Fiddle Studio

A repeat this week, as my family is on spring break. This very early episode has been pretty popular, and has a lovely slip jig for the Irish fiddlers. It's never a bad time to break out the old metronome. I'll be back with Old-Time tunes for you next week! -Meg

This episode features the fiddle tune House of My Own and describes working with the metronome and how it could help your fiddling. 

Slow tempos for fiddling are 70-80 bpm (beats per minute) and tempos for dancing are 110-120 bpm.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books 
• Bandcamp
• YouTube   

You can reach me at [email protected].

This week we have an interview with Tricia Spencer! Tricia is a well known, award winning Kansas fiddler who grew up on her family’s farm learning the tradition of old-time fiddling knee to knee from her grandpa and grandma, Vernon and Iona Spencer.

Tricia takes us on a deep dive into Kansas and midwest fiddling, how she thinks about the left hand and the fingerboard, and a primer for finding your place in the Old-Time community. And I didn't forget to ask what it's like having another fiddler as a partner in music and in life.

You can't listen to Tricia talk about the fiddle without hearing the deep love, respect and enthusiasm she has for this instrument and the music we make on it.
The tune this week is a version of Big Taters in the Sandy Land.

Check out Tricia's book the Fiddle Garden and opportunities to learn with her: https://www.triciaspencer.com/

Learn more about power duo Spencer and Rains: https://www.spencerandrains.com/

Spencer and Rains on bandcamp: https://spencerandrains.bandcamp.com/music

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books 
• Bandcamp
• YouTube   

You can reach me at [email protected].

Have you ever been uncomfortable saying the name of a fiddle tune? How about tunes with slurs in the title or the Irish tune I Buried My Wife and Danced on her Grave?
Without using racial slurs, I discuss problematic fiddle tune names, how I think about them and approach them.

Find the Contranella album here: https://megwobus.bandcamp.com/album/contranella

Our tune is Magpie's Nest, an Irish reel.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books 
• Bandcamp
• YouTube   

You can reach me at [email protected].

This week we talk about where the fiddle neck meets the hand. Different ways to grip the neck of the fiddle and how it can change- even while you're in the middle of playing!

Our tune is Madam if You Please from a jam at the ArtHouse Bar. 

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books 
• Bandcamp
• YouTube   

You can reach me at [email protected].

Hear all about playing and performing on the 5 string fiddle with a bonus question from last week with Jenna Moynihan. Hear about Jenna's fiddle and how she uses it!

Jenna's Interview: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2040333/14620847

John Blessing's Delight is an Irish jig in G major.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books 
• Bandcamp
• YouTube   

You can reach me at [email protected].

An interview with Jenna Moynihan, a fiddler and an extraordinary member of the Boston music community. Jenna performs with harpist Mairi Chaimbeul, the Seamus Egan Project, the Hanneke Cassel Band, and has appeared as a soloist at Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops. In addition to touring, recording and teaching at fiddle camps, Jenna is also an Assistant Professor in the String Department at Berklee College of Music. 

Jenna Moynihan: https://www.jennamoynihan.com/

Bandcamp: https://jennamoynihan.bandcamp.com/

Mailing List: https://www.jennamoynihan.com/schedule

The tune for this week is Brenda and Bill's a slow reel by Jenna Moynihan and Mairi Chaimbeul from the album One Two.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books 
• Bandcamp
• YouTube   

You can reach me at [email protected].

Let's talk about the different kinds of fiddling you find around the US and Canada. I share what I know about the genres more closely related to dancing and dance music, and a little about fiddling along with songs.

Our tune for today is a version of Billy in the Lowground in the key of A, played in either Calico (AEAC#) or Cross A (AEAE) tuning. I use cross A.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books 
• Bandcamp
• YouTube   

You can reach me at [email protected].

What?! Stop playing the fiddle? Why would I ever do a podcast on that topic, and who am I to tell anyone what they should do or not do?

Our tune for today is Chinquapin Hunting, a three part tune in A, played in cross A tuning. (I originally put the wrong tune up- even I can't keep these Old-Time tunes straight- but it should be Chinquapin Hunting now!)

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books 
• Bandcamp
• YouTube   

You can reach me at [email protected].

Listen in to hear how you can supercharge your practicing, or at least give it a refresh. This is the last podcast devoted to a topic from my new course How to Play Faster, which is available now on Fiddle Studio!

A quick addendum to the description of mindful practice: I somehow blanked on the best use of slow, mindful practice: improving your tuning!

Our tune for today is Old Granny Rattle Trap, interpreted from the fiddling of Natalie Padilla from an Old-Time jam in Northampton, MA. I play the tune in cross A, strings tuned to AEAE. See the sheet music for some fingering suggestions in cross A.

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books 
• Bandcamp
• YouTube   

You can reach me at [email protected].

Janie Rothfield is a powerhouse Old-Time fiddler and banjo player who performs and  teaches at camps and weekends all over the country and the world! Janie shares what she thinks is important for fiddlers to learn and work on. Is it the fingering or the bowing? Hear all about Janie's Jumpstart camps and about her current projects.

The tune today is Waiting for Sandy from Janie's album Out of Thin Air.
Check out Janie's website to get the dates of her upcoming camps and performances!

I teach fiddle lessons!
Find out more at meganbeller.com/teaching

I also have a website for learning to fiddle: Fiddle Studio has courses and a mailing list and my Top 10 Fiddle Tunes!

My Fiddle Studio Book 1: Fiddling for the Complete Beginner is FREE on Amazon! It has over 30 easy beginner fiddle tunes with sheet music, tab, and a link to a video for each tune!

• Fiddle Books 
• Bandcamp
• YouTube   

You can reach me at [email protected].