Kittel at Fiddle Hell. 

The artist mentioned is Jeremy Kittel.

Email me at [email protected].

Listen and subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, or Buzzsprout. Find me on YouTube and Bandcamp.

Here are my Fiddle Studio books and my website Fiddle Studio where you can find my courses and mailing list and sign up for my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

This week I have a conversation with Irish fiddler Ellery Klein. Ellery Klein performs across New England with the fiddle, flute, and guitar trio Fódhla and nationally with the three-fiddle Celtic powerhouse group, The Bow Tides, whose debut album, Sailing On, was released in 2022. She also teaches fiddle to all ages in the Boston area and beyond.

Ellery graduated with a major in instrumental music from Cincinnati’s public magnet School for Creative and Performing Arts in 1992. She received an MA in Irish Traditional Music Performance from the University of Limerick in 2001. She toured nationally with the Irish supergroup Gaelic Storm from 2003-2007.

Ellery and I talk about teaching and learning, switching from classical to fiddle, all about the Irish roll (with tips!), and how three former Gaelic Storm fiddlers formed the Bow tides and how they work together as a fiddle trio. We had a great time!

The tune this week is York Street Stepper by Ellery Klein.

Ellery Klein's website is elleryklein.net
Find the Bow Tides at thebowtides.com

Email me at [email protected].

Listen and subscribe on Apple Music, Spotify, or Buzzsprout. Find me on YouTube and Bandcamp.

Here are my Fiddle Studio books and my website Fiddle Studio where you can find my courses and mailing list and sign up for my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!